What does Isaias Chapter 49 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

The passage retains its particular declarations, images and conditions. Edition interpretations remain identified separately from the chapter’s speech. Historical additions and universal practical guarantees are not treated as source facts.

Chapter breakdown

Isaias 49 calls distant people and islands to hear the speaker called from the womb and remembered by name. Sword-like mouth, protective hand-shadow and a chosen arrow in a quiver accompany the name servant Israel. The speaker recalls vain labor but entrusts judgment and work to God. Formation to bring Jacob back includes the statement Israel will not be gathered, alongside glorification and divine strength. Raising Jacob's tribes and converting Israel's dregs is called small beside light and salvation for Gentiles to earth's furthest part.

The redeemer addresses despised soul, abhorred nation and servant of rulers, announcing royal homage for the faithful Lord's sake. Heard and helped at an acceptable time, the servant becomes covenant to raise earth and possess ruined inheritances. Bound and darkened people come forth to pasture, no hunger or thirst, protected from heat and supplied water by a merciful shepherd. Mountains become way and paths are exalted; people come from afar, north, sea and south. A western sea and underground prison are not supplied.

Praise for comfort precedes Sion's complaint of abandonment. A mother's possible forgetfulness is contrasted with divine remembrance: Sion is graven in hands and walls remain in view. Builders come and destroyers leave; gathered people adorn like bridal ornaments. Desolate land grows too narrow, and children of barrenness ask space while Sion wonders who bore and raised them during solitude and captivity.

A standard to Gentiles brings sons in arms and daughters on shoulders. Kings become nursing fathers and queens nurses, bowing and licking foot dust; waiters are not confounded. Questions about mighty captors receive deliverance and judgment promises. Enemies are fed their own flesh and made drunk with their blood like new wine, so all flesh knows the Mighty One of Jacob. This difficult ending is retained, and the chapter's mission is not generalized into a rule that every setback precedes worldwide success.

The story inside

Opening: The passage retains its particular declarations, images and conditions. Development: Edition interpretations remain identified separately from the chapter’s speech. Conclusion: Historical additions and universal practical guarantees are not treated as source facts.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The passage retains its particular declarations, images and conditions.
2
Edition interpretations remain identified separately from the chapter’s speech.
3
Historical additions and universal practical guarantees are not treated as source facts.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 82645–82648
49:6. And he said: It is a small thing that thou shouldst be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to convert the dregs of Israel. Behold, I have given thee to be the light of the Gentiles, that thou mayst be my salvation even to the farthest part of the earth.
Lines 82682–82684
49:15. Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? and if she should forget, yet will not I forget thee.