HEBREW WORD STUDY – ENGRAVENED – CHAQAQ חקק Cheth Qop Qop
“Isaiah 49:15-16: “Can a woman forget her suckling child, that she should not have compassion on the son if her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have engraven thee upon the palm of my hand, thy walls are continually before me.”
This is an awesome promise of the love of God. It is very unlikely that a mother would forget her child, but it could happen. Yet with God, it would never happen. The word “forget” is “shakach” which has the idea of leaving, or neglecting. If you peer into the heart of God you will see a mother’s heart. A heart that feels only compassion for her child.
I remember my father preaching at a rescue mission often used the illustration of man who was executed for murder and placed in an unmarked grave. No one ever paid a visit to that grave except one elderly woman who faithfully came every week to lay flowers at the grave. That woman, of course, was the man’s mother.
God says that even a mother could neglect her child, but God would never neglect His child. Then he says a curious thing. “I will engraven thee upon the palm of my hand.”
The word “engraven” is chaqaq. This is an unusual word for it means to imprint, engrave, and it also means to imagine. The only way to understand this word is to consider an ancient practice. When a son left home and moved a long distance away or went off to war, the mother would long for some token to remind her of her absent son. Tattooing is an ancient art. The mother would go to the local tattoo parlor and have some symbol tattooed to the right palm of her hand. The ancients believed that one’s heart was found in the right palm of the hand. Thus, this token or symbol that she would have permanently tattooed on her right palm would be a reminder of her son. Your right palm is the part of your body that you see the most. But not only that she would have it as close to her heart as possible. Each time she looked at this little token she would imagine her son.
Would you like Chaim Bentorah as your personal Hebrew teacher?
|
|
What God is saying is that He has a little token or reminder of us permanently tattooed to his right hand. We are the closest thing to His heart. The tattoo is permanent and he is continually being reminded of us. He is imagining all the things he longs to do for us.
Yet, look at the next phrase: “Thy walls are continually before me.” The word “wall” is chamah which is a barrier or a wall of defense. God has permanently engraved us near to His heart and yet we set up a wall or barrier to His love. The picture is that of a mother longingly reaching out to her child but her child refusing to acknowledge her love. Yet she continues to love. The child may spit on her, curse her, but she will still long to reach out to that child. Such is the picture God is giving us in Isaiah 49:15-16.
God longs and wants us a million times more than we long for or want Him. Keep Isaiah 49:15-16 in mind next time you feel like God just is not there or has abandoned you.
Hi there! Thank you for reading this Daily Word Study. Can I ask a favor? Share this Daily Word Study with your friends on Facebook and Twitter by clicking one of the icons below.
Thanks & Blessings, it means a lot to me!
I know God Loves me unconditionally. I do not need proof but I want to see that the Lord is good. I want this more than life itself. I expect Him to bring me my husband, the man He has made who can Love me in return, without condition.
Thank you for all of your wonderful insights. They are a blessing to me! I would just like to add or point out that it doesn’t say a mother and her child, but her “sucking” child. A mother who has nursed her child knows what this means. When her baby cries, her body reacts and her milk lets down without her control. If she doesn’t nurse her baby, she becomes engorged, which is very, very painful and is relieved by her sucking child. This brings even greater meaning to this verse to me. It would be next to impossible for a mother to forget her sucking child, but sadly some do leave or neglect their child for a variety of reasons (some with the greatest love for their child), but not without pain, physical and spiritual. Our God never will. As great as a mother’s love is, His is so much greater. Also, with “walls,” I have always thought a different way. My defense or protection is always before Him. He will be my wall of defense and never leave me unprotected. He will encircle me with protection. He is my God! When I cry, He feels it and runs to succor me like a sucking child – full of love, comfort and protection. 1 Samuel 2:2 There is none holy as the Lord: for there is none beside thee: neither is there any rock like our God.
As this Christmas season and always, God be thanked for the gift of His Son! ❤️
Thank you!
It’s easy for a guy to overlook suck a word and simply think of a baby when we read it, because it something that we do not have a personal experience with. This reminded of when my wife was feeding our two young ones, and how that was for her when one of them would not latch but was hungry. I’ve milked her on a spoon and fed our oldest with a dropper when she was a new born, until she learned to latch… but it didn’t not have the physiological or psychological effects that it did on my wife.
Your insights are always so valuable to me. I respect and love you dearly but have never supported you. I pledge to do so in 2021; a workman is worthy of his hire. I’ve long used this passage as an illustration of God’s compassion (racham) being so deep and abiding; like the love a woman feels for the unborn child in her womb. I love your enhancement that the engraved right palm representing the heart is the part of the body most often seen! In regard to the second part of the verse, I submit that a communal wall is in mind since keer (qof – resh) was not used. If that is so, perhaps the expression here may parallel the usage of chomah in Isaiah 26:1 and Isaiah 60:18 where God’s compassion moves him to build up walls of salvation to surround his people in a holy city governed by perfect peace and ruled by righteousness.