Bible Strands
Isaiah 63:16
Yet You are our Father, though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not acknowledge us. You, O LORD, are our Father; our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The prophet addresses God on behalf of Israel during a period of perceived divine withdrawal and national distress. The statement follows a direct inquiry about restrained compassion and precedes a plea for God to return to the tribes of His heritage.
The words — The text emphasizes אָבִינוּ ('a.Vi./nu), meaning "our Father," and אַבְרָהָם ('av.ra.Ham), meaning "Abraham." These terms establish the speaker's covenant claim while noting the patriarch's apparent lack of recognition.
The thread — The declaration of God as Father appears in Isaiah 64:8, Malachi 2:10, and Deuteronomy 32:6. Each passage uses the title to ground Israel's identity in divine creation and covenant history rather than human achievement.
Why it lands — The verse requires recognition of God's paternal role despite historical abandonment and broken ancestral memory. It directs the reader to ground national identity in divine redemption rather than in human acknowledgment or merit.
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
Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O Lord, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 64:8 But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand.
- Malachi 2:10 Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us? Why then do we break faith with one another so as to profane the covenant of our fathers?
- Deuteronomy 32:6 Is this how you repay the LORD, O foolish and senseless people? Is He not your Father and Creator? Has He not made you and established you?
- Jeremiah 3:19 Then I said, ‘How I long to make you My sons and give you a desirable land, the most beautiful inheritance of all the nations!’ I thought you would call Me ‘Father’ and never turn away from following Me.
- Isaiah 41:14 Do not fear, O Jacob, you worm, O few men of Israel. I will help you,” declares the LORD. “Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
- Isaiah 44:6 Thus says the LORD, the King and Redeemer of Israel, the LORD of Hosts: “I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God but Me.
- Malachi 1:6 “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is your fear of Me?” says the LORD of Hosts to you priests who despise My name. “But you ask, ‘How have we despised Your name?’
- 1 Chronicles 29:10 Then David blessed the LORD in the sight of all the assembly and said: “May You be blessed, O LORD, God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting.
- Job 14:21 If his sons receive honor, he does not know it; if they are brought low, he is unaware.
- Isaiah 43:14 Thus says the LORD your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “For your sake, I will send to Babylon and bring them all as fugitives, even the Chaldeans, in the ships in which they rejoice.