Lexicon

H3467 - yasha

Strong's: H3467 · BLB lookup Pronunciation: yaw-shah' Part of speech: verb, primarily attested in the hiphil (causative) stem Frequency: ~205 occurrences in the Hebrew Bible, concentrated in Psalms (~60), the Deuteronomistic History (Judges, 1-2 Samuel, 2 Kings), and Isaiah. LXX equivalents: σώζω (sōzō), σωτηρία (sōtēria), ῥύομαι (rhyomai), ἐξαιρέω (exaireō). Cognate forms: teshuʿah (deliverance), yeshuʿah (salvation; the noun form behind the name), moshiaʿ (deliverer; same root as the participle "savior"), yasha (the verbal root); the proper names Joshua (Yehoshuaʿ, "YHWH saves") and Jesus / Yeshuaʿ (the contracted post-exilic form).

Semantic range (Brown-Driver-Briggs)

To deliver / rescue, to remove from danger or oppression. The root meaning is to be wide / spacious / unrestricted, the picture is of one brought out into the open from confinement, oppression, or threat.
To save, in the soteriological sense, especially with God as subject (Pss; Isa 43:11, "I, even I, am the LORD; and there is no savior besides Me").
To give victory, military deliverance (Judges throughout; "the LORD raised up a deliverer"; the judges as moshiim).
To preserve / keep safe, extending the deliverance-from-danger sense.

Theological force, the name behind the Name

The verbal root yasha is the most theologically generative root in the Hebrew Bible for soteriology. Its derivatives stand at the center of OT salvation-vocabulary and are the linguistic ground for the personal name of Christ.

Etymology of the name Jesus:

Yehoshuaʿ (יְהוֹשֻׁעַ) = YHWH (יהוה) + yashaʿ (יָשַׁע) = "YHWH saves" / "YHWH is salvation"
Yeshuaʿ (יֵשׁוּעַ), the contracted post-exilic form (Ezra-Nehemiah, Chronicles)
Iēsous (Ἰησοῦς), the Greek transliteration of Yeshuaʿ
Jesus, the English from the Greek

The angel's word in Matthew 1.21, "you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins", is a deliberate Hebrew etymological gloss made transparent in the Greek text. The name is the doctrine: the personal name of Christ asserts that the function of the Yehoshuaʿ name (YHWH saves) is now incarnate in the bearer.

The exclusivity-of-salvation tradition. Yasha in Isaiah 43:11, "I, even I, am the LORD; and there is no moshiaʿ (savior) besides Me", establishes the OT exclusivity-of-YHWH-as-Savior. The NT's claim that Jesus saves (Acts 4:12, "there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved") activates the OT-exclusivity claim and applies it to Jesus, with maximal Christological weight.

Joshua as type. Moses appoints Yehoshuaʿ (Joshua) as his successor, who brings the people into the land of promise, typological precursor to Yeshuaʿ (Jesus) who brings the people into the kingdom of God (cf. Heb 4:8, "if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that"). The same name; the typological pair.

Notable verses

The exclusivity of YHWH as Savior

Isaiah 43:11, "I, even I, am the LORD; and there is no savior (moshiaʿ) besides Me"
Isaiah 45:21, "there is no other God besides Me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none except Me"
Hosea 13:4, "you know no God but Me, and there is no Savior besides Me"

Salvation as the LORD's act

Exodus 14:13-14, "stand by and see the salvation (yeshuʿat) of the LORD"
Psalms 3:8, "salvation belongs to the LORD"
Psalms 27:1, "the LORD is my light and my salvation (yishʿi)"
Psalms 118:14, "the LORD is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation (yeshuʿah)"
Isaiah 12:2, "behold, God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid; for the LORD is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation"

Eschatological / Messianic salvation

Isaiah 49:6, the Servant as "salvation to the end of the earth"
Isaiah 49:8, "in the day of salvation I have helped You"
Isaiah 52:7, "how lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news... who announces salvation"
Isaiah 53:5, the Suffering Servant; pierced for our transgression, though Hebrew there is raphah (heal); the broader Servant-Songs cluster traffics in salvation-vocabulary
Zechariah 9:9, "your King is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, humble and mounted on a donkey"

The judges as saviors / deliverers

Judges 2:16, "then the LORD raised up judges who delivered them"
Judges 3:9, 15; 6:14-15, the cycle of deliverers
1 Samuel 14:39, "as the LORD lives, who delivers Israel"

NT activation of the Hebrew name-meaning

Matthew 1.21, "you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins"
Luke 1:31, 2:11, 2:21, the angelic announcement and naming
Acts 4:12, "there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven... by which we must be saved"
Romans 10:13, quoting Joel 2:32: "everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved", Paul applies the YHWH-text to Jesus

Patristic / scholarly note

The Christological argument from the name Jesus / Yehoshuaʿ is one of the oldest in the Christian tradition. Justin Martyr (Dialogue with Trypho 75) makes the Yehoshuaʿ → Yeshuaʿ → Iēsous chain the basis of an OT-NT typological identification: the Joshua who led Israel into the land prefigures the Yeshuaʿ who leads the people into the eschatological inheritance. Origen (Homilies on Joshua) develops the typology extensively. Cyril of Jerusalem (Catechetical Lectures 10.11) reads the angel's word in Matt 1:21 as a Hebrew etymological gloss that transparently identifies Jesus as YHWH-the-Savior in person: the One who saves is the One the OT named Yeshuaʿ-of-YHWH.

In the Reformed-evangelical tradition (Murray Harris, Jesus as God, 1992; Sinclair Ferguson, In Christ Alone, 2007), the yasha / Yeshuaʿ / Iēsous etymology is a load-bearing piece of Christ-deity apologetics: the name itself asserts the divine identity of the Savior. The Joel 2:32 / Romans 10:13 transfer is the canonical hinge, the name on which one calls for salvation is the YHWH-name, applied directly to Jesus.

Verses in this codex

See Obsidian's backlinks pane for every verse page linking here. Anchor texts: Matthew 1.21 (the angel's etymology), Acts 4.12 (the no-other-name), Romans 10.13 (the Joel 2:32 transfer), Psalms 118:14.