What Does Psalm 77:15 Mean in the King James?
Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.
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
Redemption here is the reclaiming of kin: God’s arm reaches a people whose story is carried through Jacob and Joseph.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to you through a living picture of divine strength reaching a people and reclaiming them as God’s own. Redemption carries kinship within it, so rescue is more than getting out; it is being gathered into belonging. The names Jacob and Joseph tie that belonging to a particular family line, while Selah leaves the claim in a pause.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a trapped people must free themselves by their own strength: the arm doing the redeeming belongs to God.
THE ROOT
גָּאַלְתָּ
gaʾalta
GROWS FROM
גאל
gaʾal
To reclaim, including by acting as a family redeemer.
The word translated “redeemed” carries the sense of reclaiming kin. Its branches hold the act of redemption and the redeemer together: the rescue is also a return to belonging.
ALSO GROWS
goʾel: Redeemer; a kinsman who reclaims what belongs to the family.
גֹּאֵל
This branch makes the kinship within “redeemed” visible: the people are reclaimed as belonging to God.
geʾullah: Redemption; the act or right of reclaiming.
גְּאֻלָּה
The noun names the same reclaiming action as a continuing bond, not only an escape from danger.
יַעֲקֹב
Yaʿaqov
GROWS FROM
עקב
ʿaqav
Heel; by extension, taking by the heel or supplanting.
Jacob’s name echoes the Hebrew word for heel and the verb for taking by the heel or supplanting. The verse names a people through a figure whose name carries grasping within it, placing a complicated family story inside the act of reclaiming.
ALSO GROWS
ʿaqev: Heel.
עָקֵב
The name Jacob is linked to heel imagery, so this branch shows the name’s concrete seed.
ʿaqav: To take by the heel; to supplant.
עָקַב
This verb appears in the wordplay around Jacob’s name, showing how the name carries an action as well as an identity.
יוֹסֵף
Yosef
GROWS FROM
יסף
yasaf
To add, increase, or continue.
Joseph’s name comes from the root for adding or increasing, as in the naming wish, “The LORD shall add to me another son.” Paired with Jacob, it names a lineage marked by both grasping and addition, gathered within the verse’s act of redemption.
ALSO GROWS
yasaf: To add, increase, or continue.
יָסַף
This verb is the seed of Joseph’s name and gives the name its sense of addition.
hosif: He added or increased.
הוֹסִיף
This form shows the root as an action, linking Joseph’s name to the ongoing act of adding.
THE PATTERN
Across Scripture, redemption names God’s act of reclaiming people into belonging, often by bringing them out of bondage or loss.
Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments:Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.THE THREAD
But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.The word translated “redeemed” here and in Isaiah comes from the same root, גאל (gaʾal), meaning to reclaim. Isaiah follows that word with “I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine,” making the kinship within the shared root audible as Psalm 77 names the reclaiming of a whole people through Jacob and Joseph.
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