To redeem (according to the Oriental law of kinship), i.e. to be the next of kin (and as such to buy back a relative's property, marry his widow, etc.)
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גָּאַל is one of the most theologically rich verbs in the OT. In Israelite law it named the action of the גֹּאֵל — the kinsman-redeemer — the nearest male relative obligated to buy back what a family member had lost: a field sold under economic pressure, a person sold into slavery, or the life of someone murdered (blood avenger).
Reader summary
Full entry for גָּאַל (H1350) · Open the biblical lexicon
גָּאַל is one of the most theologically rich verbs in the OT. In Israelite law it named the action of the גֹּאֵל — the kinsman-redeemer — the nearest male relative obligated to buy back what a family member had lost: a field sold under economic pressure, a person sold into slavery, or the life of someone murdered (blood avenger).
The BSB source-word alignment has 104 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Your Redeemer (5), The avenger (4), . . . (3), redeemed (3), and redeem me (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 48:16. Its strongest book concentrations include Isaiah (24), Leviticus (22), Ruth (21), Psalms (11).
גָּאַל is one of the most theologically rich verbs in the OT. In Israelite law it named the action of the גֹּאֵל — the kinsman-redeemer — the nearest male relative obligated to buy back what a family member had lost: a field sold under economic pressure, a person sold into slavery, or the life of someone murdered (blood avenger). The institution encoded in this verb is relational before it is legal: redemption in this legal-family register is the act of someone bound by kinship obligation, stepping in to restore what you could not restore yourself.
Ruth introduces us to the institution through Boaz, the גֹּאֵל who redeems Naomi's field and marries Ruth to preserve the family line. Leviticus 25 grounds the institution in theology: the land belongs to God, Israel are his tenants, and the kinsman-redeemer mechanism exists because God does not want his people permanently dispossessed of the inheritance he gave them.
The theological transfer of this verb to God himself is the great conceptual move of the prophets. Isaiah uses גָּאַל more than any other Old Testament writer, especially for God's redemption of Israel in Exodus and restoration imagery. 'Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel' (Isa 41:14). 'I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior... your Redeemer' (Isa 43:3, 14).
'As for our Redeemer — the Lord of hosts is his name' (Isa 47:4). The application of the kinsman-redeemer category to God draws on the legal institution's relational weight: God is not presented as an external rescuer who happens to intervene, but as the covenant Redeemer who binds himself to restore his people. The NT's fulfilment of גָּאַל is christological: Galatians 3:13 uses the Greek equivalent λυτρόω — 'Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law.'
But the deeper NT resonance of גָּאַל is in the Incarnation itself: the Son truly shares flesh and blood with those he redeems, so the redemption is not detached from real solidarity.
גָּאַל is counted at about 105 occurrences in the local Hebrew index in two primary registers: the legal-familial institution of the kinsman-redeemer (Leviticus 25, Ruth), and the theological application of that institution to God's redemption of Israel (Exodus, Psalms, Isaiah). Both registers share the same relational structure: the redeemer acts from a position of prior kinship and obligation, restoring what was lost.
Therefore tell the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians and deliver you from their bondage. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.
The first use of גָּאַל for God's own action toward Israel. In the Exodus proclamation, three verbs form a sequence: bring out, free, redeem. The גָּאַל comes third and is accompanied by 'outstretched arm and great judgments' — the language of sovereign power. But the context is the prior covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (6:4-5): God acts as גֹּאֵל because he is already bound to Israel by the covenant kinship of the patriarchs.
The redemption is not charity from a distance but the obligation of the nearest relative.
If your brother becomes impoverished and sells some of his property, his nearest of kin may come and redeem what his brother has sold.
The foundational legal institution. The גֹּאֵל is defined by proximity: 'nearest to him.' The obligation to redeem flows from relational nearness, not from legal imposition. The land sold under economic pressure can be reclaimed by the nearest male relative — the family's inheritance does not pass permanently to another house. The theological background (25:23) is explicit: 'the land is mine; for you are strangers and live as foreigners with me.'
The kinsman-redeemer mechanism exists within a larger framework of God's ownership: he does not want his people permanently dispossessed.
Stay here tonight, and in the morning, if he wants to redeem you, good. Let him redeem you. But if he does not want to redeem you, as surely as the Lord lives, I will. Now lie here until morning.”
Boaz's commitment to Ruth uses the גָּאַל verb in its full legal weight. The institution requires the nearest relative to act first; if he declines, the next nearest takes the obligation. Boaz's declaration 'I will act as גֹּאֵל for you' is the narrative hinge of Ruth's book: the human kinsman-redeemer who restores the family's land and raises up a heir becomes the pattern for what the prophets mean when they call God 'your Redeemer.'
The Ruth narrative is not an illustration of a theological concept; it is the living institution from which the theological vocabulary takes its meaning.
