Genesis 49:18 — Word Study
WLCלִֽישׁוּעָתְךָ֖ קִוִּ֥יתִי יְהוָֽה׃
BSAI awaitqâvâh■ [have waited, trust in] Your salvationyᵉshûwʻâh [deliverance, rescue, victory] O LORDYᵉhôvâh [Yehovah, the supreme God, Savior]
| Greek | English | Parsing |
|---|---|---|
| לִֽישׁוּעָתְךָ֖ | for deliverance your | Preposition, noun common feminine singular construct, suffix |
| קִוִּ֥יתִי | I wait eagerly | Verb, Piel, perfect first person common singular |
| יְהוָֽה׃ | O Yahweh | Noun proper |
Every word in the verse. Click a row to open it in the panel on the left.
| BSB | I await Your salvation, O LORD. |
| KJV | I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD. |
| ASV | I have waited for thy salvation, O Jehovah. |
| YLT | For Thy salvation I have waited, Jehovah! |
| WEB | I have waited for your salvation, Yahweh. |
| BBE | I have been waiting for your salvation, O Lord. |
Where they part company is יְשׁוּעָה — see How Translations Differ.
The structure is simple, with a main clause followed by a direct address to God, emphasizing the personal nature of the plea.
7 commentators on this verse
Gill, Jamieson, Poole, Trapp & more — read them ›
clause
verbקָוָה
The sentence as the grammar sees it Open the tree ›
Every word here is used elsewhere in the Old Testament.
Bars are logarithmic — אֵת, the commonest word in the Hebrew Bible, stands about 11,000 times, so a linear scale would leave everything else invisible. Click a row to open that word.
Deep Study — Genesis 49:18
Sections marked generated are written from the data on this page rather than by a named author. Everything else — the lexicon entries, the cross references, the manuscript readings, the counts — is quoted from its source unchanged.
Context — Jacob's Blessings to His Sonsgenerated
Genesis 49:18 captures Jacob's anticipation of God's salvation as he blesses his sons. This moment occurs amidst Jacob's prophetic declarations about each son, revealing both their futures and the overarching hope for divine intervention and deliverance for Israel. Jacob's longing for salvation reflects a deep faith in God's promises, which resonates throughout the Psalms and the prophetic literature.
Cross References
| Reference | Text (BSB) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Psalm 14:7 | Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come from Zion! When the LORD restores His captive people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad! |
| 2 | Psalm 25:6 | Remember, O LORD, Your compassion and loving devotion, for they are from age to age. |
| 3 | Psalm 40:1 | I waited patiently for the LORD; He inclined to me and heard my cry. |
| 4 | Psalm 62:1–5 | In God alone my soul finds rest; my salvation comes from Him. |
| 5 | Psalm 85:7 | Show us Your loving devotion, O LORD, and grant us Your salvation. |
The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — 23 references, hung on the phrase they belong to
The Key Word — יְשׁוּעָה, li.shu.'a.te.Khagenerated
The word יְשׁוּעָה (yeshu'ah) refers to salvation or deliverance, derived from a root meaning to save. It encompasses not only the act of being saved from danger but also the broader concepts of victory and prosperity. In this verse, it signifies Jacob's trust in God's ability to rescue and deliver His people.
The parsing indicates that it is a feminine noun in the singular form, showing that it is a specific instance of salvation that Jacob is awaiting. This highlights the personal nature of the deliverance he seeks.
How Translations Differ — measured against the Berean Standard Biblegenerated
This study reads the verse in the Berean Standard Bible, which uses salvation for יְשׁוּעָה.
Sentence Structuregenerated
The main verb of the verse is קִוִּ֥יתִי, I await, which governs the entire sentence. The structure is straightforward, with a prepositional phrase indicating the object of the waiting, followed by the direct address to God.
The Hebrew word order places emphasis on the act of waiting, with the subject and the object clearly defined, allowing the reader to grasp the urgency and expectation in Jacob's plea.
Septuagint Backgroundgenerated
The Septuagint translates יְשׁוּעָה as σωτηρίαν (sōtērian), which also means salvation. This choice reflects a consistent understanding of the term as deliverance, aligning with the broader themes found in the Greek translation of the Old Testament.
