Word studies · Hebrew · Strong's H3467
יָשַׁע · yâshaʻ · appears 206 times in the Old Testament
In one line: Rescue that brings you out into open space.
Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.
Isaiah 45:22
Yasha is to save — to bring into open space out of danger, rescue that comes from outside and gives room to breathe.
Yasha describes God delivering Israel from Egypt, from enemies, from oppression and from sin's consequences. The Psalms plead it constantly, and the prophets extend it to a salvation God will accomplish for all peoples.
The root's underlying idea is to be open, wide or free, so to save is to bring someone out of a tight place into room. Its noun forms give the words for salvation, and it stands behind names built on it — Joshua and Isaiah among them.
English “save” has been narrowed by religious use to mean rescue from hell; the Hebrew is broader and more physical — rescue from enemies, sickness, drowning, injustice. Reading it as “brought out into the open” keeps salvation from shrinking to one moment.
Yasha (H3467) appears 173 times in the Hebrew Bible, and stands behind both the name Joshua and, through its Aramaic form, the name Jesus — “the LORD saves.”
Salvation is God's initiative throughout Scripture: “I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior.” Naming Mary's son Jesus makes the New Testament's central claim in a single word — the God who saves has come to do it in person.
Name one tight place you are currently in and ask God for room rather than for coping. Salvation in Scripture regularly arrives as space where there was none.
properly, to be open, wide or free, i.e. (by implication) to be safe; causatively, to free or succor
And when some shepherds came along and drove them away, Moses rose up to help them and watered their flock.
Exodus 2:17When you enter into battle in your land against an adversary who attacks you, sound short blasts on the trumpets, and you will be remembered before the LORD your God and saved from your enemies.
Numbers 10:9For the LORD your God goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.”
Deuteronomy 20:4Then the men of Gibeon sent word to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal: “Do not abandon your servants. Come quickly and save us! Help us, because all the kings of the Amorites from the hill country have joined forces against us.”
Joshua 10:6Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them from the hands of those who plundered them.
Judges 2:16When the troops returned to the camp, the elders of Israel asked, “Why has the LORD brought defeat on us before the Philistines today? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD from Shiloh, so that it may go with us to save us from the hand of our enemies.”
1 Samuel 4:3Press and hold save in any chapter and this study opens on the verse you are reading, with the lexicons, every occurrence and the commentaries beside it. The Bible is free to read.
Scripture quoted from the Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Strong's definitions are public domain. Counts come from The Pillar's own tagged text.