Isaiah 56:4-6 (particularly v. 5) NRSV

“For thus says the LORD: To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, 5 I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. 6 And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it, and hold fast my covenant…”

Verse 5 literally reads in Hebrew, “and I will give to them in my house, within my walls a hand and a name, (which is) better than (having) sons or daughters. I will give them an eternal name, that shall not be cut off.” Emphasis mine. Modern translations tend to follow something like the NRSV (“a monument and a name” instead of “a hand and a name”) on the basis of 1 Samuel 15:12 and 2 Sam. 18:18.

However, the idea of receiving a hand and an eternal name is quite familiar and comfortable to LDS. Several LDS commentators have made mention of this- Donald Parry, Victor Ludlow, and Avraham Gileadi, who gives a heavily-LDS translation “I will give a handclasp and a name within the walls of my house that is better than sons and daughters; I will endow them with an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.”

See also “The Handclasp and Embrace as a Token of Recognition” under Ritual and the story I’ve reprinted here. For scholarly analysis of Isaiah 56:5, see

1. Shemaryahu Talmon “‘Yad wasem’, an Idiomatic Phrase in Biblical Literature and its Variations,” Hebrew Studies 25 (1984) 8-17;
2. Robinson, G. “The meaning of yd in in Isaiah 56, 5.” Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 88 (1976): 282-284;
3. Japhet, Sara. “yd wsm (Isa 56:5)–A Different Proposal.” Maarav 8 (1992): 69-80;
4. Van Winkle, D. W. “The Meaning of yadwašem in Isaiah LVI 5.” Vetus Testamentum 47 (1997): 378-385.