The use of περιμένω for קִוִּ֥יתִי indicates a similar sense of expectation, underscoring the continuity of meaning across the translations.
In plain words — the whole versegenerated
Genesis 49:18 shows Jacob expressing his eager expectation for God's salvation. He directly addresses Yahweh, demonstrating his trust in God's promise to deliver His people. This verse connects to the theme of waiting for God's help, as seen in various Psalms.
Frequently Asked Questionsgenerated
Jacob is expressing his hope for God's deliverance and intervention in the lives of His people.
Waiting signifies a deep trust in God's timing and faithfulness to fulfill His promises.
This verse echoes the themes of hope and deliverance found in the Psalms, where waiting on the Lord is a common motif.
Jacob's anticipation encourages us to trust in God's salvation and to wait patiently for His deliverance in our lives.
Reflection Questionsgenerated
- In what areas of my life do I need to wait for God's deliverance?
- How can I cultivate a deeper trust in God's promises, like Jacob?
- What does it mean to me to await God's salvation?
- How can I encourage others who are waiting for God's help?
Commentators on this verse — 7 expositors, verse by verse
Each of these wrote on Genesis 49:18 itself, not merely on the chapter around it.
John Gill1697–1771Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleI have waited for thy salvation, O Lord.. Jacob finding his spirits faint and flag, stops and breathes awhile before he proceeded any further in blessing the tribes; and as he found he was a dying
Read John Gill on Genesis 49 →Robert Jamieson1802–1880Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's CommentaryI have waited for thy salvation, O LORD. I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord. The connection of this clause with the preceding context has greatly perplexed critics.
Read Robert Jamieson on Genesis 49 →Matthew Poole1624–1679Matthew Poole's Commentary on the Holy BibleI do earnestly wait, and hope, and pray for thy helping hand to save me and my posterity from the manifold temporal calamities which I foresee will come upon them, and especially from spiritual and eternal mischiefs, by that Messiah which thou hast promised. Jacob in the midst of his great work doth take a little breathing, and finding himself weakened by his speech to his children, and drawing nearer death, he opens his arms to receive it, as the thing for which he had long waited, as the only effectual remedy and mean of salvation or deliverance from all his pains and miseries, and particularly from his present horrors, upon the contemplation of the future state of his children. And this…
Read Matthew Poole on Genesis 49 →John Trapp1601–1669Trapp's Complete Commentary on the Old and New TestamentsGenesis 49:18 I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.Ver. 18. I have waited for thy salvation.] A sudden and sweet ejaculation; either, as, feeling himself faint and spent with speaking, he desires to be dissolved, and so to be freed from all infirmities; or else, foreseeing the defection of this tribe to idolatry, and their many miseries thereupon, he darts up this holy desire to God for them, and himself in them. Good Nehemiah is much in these heavenly ejaculation: and the ancient Christians of Egypt were wont to use very short and frequent prayers, saith Augustine; lest, in longer, their fervour of affection should suffer diminution. "Why criest thou unto me?" saith God to Moses. This…
Read John Trapp on Genesis 49 →Charles John Ellicott1819–1905Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(18) I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord (Jehovah).—Among the many explanations hazarded of this ejaculation the most probable is that given in the Speaker’s Commentary, that the thought of the serpent wounding his prey in the heel carried the mind of the patriarch back to the fall of man, and the promise made to Eve. And thus it is a profession of faith, naturally called out by this chain of ideas, in the advent in due time of the promised Deliverer, and of which the accomplishment had become united in thought with the name of Jehovah.
Read Charles John Ellicott on Genesis 49 →CambridgeThe Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges18. I have waited] This parenthetical ejaculation of prayer is thought by many scholars to be a gloss. But all authorities contain the verse. There is no obvious reason for inserting such a gloss at this particular point. (a) The ejaculation has by some been thought to shew that, at the time of the composition of this song, Dan was engaged in a long conflict with his foes, and the issue was still doubtful. (b) By others it has been explained as a cry of physical weakness by Jacob. It is very possible that the verse is intended to mark the point at which the song is half finished; but it is not necessarily, therefore, an interpolation. thy salvation] i.e. deliverance wrought by Thee. For the…
Read Cambridge on Genesis 49 →Daniel Denison Whedon1808–1885Whedon's Commentary on the Bible18. For thy salvation have I longed, Jehovah — What occasioned this abrupt exclamation at this point, or what connexion it has with the context, is not clear.
