Passage

Isaiah 49.15

Book: Isaiah · ASV

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"13. Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for Jehovah hath comforted his people, and will have compassion upon his afflicted. 14. But Zion said, Jehovah hath forsaken me, and the Lord hath forgotten me."

"15. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, these may forget, yet will not I forget thee."

"16. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me. 17. Thy children make haste; thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth from thee." (Isaiah 49:13-17, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"13. Sing, heavens; and be joyful, earth; and break out into singing, mountains: for Yahweh has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his afflicted. 14. But Zion said, “Yahweh has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me.”"

"15. “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, these may forget, yet I will not forget you!"

"16. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. your walls are continually before me. 17. Your children hurry. Your destroyers and those who devastated you will leave you." (Isaiah 49:13-17, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"13. Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted. 14. But Zion said, The LORD hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me."

"15. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. ^{that: Heb. from having compassion}"

"16. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me. 17. Thy children shall make haste; thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee." (Isaiah 49:13-17, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"13. Sing, O heavens, and joy, O earth, And break forth, O mountains, with singing, For comforted hath Jehovah His people, And His afflicted ones He doth pity. 14. And Zion saith, 'Jehovah hath forsaken me, And my Lord hath forgotten me.'"

"15. Forget doth a woman her suckling, The loved one, the son of her womb? Yea, these forget, but I, I forget not thee."

"16. Lo, on the palms of the hand I have graven thee, Thy walls [are] before Me continually. 17. Hastened have those building thee, Those destroying thee, and laying thee waste, go out from thee." (Isaiah 49:13-17, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: YHWH through Isaiah (Servant-Song / Zion-comfort cycle)
Audience: exiled / discouraged Zion
Location: Judah / the post-587-BC exilic horizon
Time period: Isaianic ministry c. 740-680 BC; the exilic-horizon chapters traditionally Isaianic, critically eighth-to-sixth-century compositional layer

Theological reading

This is the single most concentrated maternal-imagery verse in the OT: the rhetorical question (could a nursing mother forget her infant?) functions as an a fortiori argument from the strongest human-natural bond to God's even-greater covenant-bond. The phrase "the son of her rechem (womb)" puts the verbal rachem (have compassion) and the noun rechem (womb) into the same syntactic frame, making explicit the etymological womb-root of God's rachamim. The verse ranks with Exodus 34.6-7 in the OT's revelation of divine rachamim, both texts that NT writers (Hebrews 4:15; James 5:11) and the patristic tradition read as definitional of the Christian God's character. Theologically, the verse refuses the deistic / distant-deity caricature: God's relation to His covenant people is more, not less, intimate than the most-intimate human relation.

Key words

H7356 - rachamim, rachamim (Strong's H7356) and verbal racham. The womb-rooted compassion explicitly etymologized in the rachem / rechem (compassion / womb) pairing of this verse.

Quoted in

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.