Isaiah 49:16

Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.

WEB

Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.

KJV

What Isaiah 49:16 means

God tells a people who feel forgotten that he could no more lose them than lose the marks cut into his own hands.

These words come in Isaiah's promises to Israel in exile, right after Zion says, "The Lord has forgotten me." God answers first with a mother's love, saying even a nursing mother might forget her child, yet he will not forget his people.

Then comes this stronger picture: your name is engraved on the palms of my hands, your walls always before me. It is the image of something carved into the skin, impossible to overlook or misplace. To people who felt erased from their land and from God's attention, the line insists the opposite is true.

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