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© 2015 John D. Brey.

הֵ֥ן עַל־כַּפַּ֖יִם חַקֹּתִ֑יךְ חוֹמֹתַ֥יִךְ נֶגְדִּ֖י תָּמִֽיד׃

הֵן interj. (243) behold
  עַל־כַּפַּיִם prep.-n.f. du. (496) on the palms of my hands
  חַקֹּתִיךְ Qal pf. 1 c.s.-2 f.s. sf. (349) I have graven you
  חוֹמֹתַיִךְ n.f.p.-2 f.s. sf. (327) your walls
  נֶגְדִּי prep.-1 c.s. sf. (617) before me
  תָּמִיד adv. (556) continually

Analytical Key to the Old Testament.

The first word in the verse is heh-nun הן translated "behold." The second phrase has the preposition ayin-lamed על followed by the word kaf-peh-yod-mem כפימ which is the plural for "palms" (of the hands). . . . The preposition ayin-lamed על can mean many things and does mean many things throughout the scripture. For instance in Genesis 27:40 the exact preposition (על) is used in the sentence "And by the sword shalt thou live." The preposition is translated "by" (as in by means of).

Context is the primary determinant of how a Hebrew preposition like the one in our verse is translated. The context of the passage in Isaiah 49:16 suggests that the preposition על should be translated "by," as it is in Genesis 27:40.

"Behold, by the palms of your hands . . .."

The next word is chet-qof-tav-yod חקתי. It's the Qal perfect singular of chet-qof-qof חקק: "to engrave, cut in, inscribe, decree" (BDB). As pointed out in Brown Driver Briggs it's used for a "commander's staff." ------Hebrew tradition suggests that the Name YHVH was engraved at the top of the staff God gave Moses. The Name of the Lord is "engraved" on Moses commander's staff. . . Such that Isaiah 49:16 suggests that the Person whose Name is engraved on Moses' staff is personally engraved (thus personally "nailed") to God's staff.

Properly interpreted, without in any way twisting the word order, the sense of the words, word usage, Isaiah 49:16 can be brought into the context of the verse, the chapter, and the book.

Behold, by the palms of your hands I have you [personally ---not merely the letters of your Name] attached, engraved, hung, on My commander's staff [my Papal ferula].

Since this interpretation is true to the Hebrew text, only the context of the passage could suggest that this interpretation is incorrect. But the context justifies it in a manner that is quite literally beyond repute. This can be said since in the very chapter God claims that he is going to lift his hand with a banner in it and all the Gentiles from one end of the earth to the other are going to worship a religion began in and culminating through Jerusalem.

The interpretation found in most translations suggests that God has the Suffering Servant engraved in his own palm. But there’s nowhere in scripture that gives meaning to a person or personage being engraved in the palm of a hand. Nowhere in the scripture is palm-engraving practiced or given a meaning. So why would a text that has a perfectly clear interpretation in "Behold, by the palms of your hand I have you attached, engraved, decreed, on my commander's staff . . ." (and the context makes this a perfect fit) be interpreted in a manner that has no biblical or even extra-biblical connotation --- i.e., hand engraving, engraving precious things in the palm of the hand?

After stating that the Suffering Servant is engraved, nailed, to God's own commander's staff, his Papal ferula, the verse continues with the word chet-vav-mem-tav-kaf חומתך. The root word is chet-vav-mem-heh חומה meaning "walls." –––But there's little contextual reason . . . after speaking of palms being engraved, or nailed, to then speak of "walls." ----Nevertheless, there's a word that's nearly identical to the word for "walls" חומה that means "cries" or "mourn" or "troubled uproar." ---The word is heh-vav-mem-heh הומה. Here's the two words juxtaposed:

חומה
הומה

The only difference between the words is the tiny break in the upper left hand corner of the heh ה that's not on the chet ח. The same prejudice that would speak of an engraved palm of a hand, when the whole of Deutero-Isaiah is obsessed with a "banner" or "rod" used to call Gentiles to the Jewish faith is surely capable of a tiny scribal slip of the wrist to turn the "cries" of the Suffering Servant into the "walls" of Zion.

It's no small thing to suggest a scribal error in order to justify an interpretation of scripture. Even when the error is as easy as it would be to change חומה to הומה. . . Therefore the context of the text must justify in a major way the likelihood that a scribal error has taken place.