Read Daniel Denison Whedon on Genesis 49 →The verse in English, compared — 17 translations, and where they part company
Every translation on this page is a decision someone had to make and commit to. Read down a column and you see one translator's judgement; read across a row and you see the range the Greek actually allows. The BSB is the wording the rest of this page is measured against, so it is listed first.
Modern formal
I await Your salvation, O LORD.
I have waited for your salvation, Yahweh.
I await Your salvation, O LORD.
I wait for your deliverance, O Lord.
Tyndale line
I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.
I have waited for thy salvation, O Jehovah.
I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.
I have waited for thy salvation O LORD.
O Lord, I haue waited for thy saluation.
Strictly literal
I wait for thy salvation, O Jehovah.
For Thy salvation I have waited, Jehovah!
For Your salvation I have waited, YHWH!
For thy salvation, I hope, O Lord.
I wait for your salvation, Yahweh.
From the Latin
I will look for thy salvation, O Lord.
Simplified
I trust in you to save me, Lord.
I have been waiting for your salvation, O Lord.
Counted from the translations carried on this site, not from a survey of every English Bible. A rendering shared by many versions is usually inherited rather than independently arrived at — the Tyndale line in particular runs through most of them.
The sentence as the grammar sees it — from the MACULA Hebrew treebank
This is not our own analysis: it is the scholarly syntax tree for the verse, showing how the clause actually holds together.
Boxes are the grammarian's groupings — clause, noun phrase, prepositional phrase.
The four witnesses to this verse — Masoretic, Septuagint, Samaritan, Qumran
The Masoretic Text is supported by the Septuagint and the Samaritan Pentateuch, both of which agree with the wording found in the Masoretic Text. This consistency across witnesses reinforces the reliability of this verse.
לִֽישׁוּעָתְךָ֖ קִוִּ֥יתִי יְהוָֽה׃
3 of the 3 words are matched. This is the word-by-word correspondence, not the Septuagint's own sentence — its word order and its articles are its own.
לישׁועתך קויתי יהוה
Agrees with the Masoretic Text here, word for word.
Four traditions, not one. “On the leather” means the letters physically survive on the scroll, as against letters an editor has supplied to fill a hole in it — a restoration is a scholar’s reading, not a reading of the manuscript. Words in [square brackets] are supplied; the notes count them apart from what survives.
The map of this verse — what each word keeps company with
This is a map of two things, both counted rather than judged. Company kept: which words stand within three words of each of these, anywhere in the Hebrew Bible — the thicker the line, the more often the pair meet compared with chance. Built from: the words a word is made out of, taken from its own Strong’s entry. It is not a map of meaning: nothing here claims two words mean the same thing. Click any circle to see the numbers behind it.
Lexicons — every word in Genesis 49:18
One dossier per word, with every reference work grouped by kind — Hebrew lexicons, morphology, Bible dictionaries, topical chains and the English of the translators themselves. The verse sits at the head of each block with the word under study lit, so you never lose your place. The panel above gives the short answer; this is the long one, and it is the part of the page worth indexing.
Every entry below is the lexicographer's own text. On the Hebrew: Brown-Driver-Briggs entire and its gloss set, Strong's Hebrew Dictionary, and Tyndale House's Translators Brief lexicon. Where a cell says a work has no entry, that work genuinely has none for this word.
יְשׁוּעָה (yeshu'ah) refers to concepts of salvation, deliverance, and welfare, often with a spiritual dimension. It is derived from a root meaning to save and encompasses ideas of victory and prosperity. The term is used in contexts related to divine aid and protection, emphasizing both physical and spiritual deliverance.
יְשׁוּעָה n.f. salvation
welfare, prosperity
deliverance
salvation by God, primarily from external evils, but often with added spiritual idea
victory
base
H3444 יְשׁוּעָה salvation . welfare, prosperity
. deliverance
. salvation by God, primarily from external evils, but often with added spiritual idea
. victory
3444 yshuw`ah yesh-oo'-aw
feminine passive participle of 3467; something saved, i.e.
