What Does Exodus 17:15 Mean?
And Moses built an altar and called its name Jehovahnissi, the LORD my lifted banner.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi:THE KEY
The altar’s name turns victory into a nature: the LORD is the banner around which the people gather.
THE MEANING
Jehovah-nissi names the LORD as the reader’s banner, the raised sign around which allegiance gathers. The altar marks the truth that victory in conflict is centered in God’s presence, not in the strength of the human hand alone.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the hand that fights is the source of victory; the name centers victory in the LORD.
THE ROOT
נִסִּי
nissî
GROWS FROM
נסס
n-s-s
To raise up or make conspicuous as a signal.
“Jehovahnissi, the LORD my lifted banner” in this verse is nissî. The ending -î means “my,” so nissî names the LORD as the reader’s own banner. The root carries the image of a raised signal made visible, making the LORD the point around which allegiance gathers.
ALSO GROWS
nēs: A raised signal or standard.
נֵס
This is the noun within nissî: the LORD is named as the visible rallying point.
nāsas: To lift up or stand out as a visible signal.
נָסַס
The root’s action helps explain why a banner gathers people: it is raised where it can be seen.
מִזְבֵּחַ
mizbēaḥ
GROWS FROM
זבח
z-b-ḥ
To slaughter or sacrifice.
The Hebrew name for altar carries the action of sacrifice within it. Here the altar makes the name Jehovah-nissi a marker of the victory and the offering that follows it.
ALSO GROWS
zāvaḥ: To slaughter an animal or make a sacrifice.
זָבַח
The verb names the action associated with the altar Moses builds.
zevaḥ: A sacrificial offering or meal.
זֶבַח
This noun shows the altar as a place where sacrifice is presented.
THE PATTERN
A raised sign makes the source of refuge visible and gathers people around it.
You have given a lifted banner to those in awe of you, to be unfurled before the face of truth. Selah.And in that day the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; to him nations will seek, and his settling place will carry weight.And I, if I am lifted up from the ground, will draw all humankind to myself.THE THREAD
And in that day the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; to him nations will seek, and his settling place will carry weight.“Ensign” here is the same Hebrew word, נֵס (nēs), “banner,” carried in Jehovah-nissi. The name opens outward: the LORD as banner becomes a visible point of gathering for peoples beyond the immediate conflict.
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