Something saved , i.e. (abstractly) deliverance ; hence, aid , victory , prosperity
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יְשׁוּעָה (yeshuah) is the Hebrew word for salvation — the noun form of the verb יָשַׁע (yasha, to save, rescue, deliver). It is the word from which the name Yeshua (Jesus) is formed, and its local-index occurrences concentrate almost entirely in the Psalms and Isaiah: the two books that together constitute the OT's most developed theology of divine saving action.
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Full entry for יְשׁוּעָה (H3444) · Open the biblical lexicon
יְשׁוּעָה (yeshuah) is the Hebrew word for salvation — the noun form of the verb יָשַׁע (yasha, to save, rescue, deliver). It is the word from which the name Yeshua (Jesus) is formed, and its local-index occurrences concentrate almost entirely in the Psalms and Isaiah: the two books that together constitute the OT's most developed theology of divine saving.
The BSB source-word alignment has 78 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include salvation (15), of salvation (7), in Your salvation (5), my salvation (5), the salvation (5).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 49:18. Its strongest book concentrations include Psalms (45), Isaiah (19), 1 Samuel (2), 2 Samuel (2).
יְשׁוּעָה (yeshuah) is the Hebrew word for salvation — the noun form of the verb יָשַׁע (yasha, to save, rescue, deliver). It is the word from which the name Yeshua (Jesus) is formed, and its local-index occurrences concentrate almost entirely in the Psalms and Isaiah: the two books that together constitute the OT's most developed theology of divine saving action.
The Song of the Sea (Exod 15:2) gives yeshuah its foundational setting: 'The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my yeshuah (salvation).' This is the first use of yeshuah in the OT and it sets the pattern: yeshuah is YHWH's own act of rescue celebrated in song by those he has delivered. The Exodus is the prototype for later yeshuah language: the slave-people rescued from Pharaoh become the witnesses and singers of YHWH's yeshuah. Isaiah 12:2 quotes Exodus 15:2 directly in the context of eschatological restoration: 'Behold, El is my yeshuah; I will trust and will not be afraid; for the Lord YHWH is my strength and my song, and he has become my yeshuah.' The Exodus yeshuah is the template for the final yeshuah.
Psalm 3:8 gives yeshuah its theological address: 'Layeshuah YHWH (Salvation belongs to YHWH); your blessing be on your people.' The definitive claim of the Psalter is that yeshuah is not a human achievement or a predictable outcome — it belongs to YHWH. It is dispensed by him, sourced in him, and credited to him. Psalm 62:1 gives the waiting form: 'Akh el Elohim domi nafshi, mimmennu yeshuati (Only to God silence my soul; from him my salvation).' The soul waits in silence for YHWH's yeshuah, knowing that all other sources of rescue are false.
Isaiah 49:6 gives yeshuah its universal scope: 'I will make you as a light for the nations, that my yeshuah (salvation) may reach to the end of the earth.' The Servant's mission is not merely to restore the remnant of Israel but to carry YHWH's yeshuah to the ends of the earth. Isaiah 52:10 is the culmination: 'The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the yeshuah of our God.' The universality of YHWH's saving action — visible to all nations — is the telos of the Isaianic yeshuah-arc.
The name of Jesus is yeshuah in Aramaic/Hebrew form. Matthew 1:21 makes the etymology explicit: 'you shall call his name Jesus (Yesous), for he will save (sosei) his people from their sins.' The angel's explanation of the name is a yeshuah-interpretation: the one named Yeshua/Jesus is himself the yeshuah of God embodied. Luke 2:30 gives Simeon's declaration: 'for my eyes have seen your salvation (to soterion sou)' — the infant Jesus is the yeshuah of YHWH that Simeon has waited his lifetime to see.
For the preacher, יְשׁוּעָה (yeshuah) establishes the grammar of divine saving action: it begins at the exodus (Exod 15:2), runs through the Psalter's prayers and praises (Ps 3:8, 62:1, 118:14), reaches its prophetic scope in Isaiah (49:6, 52:10), and finds its embodiment in the one whose name is yeshuah itself — Jesus.
