As with the previous prophecy of a coming destruction, this prophecy has a turning point where there will be a redemption after the devastation. Jehovah declares that he will “have mercy on Jacob and will yet choose Israel.” The fact that a terrible punishment is coming does not mean that Jehovah has abandoned his people. He will yet “set them in their own land,” where they will be an ensign to the nations. Though Isaiah invokes only the image here, it is a statement that we have seen in Isaiah 5:26 and Isaiah 11:12, or the same verses in 2 Nephi 17 and 21, respectively.
In the ultimate reversal, those who had been Israel’s persecutors will become their servants and handmaids. The poetic reversal is seen in the phrase “they shall take them captives unto whom they were captives.” That may not be literal, but it is symbolic of the reversal of fortune that will come in the end when Jehovah rules and Israel takes its place as the center of world government.