arab (aw-rab’) Isaiah 38:14c

Bible Study

arab (aw-rab’) — Isaiah 38:14c

I picked up the pocket devotional my mother gave me years ago; “Daily Light.” I turned to today’s reading and the heading is:
“...O Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me!” — Isaiah 38:14(c) (NKJV)

Isaiah 38 tells of Hezekiah, King of Judah, being deathly ill and crying out to God. God hears his prayers, heals him, and grants him 15 more years of life.

His lament ends with:

• IB ^[1] … Oh Jehovah; it presses me down; be surety for me!
• OJB … Adonoi, I am oppressed; go surety for me. (OJB)
• KJV & NKJV … Oh Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me. (KJV / NKJV)
• TLB … ‘O God.’ I cried, ‘I am in trouble – help me.’” (TLB)
• NIV … I am troubled; Oh Lord, come to my aid!” (NIV)
• NLT … I am in trouble, Lord Help me!” (NLT)
• RSV … O Lord, I am oppressed; be thou my security!” (RSV)
• SAAS ^[2] … Lord, who delivered me…” (SAAS)

The key to this statement is the verb “arab” (Strong’s #6148). The different Bible versions approach this translation from very different angles, and end up with essentially multiple layers of meaning:

• Help – to assist or make easier.
• Aid – to provide what is useful, or assist.
• Deliver – to set free.
• Surety / Guarantor – To take on a pledge or give a guarantee; someone stepping into the legal responsibility to carry another’s debt.
• Undertake – become responsible for a task.
• Security – something given to fulfill an obligation.
• Intermingling / Communion (Patristic View) – Rooted in the broader semantic range of 'āraḇ (which also carries the sense of mixing or braiding together), reflecting divine-human partnership—God entering intimately into human frailty to heal and restore us from within.

To help, aid, and deliver are all physical interventions. Was King Hezekiah crying out to God to be his superman; fly in and save the day, OR was he praying to God for something more? To be surety, to undertake, and to pledge security all indicate a personal partnership with one who willingly offers themselves in your place for a debt you cannot pay.

Isaiah is noted as having the most predictions of the coming Messiah. The prayer of Hezekiah can be read as a foretelling of how God would save humanity—not merely through a distant legal transaction, but by entering directly into our suffering, uniting Himself to our mortal condition, and redeeming us from our sins.

When you pray to God, do you ask Him to assist, aid, or help? Or do you ask Him to be your personal advocate, intimately binding Himself to your burden and carrying you through?

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^[1] IB: Jay P. Green, The Interlinear Bible: Hebrew-Greek-English (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1986).

^[2] SAAS: Scripture taken from the St. Athanasius Academy Septuagint(tm), Copyright ©2008 by St. Athanasius Academy of Orthodox Theology. Used by permission. All rights reserved.