What Does Isaiah 26:1 Mean in the King James?
In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.
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
God makes deliverance itself the wall and rampart of the strong city.
THE MEANING
Your refuge is a strong city whose boundary is God’s deliverance, set around you as walls and ramparts. The song describes safety as a place you inhabit now, with room to live.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that safety depends entirely on defenses you build and control. This verse places the city’s boundary in God’s deliverance.
THE ROOT
יְשׁוּעָה
yeshuah
GROWS FROM
ישע
y-sh-ʿ
To deliver, bringing someone out of constriction into spaciousness.
“salvation” in this verse is yeshuah. The root carries a movement into room to live; יְשׁוּעָה (yeshuah, deliverance) is more than escape. Here that movement takes architectural form: God sets deliverance in place as the city’s enclosure.
ALSO GROWS
yasha: To deliver, bring out into spaciousness.
יָשַׁע
The verb names the movement that the city’s walls embody: being brought out of constriction.
moshia: Deliverer, one who brings out.
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This branch names the one who carries out the deliverance that becomes the city’s protection.
yeshuah: Deliverance.
יְשׁוּעָה
This is the verse’s word: deliverance is appointed as the wall itself.
עָז
ʿaz
GROWS FROM
עָזַז
ʿ-z-z
To be strong or mighty.
“strong” in this verse is ʿaz. Hebrew places the city’s own strength beside God’s appointed deliverance: one describes the city, the other becomes its defensive boundary. This root also branches into words for strength and stronghold, extending the verse’s image of protection.
ALSO GROWS
ʿoz: Strength, might.
עֹז
It names the strength carried by the city’s description.
maʿoz: Stronghold, refuge.
מָעוֹז
This branch brings strength into the image of a place of protection.
THE PATTERN
God’s deliverance becomes the lived protection around people facing danger.
The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.For I, saith the LORD, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her.Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;THE THREAD
The LORD is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.Both verses pair a song with strength and use יְשׁוּעָה (yeshuah, deliverance). Isaiah pictures deliverance as a city’s walls; this psalm names it as the singer’s own.
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