יְשׁוּעָה (yeshuah) appears about 77 times in the local Hebrew index, concentrated in the Psalms (56x) and Isaiah (22x). Its theological center is YHWH's saving action: from the Song of the Sea (Exod 15:2 — 'he has become my yeshuah') to Psalm 3:8 ('salvation belongs to YHWH') to Isaiah's universal salvation-arc (49:6 — 'my yeshuah to the end of the earth'). The name Yeshua/Jesus is the proper-name form of yeshuah — Matthew 1:21 makes the etymology the key to the incarnation.
The Lord is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise Him, my father’s God, and I will exalt Him.
The founding yeshuah-declaration in the Song of the Sea: 'YHWH ozzi ve-zimrat ya va-yehi li li-yeshuah (the Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my yeshuah).' The Song of the Sea is the first full burst of corporate praise in the OT — the moment Israel sang after the Red Sea crossing. Yeshuah here is not an abstraction but the specific rescue event: the parted sea, the drowned army, the dry-land crossing.
Isaiah 12:2 quotes this verse verbatim in the context of end-day restoration: the future yeshuah will evoke the same Exodus-song. Psalm 118:14 also quotes it ('the Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my yeshuah') in the context of the rejected stone and the gate of righteousness.
Salvation belongs to the Lord; may Your blessing be on Your people. Selah
Yeshuah as YHWH's possession: 'layeshuah YHWH (salvation is for/of/belongs to YHWH); your blessing upon your people selah.' The spatial preposition le- (belonging to, for) makes yeshuah YHWH's own property — it is not shared with human effort or luck but is his alone to dispense. Psalm 3 is David's prayer during Absalom's rebellion: surrounded by enemies (v.
1-2), David rests because YHWH is his shield and lifter of his head (v. 3-4). The closing yeshuah-claim (v. 8) is the Psalm's foundation-stone: whatever happens in the battle, yeshuah belongs to YHWH, and YHWH is with David. Revelation 7:10 gives this its NT eschatological form: 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!'
Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. For the Lord God is my strength and my song, and He also has become my salvation.”
The Isaianic yeshuah-song quoting the Exodus: 'hinneh El yeshuati (behold, God is my salvation); I will trust and not be afraid; for my strength and song is YAH YHWH, and he has become my yeshuah.' Isaiah 12 is the thanksgiving song at the end of the judgment-and-restoration oracles of chapters 7-11: after the Assyrian crisis and the messianic hope (Isa 11:1-9), chapter 12 is the song Israel will sing in the day of restoration.
Verse 3 gives the maqor-image: 'you will draw water from the wells of yishuah (salvation)' — the yeshuah of the last day is an inexhaustible spring.
He says: “It is not enough for You to be My Servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the protected ones of Israel. I will also make You a light for the nations, to bring My salvation to the ends of the earth.”
Yeshuah's universal scope in the Servant Song: 'li-yeshuah ad-qetseh ha-aretz (that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth).' The scope expansion is decisive: the Servant's mission is 'too small' if it only restores Israel's tribes — the yeshuah must reach to the ends of the earth. Acts 13:47 quotes this verse when Paul turns to the Gentiles: 'I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation (soterian) to the ends of the earth.'
The Servant's universal yeshuah-mission is fulfilled through the Servant's own identity as Jesus and his representatives' proclamation.
In God alone my soul finds rest; my salvation comes from Him.
The waiting-silence of yeshuah: 'akh el Elohim domi nafshi, mimmennu yeshuati (only toward God my soul is silent/waits; from him my salvation).' Psalm 62's akh (only/truly) is the Psalm's theological backbone — used six times (v. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 9) as the exclusive-of-alternatives particle: YHWH alone, other things are empty (v. 9 — 'men of low estate are but a breath; men of high estate are a delusion; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath').
The yeshuah that comes from YHWH alone is received by the soul that waits in silence — the silence of Psalm 62:1 is the opposite of anxious striving after human sources of rescue.
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How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Comprehensive deliverance and restoration—God's saving action encompassing physical rescue, healing, victory, and covenantal blessing.
Comprehensive deliverance and restoration—God's saving action encompassing physical rescue, healing, victory, and covenantal blessing.
something saved, i.e. (abstractly) deliverance; hence, aid, victory, prosperity BDB: salvation Usage: deliverance, health, help(-ing), salvation, save, saving (health), welfare.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 8 selected witnesses from 77 lexical occurrence verses.