Do not fear, O Jacob, you worm, O few men of Israel. I will help you,” declares the Lord. “Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
Isaiah's characteristic pairing of 'Redeemer' with 'the Holy One of Israel' recurs throughout Second Isaiah (41:14, 43:14, 47:4, 48:17, 49:7, 54:5). The title גֹּאֵל applied to God draws the kinsman-redeemer institution into Israel's speech about God: he is not a distant benefactor who merely notices Israel's plight, but the covenant Redeemer who binds himself to act.
The 'worm Jacob' address — humiliating, helpless — sets up the contrast: the weaker the one who needs redemption, the more the redeemer's action manifests itself as grace and power rather than mutual transaction.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Kinship-based redemption: a redeemer restores what was lost within family, protecting clan integrity and covenant lineage.
Kinship-based redemption: a redeemer restores what was lost within family, protecting clan integrity and covenant lineage.
to redeem (according to the Oriental law of kinship), i.e. to be the next of kin (and as such to buy back a relative's property, marry his widow, etc.) BDB: redemption Usage: × in any wise, × at all, avenger, deliver, (do, perform the part of near, next) kinsfolk(-man), purchase, ransom, redeem(-er), revenger.
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 8 selected witnesses from 105 lexical occurrence verses.
גָּאַל is a primitive root - no further derivation.
It highlights God’s covenant faithfulness in rescuing His people from captivity.Isaiah 35:1-10
It underscores that Israel’s identity rests on God’s saving intervention.Isaiah 41:8-20
Emphasizes covenant deliverance accomplished by God.Isaiah 43:1-7
Reveals God’s personal covenant commitment to deliver.Isaiah 43:14-21
Expresses covenant purchase and restoration.Isaiah 44:21-23
Reinforces covenant deliverance identity.Isaiah 44:24-28
Emphasizes covenant restoration accomplished by God.Isaiah 44:6-8
Links creative power with covenant restoration.Isaiah 47:1-7
Links divine kingship with covenant deliverance.
Connects judgment with covenant faithfulness.
Connects instruction with covenant deliverance.
Affirms covenantal deliverance from bondage.
Connects divine rescue with covenant loyalty.
Grounds restoration in covenant loyalty and deliverance.
Affirms the Lord’s continuing covenant rescue power.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
גָּאַל will not let the preacher reduce redemption to a transaction. The kinsman-redeemer institution embeds redemption in a network of prior relationship: only the nearest relative can act, and he acts because he is already bound. When Isaiah calls God 'your Redeemer' he is saying that God is not an outside agent who steps in to solve a problem — he is the covenant Redeemer, already committed by his promises.
The Incarnation is the NT's answer to how God becomes the nearest relative to all of humanity: in Jesus, God takes on the flesh of the people he will redeem so that he qualifies as גֹּאֵל. Hebrews 2:14-17 makes the logic explicit: 'he himself partook of flesh and blood... that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death... he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest.'
The kinsman-redeemer acted from kinship. The incarnation supplies the kinship logic Hebrews expounds. The preacher who holds גָּאַל has a word that unifies the Exodus, the Ruth narrative, Second Isaiah, and the Incarnation in a single relational logic: God becoming kin in order to redeem what his people could not redeem themselves.
Isa.41.14
גָּאַל is a verb (qal, niphal, piel) whose noun form is גֹּאֵל (the redeemer, the kinsman-redeemer). BDB's range for the qal includes: to redeem, act as kinsman, avenge. The avenger-of-blood dimension (Num 35:19) shows the word's full relational weight — the גֹּאֵל was also the one who pursued justice for a murdered family member. The word's range thus covers both restorative acts (buying back land or persons) and retributive acts (avenging blood).
Both dimensions are present when Isaiah applies גָּאַל to God: the Lord who redeems Israel from Babylon is also the one who will judge Babylon. The niphal form means 'to be redeemed, to be the one who has a גֹּאֵל.' The distinction from פָּדָה (H6299, to ransom) is significant: פָּדָה emphasizes the price paid; גָּאַל emphasizes the relational obligation of the one who pays.
The NT does not use a single Greek verb as a direct translation of גָּאַל — it distributes the concept across λυτρόω (to ransom/redeem), ἀγοράζω (to buy, purchase from the market), and ἐξαγοράζω (to buy out of the market). But the kinsman-redeemer theology that גָּאַל encodes is most fully expressed in Hebrews, particularly in the argument that Jesus had to be made like his brothers in every respect in order to become their merciful high priest (Heb 2:14-17).
The logic is גָּאַל logic: the redeemer acts from kinship. Similarly, Paul's statement that Christ 'redeemed us from the curse of the law' (Gal 3:13) uses ἐξαγοράζω but the structure is גָּאַל: the one who redeems takes onto himself what the one needing redemption could not escape. The book of Ruth functions in the NT as a type precisely because Boaz's kinsman-redemption is legible as the pattern God himself would fulfill: a man of standing, already related to the family in need, willing to take on the obligation that a nearer relative declined.