Isaiah 49:15

49:15 Can a woman forget her baby who nurses at her breast? ¹ 

Can she withhold compassion from the child she has borne? ² 

Even if mothers ³  were to forget,

I could never forget you! ⁴ 

Isaiah 49:14

The Lord Remembers Zion

49:14 “Zion said, ‘The Lord has abandoned me,

the sovereign master ⁵  has forgotten me.’

Isaiah 23:16

23:16 “Take the harp,

go through the city,

forgotten prostitute!

Play it well,

play lots of songs,

so you’ll be noticed!” ⁶ 

Isaiah 17:10

17:10 For you ignore ⁷  the God who rescues you;

you pay no attention to your strong protector. ⁸ 

So this is what happens:

You cultivate beautiful plants

and plant exotic vines. ⁹ 

Isaiah 23:15

23:15 At that time ¹⁰  Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, ¹¹  the typical life span of a king. ¹²  At the end of seventy years Tyre will try to attract attention again, like the prostitute in the popular song: ¹³ 

Isaiah 65:11

65:11 But as for you who abandon the Lord

and forget about worshiping at ¹⁴  my holy mountain,

who prepare a feast for the god called ‘Fortune,’ ¹⁵ 

and fill up wine jugs for the god called ‘Destiny’ ¹⁶  –

Isaiah 65:16

65:16 Whoever pronounces a blessing in the earth ¹⁷ 

will do so in the name of the faithful God; ¹⁸ 

whoever makes an oath in the earth

will do so in the name of the faithful God. ¹⁹ 

For past problems will be forgotten;

I will no longer think about them. ²⁰ 

Isaiah 51:13

51:13 Why do you forget ²¹  the Lord, who made you,

who stretched out the sky ²² 

and founded the earth?

Why do you constantly tremble all day long ²³ 

at the anger of the oppressor,

when he makes plans to destroy?

Where is the anger of the oppressor? ²⁴ 

Isaiah 54:4

54:4 Don’t be afraid, for you will not be put to shame!

Don’t be intimidated, ²⁵  for you will not be humiliated!

You will forget about the shame you experienced in your youth;

you will no longer remember the disgrace of your abandonment. ²⁶ 

[49:15]  ¹ tn Heb “her suckling”; NASB “her nursing child.”

[49:15]  ² tn Heb “so as not to have compassion on the son of her womb?”

[49:15]  ³ tn Heb “these” (so ASV, NASB).

[49:15]  ⁴ sn The argument of v. 15 seems to develop as follows: The Lord has an innate attachment to Zion, just like a mother does for her infant child. But even if mothers were to suddenly abandon their children, the Lord would never forsake Zion. In other words, the Lord’s attachment to Zion is like a mother’s attachment to her infant child, but even stronger.

[49:14]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[23:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “so you will be remembered.”

[17:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “you have forgotten” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[17:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and the rocky cliff of your strength you do not remember.”

[17:10]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “a vine, a strange one.” The substantival adjective זָר (zar) functions here as an appositional genitive. It could refer to a cultic plant of some type, associated with a pagan rite. But it is more likely that it refers to an exotic, or imported, type of vine, one that is foreign (i.e., “strange”) to Israel.

[23:15]  ¹⁷ tn Or “in that day” (KJV). The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[23:15]  ¹⁸ sn The number seventy is probably used in a stereotypical, nonliteral sense here to indicate a long period of time that satisfies completely the demands of God’s judgment.

[23:15]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “like the days of a king.”

[23:15]  ²⁰ tn Heb “At the end of seventy years it will be for Tyre like the song of the prostitute.”

[65:11]  ²¹ tn The Hebrew text has simply, “forget.” The words “about worshiping at” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[65:11]  ²² tn The Hebrew has לַגַּד (laggad, “for Gad”), the name of a pagan deity. See HALOT 176 s.v. II גַּד 2.

[65:11]  ²³ tn The Hebrew has לַמְנִי (lamni, “for Meni”), the name of a pagan deity. See HALOT 602 s.v. מְגִי.

[65:16]  ²⁵ tn Or “in the land” (NIV, NCV, NRSV). The same phrase occurs again later in this verse, with the same options.

[65:16]  ²⁶ tn Heb “will pronounce a blessing by the God of truth.”

[65:16]  ²⁷ tn Heb “will take an oath by the God of truth.”

[65:16]  ²⁸ tn Heb “for the former distresses will be forgotten, and they will be hidden from my eyes.”

[51:13]  ²⁹ tn Heb “and that you forget.”

[51:13]  ³⁰ tn Or “the heavens” (also in v. 16). The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[51:13]  ³¹ tn Heb “and that you tremble constantly all the day.”

[51:13]  ³² tn The question anticipates the answer, “Ready to disappear!” See v. 14.

[54:4]  ³³ tn Or “embarrassed”; NASB “humiliated…disgraced.”

[54:4]  ³⁴ tn Another option is to translate, “the disgrace of our widowhood” (so NRSV). However, the following context (vv. 6-7) refers to Zion’s husband, the Lord, abandoning her, not dying. This suggests that an אַלְמָנָה (’almanah) was a woman who had lost her husband, whether by death or abandonment.