What Does Psalm 111:9 Mean?
He sends deliverance to his people; he commands his covenant for the ages. Set apart and awe-filled is his name.
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
He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name.THE KEY
Redemption is not only escape: it is release sent to the people and held within a covenant that endures.
THE MEANING
You are met by deliverance God sends; the covenant remains appointed through the ages. His name is more than a label: it bears the nature of the One whose set-apartness awakens awe.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that release is only a temporary escape: the verse joins redemption to a covenant that endures through the ages.
THE ROOT
שָׁלַח
shalach
GROWS FROM
שלח
Send forth, send away, release, let go.
“sends” in this verse is shalach. English can make “sent” sound like delivery alone, but this verb also carries release and letting go. The verse’s redemption is not detached from the action: release itself is sent toward God’s people.
ALSO GROWS
Shiloach: Sent; the name of a watercourse or pool.
שִׁלֹחַ
The same root surfaces in a name meaning “Sent”; in John 9:7, the pool with this name is where a blind man washes and comes seeing.
mishloach: Sending or dispatch; used for sending portions to one another.
מִשְׁלוֹחַ
The root’s motion of sending can carry provision from one person to another, illuminating redemption as something that reaches its recipients.
פְּדוּת
pedut
GROWS FROM
פדה
Ransom, redeem, release from a claim or bond.
“deliverance” in this verse is pedut. Pedut shares its root with padah, the verb “to ransom” or “redeem”: it names release enacted for people, not only a comforting idea. Paired with shalach, the text speaks of a release sent to reach its recipients.
ALSO GROWS
padah: To redeem or ransom.
פָּדָה
The verb shows redemption as an action that brings release, the same movement named here as something sent.
pidyon: Ransom or redemption.
פִּדְיוֹן
This related noun keeps redemption rooted in the means of release, rather than leaving it as an abstraction.
קָדוֹשׁ
qadosh
GROWS FROM
קדש
Set apart, distinct for sacred use.
The name (שֵׁם, shem: name as nature) is more than a label; it holds the character of the One who sends release. Calling that nature qadosh (קָדוֹשׁ: set apart) and nora (נוֹרָא: awe-inspiring) says that this deliverance comes from a distinctive, awe-worthy character.
ALSO GROWS
qodesh: Set-apartness or sacredness.
קֹדֶשׁ
This noun from the same root names the quality the verse attributes to God’s name.
qiddesh: To consecrate or set apart.
קִדֵּשׁ
The verb makes the root’s action clear: to be set apart is to be distinguished, not merely given a title.
THE PATTERN
God’s deliverance reaches a people as release from bondage and binds that freedom to an enduring relationship with him.
Therefore say to the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the loads of the Egyptians, and I will snatch you from their service, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments.Let Israel hope toward the LORD, for with the LORD is faithful love, and with him is abundant ransom.Let the LORD God of Israel be spoken well of, for he has looked upon and redeemed his people,THE THREAD
And he said to him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, the Sent. So he went and washed, and came seeing.The name Siloam is explicitly glossed “Sent,” echoing Hebrew shalach (שָׁלַח: send, release), the root of “He sent” here. In John, the sent pool is where sight returns, joining sending with restoration as well as release.
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