17. Your children will hurry back.Those who destroyed you and laid waste to you will leave you.
18. Look up, look around, and watch!All of your children are gathering together and returning to you.“I solemnly swear as I live,” declares the Lord,“you will wear all of them like jewelsand display them on yourself as a bride would.”
19. Though you are destroyed and demolished and your land is in ruins,you will be too crowded for ⌊your⌋ people now.Those who devoured you will be long gone.
20. The children taken from you will say to you,“This place is too crowded for me.Make room for me to live here.”
21. Then you will ask yourself,“Who has fathered these ⌊children⌋ for me?I was childless and unable to have children.I was exiled and rejected.Who raised these ⌊children for me⌋?I was left alone.Where have they come from?”
22. This is what the Almighty Lord says:I will lift my hand ⌊to signal⌋ the nations.I will raise my flag for the people.They will bring your sons in their armsand carry your daughters on their shoulders.
23. Then kings will be your foster fathers,and their queens will nurse you.They will bow in front of youwith their faces touching the ground.They will lick the dust at your feet.Then you will know that I am the Lord.Those who wait with hope for me will not be put to shame.
24. Can loot be taken away from mighty menor prisoners be freed from conquerors?
25. This is what the Lord says:Prisoners will be freed from mighty men.Loot will be taken away from tyrants.I will fight your enemies,and I will save your children.
26. I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh,and they will become drunk on their own bloodas though it were new wine.Then all humanity will know that I am the Lord, who saves you,the Mighty One of Jacob, who reclaims you.