What Does Isaiah 63:16 Mean in the King James?
Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O LORD, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting.
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
The verse makes redemption a kinship claim: human ancestors may not recognize you, but the LORD names himself your Father and Redeemer.
THE MEANING
Even the names Abraham (אַבְרָהָם, Avraham, “father of a multitude”) and Israel (יִשְׂרָאֵל, Yisrael, “one who wrestles with God”) stand beside a failure of recognition. Your belonging rests in the LORD, who is both Father and גֹּאֵל (go’el, the kin who reclaims). His name, his nature, reaches through the ages.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Being unseen or unrecognized by the people who should know you does not mean you have no belonging; the LORD’s claim remains.
THE ROOT
גֹּאֲלֵנוּ
go'alenu
GROWS FROM
גאל
Redeem; reclaim as kin.
The word carries family language: a גֹּאֵל (go’el, kinsman-redeemer) acts to reclaim within a kinship bond. Here the LORD’s fatherhood is active: he takes responsibility for those human ancestors do not acknowledge.
ALSO GROWS
go'el: Kinsman-redeemer; one who reclaims.
גֹּאֵל
This is the person-word from the same root, making the family bond inside “redeemer” visible.
ge'ullah: Redemption; reclaiming.
גְּאֻלָּה
This names the act of reclaiming, showing that the LORD’s relation is something he enacts.
יְדָעָנוּ
yeda'anu
GROWS FROM
ידע
Know, perceive, recognize through encounter.
“ignorant” in this verse is yeda'anu. The verse says Abraham does not יָדַע (yada, know or perceive) you. The word can hold knowing through encounter, so the loss named here is relational recognition, not merely missing information.
ALSO GROWS
yada: Know; perceive.
יָדַע
This is the verb’s root form, clarifying the kind of knowing the verse says is absent.
da'at: Knowledge; understanding.
דַּעַת
This noun from the same root links recognition to what is known and understood.
יַכִּירָנוּ
yakkiranu
GROWS FROM
נכר
Recognize, identify, distinguish.
“acknowledge” in this verse is yakkiranu. The paired clauses say Abraham does not know and Israel does not recognize you. A related form, נָכְרִי (nokhri, foreigner or stranger), carries the sense of being outside the familiar circle; the verse names a failure of recognition while the LORD’s claim remains.
ALSO GROWS
hikkir: Recognize; identify.
הִכִּיר
This form of the root makes the act of acknowledgment explicit.
nokhri: Foreigner; stranger.
נָכְרִי
This related word evokes the other side of recognition: being regarded as outside or unfamiliar.
THE PATTERN
Human recognition can fail while God’s fatherly claim remains.
When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.THE THREAD
Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.Isaiah 41:14 uses the same גאל (ga’al, redeem or reclaim as kin) root in “thy redeemer.” There the LORD names himself as the one who helps and reclaims Jacob; here that kinship claim becomes personal: “our father, our redeemer.”
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