What Does Exodus 18:4 Mean in the King James?
And the name of the other was Eliezer; for the God of my father, said he, was mine help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh:
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Eliezer’s name means “my God is help,” and the verse turns that name into a lived claim: help takes shape as deliverance from Pharaoh’s sword.
THE MEANING
The name says “my God is help,” and the verse gives help a definite shape: deliverance from a sword wielded by power. It speaks now of help meeting you where danger threatens life and opening a way out.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that help is only reassurance or an inward feeling: here, help is concrete rescue from a weapon wielded by a ruler.
THE ROOT
אֱלִיעֶזֶר
ʾĔlîʿezer
GROWS FROM
עזר
ʿ-z-r
To help, support, or come to someone’s aid.
“Eliezer / help” in this verse is ʾĔlîʿezer. The name and “mine help” share the root עזר, so the name compresses the verse’s claim into a nature: God is help. The verse makes that help visible as deliverance from Pharaoh’s sword.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāzar: To help or support someone.
עָזַר
The verb shows help as an action, not merely a title or quality.
ʿēzer: Help, aid, or support.
עֵזֶר
This noun is the part of Eliezer’s name echoed in “mine help,” joining name and experience.
ʾĔlîʿezer: A name formed from “my God” and “help.”
אֱלִיעֶזֶר
The name is itself a compact statement of the help the verse describes.
וַיַּצִּלֵנִי
wayyaṣṣîlēnî
GROWS FROM
נצל
n-ṣ-l
To snatch away, rescue, or deliver from danger.
The root gives “delivered” the force of being pulled clear from a threat. Here, help is not abstract: the verse names the sword and the ruler from whose reach the speaker is rescued.
ALSO GROWS
nāṣal: To take someone out of danger or distress.
נָצַל
It reveals the decisive movement contained in “delivered me”: the threatened person is pulled clear.
hiṣṣîl: To cause someone to escape danger; the verb form used in the verse.
הִצִּיל
This form presents deliverance as an act that brings someone out from under a threat.
THE PATTERN
Help becomes visible as rescue that removes someone from what threatens them.
David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the LORD be with thee.Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;THE THREAD
I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.Both verses use נצל (nāṣal, rescue) behind “delivered,” making help an act of pulling someone clear. Exodus names Pharaoh’s sword; the psalm carries that same rescue into the fears pressing on the reader now.
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