The generations born in exile will return and say, ‘We need more room! It’s crowded here!’
Parallel translations
- WEB The children of your bereavement will say in your ears, ‘This place is too small for me. Give me a place to live in.’
- KJV The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell.
- BSB Yet the children of your bereavement will say in your hearing, ‘This place is too small for us; make room for us to live here.’
- NKJV The children you will have, After you have lost the others, Will say again in your ears, ‘The place is too small for me; Give me a place where I may dwell.’
- NASB “The children you lost will yet say in your ears, ‘The place is too cramped for me; Make room for me that I may live here.’
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The children born in Zion's bereavement will say the place is too cramped, asking for more room to dwell.
Overview
Continuing the theme of v.19, the new generation finds Zion overflowing and pleads for more space. Children born in exile and loss now crowd the restored city, a sign of God's reversal of barrenness. This pictures the surprising, abundant fruitfulness God grants His people, fulfilled in the worldwide growth of the church.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Josh 17:14–16The children of Joseph spoke to Joshua, saying, “Why have you given me just one lot and one part for an inheritance, since we are a numerous people, because Yahweh has blessed us so far?”
- 2 Kgs 6:1The sons of the prophets said to Elisha, “See now, the place where we live and meet with you is too small for us.
- Isa 51:3For Yahweh has comforted Zion. He has comforted all her waste places, and has made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of Yahweh. Joy and gladness will be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
- Isa 60:4“Lift up your eyes all around, and see: they all gather themselves together. They come to you. Your sons will come from far away, and your daughters will be carried in arms.
- Isa 54:1–3“Sing, barren, you who didn’t give birth; break out into singing, and cry aloud, you who did not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife,” says Yahweh.
- Hos 1:10Yet the number of the children of Israel will be as the sand of the sea, which can’t be measured or counted; and it will come to pass that, in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’
- Gal 4:26–28But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
- Matt 3:9Don’t think to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I tell you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 49:20 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.