But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, And my Lord hath forgotten me (Isaiah 49:14).

My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Psalm 22:1).

Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying . . . My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Matt. 27:46).

These three passages are nearly parallel. In Psalm chapter 22 we have all the same elements as Isaiah 49 and Matthew 27. ----Psalm 22 is a Messianic Psalm that's so similar to the account of the crucifixion in the Gospels that the crucifixion appears to be a plagiarism of Psalm 22. All the same elements are found in Isaiah 49 as well. What's said in Psalm 22 is repeated by Zion in Isaiah 49. Just a couple parallels should make the point.

In Deutero-Isaiah, and even in chapter 49, the banner lifted up with the Lord nailed to God's commander's staff is said to draw Gentiles from around the world to the Jewish faith. In Psalm 22, after a frightening description of the crucifixion we read:

All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: And all kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee (Psalm 22:27).

Behold, I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles and set up my banner to the peoples. . . The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation [Yeshua] of our God (Isaiah 49:22; 52:10).

Isaiah 49:23 (the verse immediately after verse 22 quoted above) says:

They will bow down before you with their faces to the ground; they will lick the dust at your feet (Isaiah 49:23).

Psalm 22:29 seems to be the source for Isaiah 49:23:

All the healthy upon the earth shall eat and worship. They all bow down to the dust before him.

It's common in Roman Catholic symbolism for worshipers to bow at the foot of the cross and kiss the dust at Jesus' feet. It's common symbolism for worshipers to bow at the foot of the Papal ferula and kiss the dust at the foot of that emblem of the crucifixion.

All of these symbols are so common among Christians that we can only wonder how it's possible that a chapter in Deutero-Isaiah that reverberates throughout the scripture, Tanakh and New Testament, should be mangled in such a manner that what's patently clear throughout is translated and tangled up beyond any recognition and in a manner that leaves the text nearly meaningless. Engraved palms, "walls" forever before God when the lament "Why have you forsaken me" echo’s throughout the text of scripture and clearly represents God's most intimate desire to redeem Zion and her children from the exile that is this current realm of death.

A theme is established in Deutero-Isaiah that's repeated over and over again. The central component of the theme is God raising a "banner" in his "hand" to draw the Gentile nations into the Jewish realm. Some have implied that the Hebrew word "Gentiles" goyim גוימ might not necessarily speak of non-Jewish nations. Isaiah 49:6 establishes the fact that Gentile nations, not Jews, are the primary target for all the verses speaking of lifting a "banner" to draw Gentiles into the Jewish faith:

It's too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation [Yeshua] to the ends of the earth.

In the same chapter (verse 22-23) we read:

Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, And raise up my banner to the people . . . They shall bow down to thee with their faces toward the earth, And lick the dust of thy feet.

Someone reading this verse in the Hebrew will note that God doesn't say he will raise up the "palm" of his hand to the Gentiles (as though he's "engraved" something there for them to see) he's going to raise up his yad יד and not his kaph כפ. . . And since he's not showing the Gentiles his palm, he notes that he has something in his hand, a banner, a pole, a commander's staff, with a symbol of some sort, like a flag, that's being prophesied to draw the Gentile nations to Jerusalem and the Jewish faith. What could it possibly be?

Sandwiched between the two verses above is the verse in contention in this thread (Isaiah 49:16):

Behold, by the palms of your hands I have you attached, engraved, hung, on My commander's staff.

The bastardized reading suggests that God has the Suffering Servant engraved on his palms rather than the palms of the hands being that by which the Suffering Servant is attached to a commanders staff. But this verse is between the one that says God is going to make the Suffering Servant a light for the Gentiles, and the verse where he says he’s going to lift a "banner" in his "hand" (yad not kaph) that will draw in the Gentiles. . . Someone will still think this argument belabored until they read the parallel passage in Isaiah chapter 62.

As has been pointed out, Psalm 22 is almost a direct parallel with chapter 49 of Isaiah. In Psalm 22 all the same elements exist. Psalm 22 speaks of death by something that sounds like crucifixion  ---- as well as pointing out that Gentiles from the ends of the earth are to be drawn to the crucified one. They bow down at the dust of his feet.

Psalm 22:16-18 is the kicker:

Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and feet. I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.

