What Does Isaiah 25:9 Mean?
And in that day it will be said, "Look, this is our God; we have stretched toward him, and he will deliver us. This is the LORD; we have stretched toward him, let us leap and let us rejoice in his deliverance."
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 it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.THE KEY
“Save” and “salvation” grow from one Hebrew root, joining the awaited rescue to the joy it brings.
THE MEANING
You can name God as your deliverer while the outcome is still awaited. The verse holds waiting and gladness together: expectation faces what is coming, and rejoicing already rests in God’s deliverance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that waiting means God is absent: the waiting here is directed toward God, and the verse speaks of joy in the deliverance to come.
THE ROOT
וְיוֹשִׁיעֵנוּ
ve-yoshiʿenu
GROWS FROM
ישע
y-sh-ʿ
To deliver, bring out of danger into safety; the movement is from constriction toward spaciousness.
“deliver” in this verse is ve-yoshiʿenu. The verse uses this root for both “save” and “salvation,” holding the act and its outcome in one word family. The rescue is attributed to God, and the same root names the deliverance in which the people rejoice.
ALSO GROWS
yeshuah: Deliverance
יְשׁוּעָה
The verse repeats this root in “his salvation,” showing that the promised act and the resulting deliverance belong to one family.
moshiaʿ: Deliverer
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This form names the one who delivers, matching the verse’s recognition of God with the action attributed to him.
THE PATTERN
When God is recognized as deliverer, that recognition becomes trust and praise.
Look, God is my deliverance. I will lean my full weight and not tremble, for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song, and he has become my deliverance.The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my deliverance. This is my God, and I will make him a dwelling; my father's God, and I will lift him high.And my breath has leapt in God, my Deliverer.THE THREAD
And Moses said to the people, Do not fear, take your stand, and see the deliverance of the LORD, which he will do for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again for the ages.Exodus 14:13 uses יְשׁוּעָה (yeshuah, deliverance), the same root Isaiah uses for “salvation.” There, the word names a passage out of danger; here, that same deliverance is the ground of rejoicing.
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