What Does Isaiah 63:8 Mean?
For he said, Surely they are my people, children who will not lie. So he became their Deliverer.
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
For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie: so he was their Saviour.THE KEY
Here, deliverance follows the claim of belonging: “they are my people,” so he becomes their deliverer.
THE MEANING
You hear belonging declared first: “my people.” The children are described as people who will not deal falsely, and deliverance follows as the LORD’s action toward them. The verse holds fidelity, belonging, and being brought out in a single movement.
THE ROOT
מוֹשִׁיעַ
moshia
GROWS FROM
ישע
To deliver, bringing someone out of constriction into spaciousness.
“Deliverer” in this verse is moshia. “Saviour” can sound like a title, while מוֹשִׁיעַ (moshia) names the one who brings people out. Since the verse first calls them “my people,” deliverance appears as the active shape of that belonging.
ALSO GROWS
yeshuah: Deliverance
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun from the same root names the bringing out that the verse assigns to their deliverer.
moshia: Deliverer
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This is the same word used here: the one whose action carries the people out.
יְשַׁקֵּרוּ
yeshakkeru
GROWS FROM
שקר
To deal falsely, deceive, or betray trust.
“who will not lie” in this verse is yeshakkeru. The Hebrew verb can describe acting falsely, beyond speaking a false sentence. Beside “my people,” it makes the children’s truthfulness a matter of relationship and trust.
ALSO GROWS
sheqer: Falsehood or deception
שֶׁקֶר
This noun shows the false dealing that the children are said not to practice.
meshaqqer: One who deals falsely
מְשַׁקֵּר
This form makes the relational force of “lie” visible: a person can act falsely toward someone, not only say something untrue.
THE PATTERN
Deliverance takes shape as the action of the one who claims a people as his own.
And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God, and you shall perceive that I am the LORD your God, who brings you out from under the loads of the Egyptians.But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, and who shaped you, O Israel. Do not fear, for I have bought you back; I have called you by your name; you are mine.Let the LORD God of Israel be spoken well of, for he has looked upon and redeemed his people,THE THREAD
In all their narrow place he was narrowed, and the messenger of his face brought them out. In his love and in his pity he bought them back. He lifted them and carried them all the days of the ages.The word translated “saved” is וַיּוֹשִׁיעֵם (vayyoshi’em), from the same root ישע (yasha, deliver) as מוֹשִׁיעַ (moshia, deliverer) here. The next verse shows what that deliverance does: he meets them in affliction, bears them, and carries them.
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