יְשׁוּעָה is built from this root:
The repetition of salvation centers the hymn on God’s saving action. Isaiah 12:1-6
Forgetting the God of salvation nullifies the source of true security. Isaiah 17:9-11
The people’s confession centers on God as their deliverer. Isaiah 25:6-12
Salvation forms the city’s true defense. Isaiah 26:1-6
Affirms God as the source of redemptive rescue. Isaiah 46:12-13
Frames the Servant’s mission as redemptive rescue. Isaiah 49:1-6
Highlights the enduring nature of God’s redemptive act. Isaiah 51:4-8
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
יְשׁוּעָה (yeshuah) is salvation — and it is YHWH's. Psalm 3:8's 'salvation belongs to YHWH' is the Psalter's most compressed theological claim: yeshuah is not divided between divine and human contributions but belongs to YHWH as source and agent. The preacher can trace yeshuah across the three canonical movements. First, the Exodus foundation (Exod 15:2 — 'he has become my yeshuah'): the prototype of all salvation is an act of rescue from power the victim cannot escape, received entirely as gift.
Second, the Psalter's prayer-pattern (Ps 62:1 — 'from him comes my salvation'): the soul that has learned the Exodus-grammar waits in silence for YHWH, refusing to build its rescue from human materials. Third, the Isaianic expansion (Isa 49:6 — 'my salvation to the end of the earth'): the scope of yeshuah is not tribal or national but universal — it reaches to every people.
The name of Jesus is the convergence of these three canonical movements: Matthew 1:21 ('he will save his people from their sins') names the incarnation as the embodiment of the Exodus-rescue, the Psalter's prayer-answer, and the Isaianic universal mission. Luke 2:30 gives Simeon's seeing: 'my eyes have seen your salvation (to soterion sou)' — the infant in his arms is what yeshuah looks like when it arrives in person.
Exod.15.2
יְשׁוּעָה (yeshuah, H3444) is the feminine abstract noun from the root יָשַׁע (yasha, H3467 — to save, deliver). The root yasha is also the basis of: יֵשַׁע (yesha, H3468 — salvation, deliverance: Ps 50:23, 51:14, 65:5); יֵשׁוּעַ (Yeshua, H3442 — the personal name Joshua/Jesus, 29x in Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles); יְהוֹשׁוּעַ (Yehoshua, H3091 — Joshua, 218x — 'YHWH is salvation'); מוֹשִׁיעַ (moshia, H3467 Hiphil participle — savior/deliverer: Isa 45:21, Hos 13:4).
The LXX translates yeshuah primarily with soteria (G4991 — salvation, deliverance) and soterion (G4992 — salvation as a noun: Luke 2:30, 3:6, Acts 28:28, Eph 6:17). The name Yesous (Jesus) in Greek is the transliteration of Yeshua (the late Hebrew/Aramaic form of Yehoshua). In the NT, soteria carries the full weight of yeshuah's OT semantic range: rescue from enemies (Luke 1:69-71), forgiveness of sins (Luke 1:77), eschatological redemption (Rom 13:11), and the universal scope of the Servant's mission (Acts 13:47).
Luke 1:46-55 (the Magnificat) and 1:67-79 (the Benedictus) are the NT's concentrated yeshuah-inheritance. Mary's soul magnifies the Lord because 'my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior (soteri, v. 47)' — the yeshuah of the Psalms is the savior in whom Mary exults. Zechariah's Benedictus (Luke 1:69-71) is the most explicit: 'He has raised up a horn of salvation (keras soterias) for us...
Salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.' The yeshuah-grammar of the Exodus ('from the hand of our enemies') is directly applied to the coming of John's son and the Messiah he prepares for. Revelation 7:10 gives yeshuah its final eschatological declaration: 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!' — the exact structure of Psalm 3:8 ('salvation belongs to YHWH') is carried into the heavenly worship of Revelation, now with the Lamb co-receiving the yeshuah-ascription.
Romans 1:16 gives yeshuah its missional form: 'I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation (eis soterian) to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek' — the Isaianic universal scope (Isa 49:6: 'to the end of the earth') in Paul's apostolic self-description.
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