(abstractly) deliverance; hence, aid, victory,
prosperity:--deliverance, health, help(-ing), salvation, save,
saving (health), welfare.
see HEBREW for 03467
יְשׁוּעָה (ye.shu.ah) — salvation.
1) salvation, deliverance
1a) welfare, prosperity
1b) deliverance
1c) salvation (by God)
1d) victory
Prep | N-fs | Suff — Preposition · noun common feminine singular construct · suffixHR/Ncfsc/Sp2ms
קָוָה (qavah) is a Hebrew verb that encompasses the meanings of waiting, expecting, and collecting. It can refer to eagerly waiting or lying in wait, as well as the act of gathering together. The word appears in different forms, including Qal and Piel, indicating various nuances of waiting and collecting.
[קָוָה] vb. wait for
Qal those waiting for
Pi.
wait, or look eagerly, for
lie in wait for
wait (linger) for
base
[קָוָה] vb. collect;—Niph. be collected
base
H6960a קָוָה wait for . wait, or look eagerly, for
. lie in wait for
. wait (linger) for
H6960b קָוָה collect;—Niph. be collected
6960 qavah kaw-vaw'
a primitive root; to bind together (perhaps by twisting),
i.e. collect; (figuratively) to expect:--gather (together),
look, patiently, tarry, wait (for, on, upon).
קָוָה (qa.vah) — to await.
1) to wait, look for, hope, expect
1a) (Qal) waiting (participle)
1b) (Piel)
1b1) to wait or look eagerly for
1b2) to lie in wait for
1b3) to wait for, linger for
קָוָה (qa.vah) — to collect.
1) to collect, bind together
1a) (Niphal) to be collected
V-Piel-Perf-1cs — Verb · Piel · perfect first person common singularHVpp1cs
יְהֹוָה (ye.ho.vah) is the proper name of the God of Israel, often rendered as Jehovah or the Lord. It signifies the self-existent or eternal nature of God. The name is closely associated with the revelation to Moses in Exodus 3:12-15 and is used in conjunction with other terms to denote sacred places. Some scholars suggest it derives from a root meaning 'to bring into being.'
יהוה c. 6823 i.e. יַהְוֶה n.pr.dei Yahweh, the proper name of the God of Israel—(1. MT יְהֹוָה 6518 (Qr אֲדֹנָי), or יֱהֹוִה 305 (Qr אֱלֹהִים) 2. Many recent scholars explain יַהְוֶה as Hiph. of הוה (= היה) the one bringing into being, life-giver)
יהוה is not used by E in Gn, but is given Ex 3:12-15 as the name of the God who revealed Himself to Moses at Horeb
יהוה is used with אלהים and suffixes, especially in D
the phrase † אֲנִי יהוה is noteworthy
יהוה is also used with several predicates, to form sacred names of holy places of Yahweh
base
H3068 יהוה i.e. יַהְוֶה n. pr. dei Yahweh, the proper name of the God of Israel
3068 Yhovah yeh-ho-vaw'
from 1961; (the) self-Existent or Eternal; Jehovah, Jewish
national name of God:--Jehovah, the Lord. Compare 3050, 3069.
see HEBREW for 01961
see HEBREW for 03050
see HEBREW for 03069
יְהֹוָה (ye.ho.vah) — LORD.
Jehovah = "the existing One"
1) the proper name of the one true God
1a) unpronounced except with the vowel pointings of a.do.na (אֲדֹנָי "Lord" H0136)
יְהֹוָה (ye.ho.vah) — The Lord.
Another name of ye.ru.sha.laim (יְרוּשָׁלִַ֫ם, יְרוּשְׁלֵם "Jerusalem" H3389)
יְהֹוָה (ye.ho.vah) — (Jerusalem of) the Lord.
Combined with ye.ru.sha.laim (יְרוּשָׁלִַ֫ם, יְרוּשְׁלֵם "Jerusalem" H3389)
N-proper — Noun properHNpt