Yahweh called me from my mother’s womb
1 Listen to me, O islands,
pay attention, peoples from distant lands.
Yahweh called me from my mother’s womb;
he pronounced my name before I was born.
2 He made my mouth like a sharpened sword.
He hid me in the shadow of his hand.
He made me into a polished arrow
set apart in his quiver.
3 He said to me, “You are Israel, my servant,
Through you I will be known.”
4 “I have labored in vain,” I thought
and spent my strength for nothing.”
Yet what is due me was in the hand of Yahweh,
and my reward was with my God.
I am important in the sight of Yahweh,
and my God is my strength.
5 And now Yahweh has spoken,
he who formed me in the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him,
to gather Israel to him.
6 He said: “It is not enough
that you be my servant,
to restore the tribes of Jacob,
to bring back the remnant of Israel.
I will make you the light of the nations,
that my salvation will reach to the ends of the earth.”
7 Thus says Yahweh,
the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel,
to him whom people despise,
to him whom nations abhor,
to the servant of tyrants:
“Kings will see you and stand up,
and princes will bow down
for the sake of Yahweh, the faithful one,
the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.”
8 This is what Yahweh says:
“At a favorable time I have answered you, on the day of salvation I have been your help; I have formed you and made you to be my covenant with the people.
You will restore the land, and allot its abandoned farms.
9 You will say to the captives: Come out; and to those in darkness: Show yourselves.
They will feed along the road; they will find pasture on barren hills.
10 They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the scorching wind or the sun beat upon them; for he who has mercy on them will guide them and lead them to springs of water.
11 I will turn all my mountains into roads and raise up my highways.
12 See, they come from afar, some from the north and west, others from the land of Sinim.”
Though your mother forgets you
13 Sing, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth;
break forth into song, O mountains:
for Yahweh has comforted his people
and taken pity on those who are afflicted.
14 But Zion said: “Yahweh has forsaken me,
my Lord has forgotten me.”
15 Can a woman forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child of her womb?
Yet though she forget, I will never forget you.
16 See, I have written your name upon the palm of my hands; your walls are ever before me.
17 Your sons hurry back, and those who laid you waste hasten to de part from you.
18 Lift up your eyes, look around and see: your children are all assembling and coming to you. As I live, says Yahweh, you will wear them all as your jewels; they will adorn you as brides are adorned.
19 Your lonely places and your ruins, your wastelands and devastated country, will now be too small for your people, while those who destroy you will be driven off.
20 The children you will have, after those you lost, will also say in your hearing, “This place is too small for us. Give us more space to live in.”
21 You will then say in your heart, “Who has borne me these? I was be reaved and barren, and who has brought these up? I was left alone; but these – where have they come from?”
22 Thus speaks the Lord Yahweh: See, I am to make signs to the nations; and to raise my banner to the peoples, that they will bring your sons in their arms, your daughters upon their shoulders.
23 Kings will be your foster fathers, their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow down before you with their faces to the ground; they will lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am Yahweh and that those who hope in me will not be put to shame.
24 Can booty be taken from a warrior, or captives be rescued from a tyrant? But thus says Yahweh:
25 Yes, captives will be taken from warriors and booty rescued from a tyrant: for I will fight whoever fights you and I will save your children.
26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh and be drunk with their own blood, as with wine. All peoples will know that I, Yahweh, am your savior, your re deemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
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Comments Isaiah, Chapter 49
• 49.1 Here we find the second Song of God’s servant: see the Introduction to chapters 40–55.
Who is speaking in these verses? They are the Judean exiles at Babylon (some years later they will be called the Jews). And it is not a lamentation but rather a thanksgiving to God who has chosen them in a very special way for a unique mission.
The hope and the future of Israel have been entrusted to them, not to those remaining in the motherland. Soon they will return and gather the remnant of the tribes of Jacob, which means not only their kins in the ex-kingdom of Judah, but also the other in the northern kingdom.
From that moment on the dream of a final gathering of the whole people of God enters the Bible, and Gospel will announce that this goal will be achieved through and in Christ: Jn 11:52.
But there is more, for God wants this small group of exiles to bring to the nations the light of salvation. This marks the opening of the times of mission. The Jews will be the messengers of the only God and of his law in the world. Those who welcome Christ will call on the pagans to the faith and Spirit will be bestowed to them (Gal 3;14). A humiliated people will be Yahweh’s hidden arrow, his definitive weapon: through them God will unbare his madness which is wiser than human wisdom (1 Cor 1:21).
Yahweh called me from my mother’s womb. These were Jeremiah’s words (1:5). All that follows can be interpreted both of the believing minority or of the one who fully lives a pro phetic vocation. Is the servant a single person, or is he a people of prophets? The apostles of Jesus quickly understood that the present text applied first to him. He is the Word and the two edged sword (Heb 4:12; Rev 19:15).
Paul in turn will take for himself these verses: Gal 1:15; Acts 13:47; 2 Cor 10:4, 12:8. This double interpretation, personal and collective, should not surprise us for the unique Savior is never a lonely savior. Jesus wanted to be identified with those who believe, who suffer and persevere to prepare for the salvation of the world.
• 13. Yahweh’s maternal love for his people.
He saves them from despair and from being despised, rebuilding Jerusalem and gathering those who were dispersed. He invites all the nations to come and recognize the true city.
Here God again addresses the more conscious minorities of Israel, those who held onto their hope at a time they seemed to be lost amidst the pagan inhabitants of the materialistic Babylon. They would lift up their nation and become the light of the world.
These promises started to be fulfilled when, having returned to their land, the Jews became missionaries of the One God to all the countries of the Greek and Syrian world. Later, these promises would take on a new meaning for the Church which Christ established as the New Jerusalem. At times, this new Jerusalem seems downhearted and lifeless, and even disappears in some parts of the world. Yet, God brings it new children from other continents. He invites us to look beyond our com munities to those who have not yet received the Kingdom.