Albert Barnes Commentary Isaiah 49:17

"Thy children make haste; thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth from thee." — Isaiah 49:17 (ASV)

Your children - The children of Zion - the true people of God. But there is considerable variety in the interpretation here. The Hebrew of the present text is בניך bânâyı̂k (“your sons”). But Jerome reads it, Structores tui - ‘Your builders;’ as if it were בונין. The Septuagint renders it, ‘You shall be speedily built (ταχὺ οἰκοδομηθήσῃ tachu oikodomēthēsē) by those by whom you have been destroyed.’ The Chaldee renders it, ‘Those that rebuild your waste places shall hasten.’ The Syriac reads it, ‘Your sons;’ and the Arabic, ‘You shall be rebuilt by those by whom you have been destroyed.’

But there is no good authority for changing the present Hebrew text. Nor is it necessary. The sense probably is, the descendants of those who dwelt in Zion, who are now in exile, shall hasten to rebuild the wastes of the desolate capital and restore its ruins. And may it not mean that in the great work under the Messiah, of restoring the nation to the worship of God and of spreading the true religion, God would make use of those who dwelt in Zion; that is, of the Jews, as His ambassadors?

They that made you waste - Language drawn from the destruction of Jerusalem. The sense is, that they would seek no longer to retain possession, but would permit its former inhabitants to return and engage in repairing its ruins.