Isaiah 49:21

Zion is bewildered at finding herself once more "a joyful mother of children" (Psalms 113:9).

Who hath begotten Rather, Who hath borne (in spite of the masculine gender of the verb). The peculiar figure is probably to be explained by the custom illustrated in Genesis 16:1 ff; Genesis 30:1 ff., &c. The exile was the time of Zion's barrenness; the generation of Israelites that had grown up in a foreign land are regarded as not her natural children, although legally they belong to her, having been borne forher by a stranger.

seeing I have lost &c. seeing I am childless and unfruitful. The clause immediately following (which must be rendered exiled and put away) introduces a conception alien to the image of the verse. Zion herself was not "exiled" but "left alone," when her children were taken from her. The words are wanting in the LXX. and may be a gloss.

these, wherehad theybeen?] If this were the sense intended, the verb "had been" (or "were") would probably require to have been expressed. But the question that Zion broods over is not whereher children had been, but howshe comes to have children at all, who are strangers to her. Render, therefore (with Dillmann), these, how (is it) with them? of what description are they? (cf. Judges 8:18).