Biblion Bible Commentary
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Can a Woman Forget Her Nursing Child?
Isaiah 49:14-26
14 But Zion said, “Yahweh has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me.” · WEB
Zion says she has been forgotten, and is answered with a nursing mother and a name cut into a palm.
But Zion said, "Yahweh has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me" Isaiah 49:14.
The complaint of chapter forty Isaiah 40:27, stated by the city itself, and it is the honest reaction of people who have been in exile long enough to draw conclusions.
Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Isaiah 49:15.
The answer is a question, and it is chosen for being the least likely thing in human experience. A nursing mother is physically reminded every few hours; forgetting is not available to her.
Yes, these may forget, yet I will not forget you!
And then the comparison is conceded. Some mothers do forget, which the verse admits rather than pretending otherwise — and the concession makes the promise stronger, because it removes the analogy and leaves only the assertion.
Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands Isaiah 49:16.
The verb is the one used of cutting into stone. Not written, not drawn — cut, on the part of the body that is in front of a person's eyes whenever they work.
Your walls are continually before me. The walls she thinks are forgotten are the ones he is looking at.
Your children hurry. Your destroyers and those who devastated you will leave you Isaiah 49:17.
The children of your bereavement will say in your ears, "This place is too small for me. Give me a place to live in" Isaiah 49:20.
The reversal is measured by overcrowding. A city that was empty runs out of room, and the complaint of the returning children is that there is nowhere to build.
Then you will say in your heart, "Who has conceived these for me, since I have been bereaved of my children and am alone... Behold, I was left alone. Where were these?" Isaiah 49:21.
The response to the restoration is bewilderment rather than gratitude. She counts the children and cannot account for them, and the question at the end is the most human sentence in the chapter.
Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers Isaiah 49:23.
The nursing image returns, and it is now the nations doing it.
Shall the plunder be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captives be delivered? Isaiah 49:24.
The objection is legal. These prisoners were taken lawfully, by the standards of the age, and there is no procedure for getting them back. The answer does not dispute the law; it names who will be contending: I will contend with him who contends with you Isaiah 49:25.
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