Blenkinsopp comments:
The inscription on the hands has nothing to do with phylacteries which are not worn on the hands or with tattoos, and it is quite different from the situation in which people write “belonging to Yahveh” on their hands (Isa. 44:5). None of these would be appropriate in the present context. The [Septuagint], “on my hands I have painted your walls,” points us in the right direction. The blueprint is already prepared, and its essential feature is the tracing out of the walls. A well-known parallel is the outline of the Sumerian city of Lagash in the lap of the statue of its ruler, King Gudea. This also illustrates the ancient image of a capital city built according to a heavenly prototype or model, which was the genesis of the idea of a civitas dei.