Even These May Forget, Yet I Will Not

Isaiah 49:14 But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.” 15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. 16 Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.

My poetic paraphrase and expansion:

Zion says, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken?’
But God says, ‘Zion, Zion, you are mistaken.’

‘Can a mother forget her nursing child?
As she cries for food will she be reviled?

Even these may forget, yet I will not.
For my covenant with your fathers I have not forgot.

I have burned you into the palms of my hands.
And your walls before me continually stand.

See the holes in my hand and the wound in my side.
How can I forget those for whom I have died?’