Bible Strands
Isaiah 49:15
“Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the son of her womb? Even if she could forget, I will not forget you!
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God answers Zion's cry in v.14, where she has declared that the LORD has forsaken and forgotten her. This is a direct rebuttal to her accusation of divine abandonment.
The words — שׁכַּח (shakach, "forget") is the hinge of the verse, appearing in the rhetorical question and then in the divine negation: "I will not forget you." The contrast between human capacity to forget and God's refusal to forget carries the entire argument.
The thread — The same "if even a human parent does X, how much more God" logic runs through Matthew 7:11 and Psalms 103:13. Isaiah 44:21 reinforces the remembering theme: "Remember these things, O Jacob, for you are My servant."
Why it lands — It asks a reader who feels abandoned to test that feeling against the claim being made, not to dismiss it with piety. The verse does not argue God is better than a mother; it argues that even the weakest human bond exceeds what God would do.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Psalms 103:13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.
- Isaiah 44:21 Remember these things, O Jacob, for you are My servant, O Israel. I have made you, and you are My servant; O Israel, I will never forget you.
- Matthew 7:11 So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!
- Jeremiah 31:20 Is not Ephraim a precious son to Me, a delightful child? Though I often speak against him, I still remember him. Therefore My heart yearns for him; I have great compassion for him,” declares the LORD.
- Hosea 11:1 When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son.
- Malachi 3:17 “They will be Mine,” says the LORD of Hosts, “on the day when I prepare My treasured possession. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.
- Lamentations 4:10 The hands of compassionate women have cooked their own children, who became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
- 1 Kings 3:26 Then the woman whose son was alive spoke to the king because she yearned with compassion for her son. “Please, my lord,” she said, “give her the living baby. Do not kill him!” But the other woman said, “He will be neither mine nor yours. Cut him in two!”
- 2 Kings 6:28 Then the king asked her, “What is the matter?” And she answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son, that we may eat him, and tomorrow we will eat my son.’
- 2 Kings 11:1 When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to annihilate all the royal heirs.