Because this chapter of the Psalms is nearly a direct parallel with the Suffering Servant passages, particularly Isaiah chapter 49, much contention has been made about the "piercing" of the hands and feet. Jews have contended that the "piercing" of the hands and feet is an old Christian translation. But the LXX translated it "pierced" suggesting that they used an ancient text where it was written that way. The contention is between the word כארי or כארו. ---- A vav or a yod?

The Masoretic Text used a manuscript with a yod, and the Septuagint a vav.  A manuscript associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls has been found with the vav rather than the yod. It was only in the last decade or so that this manuscript was examined in relationship to Psalm 22:16 and it justifies the LXX translation suggesting that the translators of the LXX had a now forsaken manuscript like the one recently made available through the Dead Sea Scrolls. . . Wikipedia has some information on this under the title: "They have pierced my hands and feet."

Rashi has the translation say: "For dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil doers has encompassed me, like a lion, my hands and feet." ---- The last phrase doesn't make clear sense. But that's what it has to say if there's a yod rather than a vav.

So Rashi explains like this: "As though they [hands and feet] are crushed in a lion's mouth, and so did Hezekiah say (in Isaiah 38:13): `like a lion, so it would break all my bones.'"

The problem is that in the very next verse the Sufferer says that he can count all his bones. They're intact. Such that the Sufferer would be saying that his hands and feet are impaled as though by a lion's mouth, but without breaking a single bone. ----How do you pierce hands and feet without breaking a single bone? You need manufactured lion's teeth, nails. And someone to place them carefully between the bones. You need Roman style crucifixion. And that's exactly what's depicted in Psalm 22.

Zechariah 12:10:

And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall morn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.

Once again we have the motif of "piercing" an only-begotten son. Which is to say we have two perfect examples of a righteous man being "pierced" and one of them mentions that the piercing is through the hands. We have numerous reasons to interpret and translate the prepositional phrase in Isaiah 49:16 "by" the palms of the hand, rather than "upon" the palms of God's hands.

There's not one precedent anywhere in the scripture for the palm of the hand being engraved or marked for any reason. There's no contextual element to speak of the palms of God's hands being engraved. And yet because interpreting and translating the verse faithfully lends too much weight to a puzzle that shant be seen or solved without revealing the "face" God says he's hidden from the Jews (Isaiah 8:16), Jews have played their role in the malfeasance that's the current bastardized translation of the verse.

Isaiah 49:6-23 :

It's too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation [Yeshua] to the ends of the earth." Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, And raise up my banner to the people . . . They shall bow down to thee with their faces toward the earth, And lick the dust of thy feet.

Deutero-Isaiah establishes this pattern throughout the second half of the prophetic work. Israel is forsaken, the Suffering Servant (who's directly related to Israel) is forsaken (and in some places it's implied that Israel forsakes the Suffering Servant), while the Gentiles reap the benefits from all this forsaking and forsakenness.

The Suffering Servant is not only going to re-claim the exiles of Israel who've been scattered far and wide, he's going to draw the Gentile nations where Israel has been scattered, into the commonwealth of the Jewish faith. . . This much is pretty clear from any objective reading of Deutero-Isaiah.

But it's the manner in which the Gentiles are drawn into the faith that gives Deutero-Isaiah its preternatural power. Isaiah 49:16 speaks either of the Suffering Servant being "engraved" on the palms of God's hands, or else, and completely compatible with the prepositional phrase associated with the word for "palms," the verse can be read that God has the Suffering Servant attached "by" his "palms" on God's commander's staff (as BDB implies the Hebrew word translated "engraved" sometimes implies). . . Luther says: "Others say I have graven you on the palms of My hands means `I have drawn a picture of you, thus carrying you in My hands as My idea.'"

There's good reason to belabor the distinctions between how this verse is interpreted and translated. And there's good reason for those opposed to the Papal ferula reading to protest. For if it can be shown convincingly that Isaiah is relating something like God lifting a commander's staff (a Papal ferula) high in the air in order to draw Gentiles into the Jewish faith, then not only is an incredible legitimacy added to the Christian epoch, but this new reading can reverberate throughout the book of Isaiah retroactively correcting certain questionable interpretation/translations while at the same time shining a new light on old and worn out presuppositions about the intentions of the writer of Deutero-Isaiah.