Yesaya 66:9-13

66:9 “Do I bring a baby to the birth opening and then not deliver it?”

asks the Lord.

“Or do I bring a baby to the point of delivery and then hold it back?”

asks your God. ¹ 

66:10 Be happy for Jerusalem

and rejoice with her, all you who love her!

Share in her great joy,

all you who have mourned over her!

66:11 For ²  you will nurse from her satisfying breasts and be nourished; ³ 

you will feed with joy from her milk-filled breasts. ⁴ 

66:12 For this is what the Lord says:

“Look, I am ready to extend to her prosperity that will flow like a river,

the riches of nations will flow into her like a stream that floods its banks. ⁵ 

You will nurse from her breast ⁶  and be carried at her side;

you will play on her knees.

66:13 As a mother consoles a child, ⁷ 

so I will console you,

and you will be consoled over Jerusalem.”

[66:9]  ¹ sn The rhetorical questions expect the answer, “Of course not!”

[66:11]  ² tn Or “in order that”; ASV, NRSV “that.”

[66:11]  ³ tn Heb “you will suck and be satisfied, from her comforting breast.”

[66:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “you will slurp and refresh yourselves from her heavy breast.”

[66:11]  sn Zion’s residents will benefit from and enjoy her great material prosperity. See v. 12.

[66:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “Look, I am ready to extend to her like a river prosperity [or “peace”], and like an overflowing stream, the riches of nations.”

[66:12]  ⁶ tn The words “from her breast” are supplied in the translation for clarification (see v. 11).

[66:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “like a man whose mother comforts him.”