Bible Strands
Isaiah 63:9
In all their distress, He too was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence saved them. In His love and compassion He redeemed them; He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Israel speaks in corporate lament, reaching back across the ages to recall how God acted on their behalf. The moment is retrospective: a people in present distress invoking God's past faithfulness as grounds for appeal.
The words — מַלְאָךְ פָּנָיו (mal'akh panav), "angel of his face/presence," identifies the saving agent not as a distant being but as the very presence of God made operative in history.
The thread — The same presence language runs through Exodus 33:14 ("My Presence will go with you") and Exodus 23:20 (the angel sent before Israel), and resurfaces in Malachi 3:1 as the messenger who prepares the way before the Lord.
Why it lands — The verse places God's carrying directly beside Israel's rebellion (v.10), forcing the reader to ask: having been lifted and carried, what has been the response—loyalty or a grieved Spirit?
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.
Cross-references
- Exodus 33:14 And the LORD answered, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
- Exodus 23:20 Behold, I am sending an angel before you to protect you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared.
- Malachi 3:1 “Behold, I will send My messenger, who will prepare the way before Me. Then the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple—the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight—see, He is coming,” says the LORD of Hosts.
- Acts 7:34 I have indeed seen the oppression of My people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’
- Acts 12:11 Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent His angel and rescued me from Herod’s grasp and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating.”
- Exodus 14:19 And the angel of God, who had gone before the camp of Israel, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from before them and stood behind them,
- Exodus 19:4 ‘You have seen for yourselves what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.
- Deuteronomy 1:31 and in the wilderness, where the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way by which you traveled until you reached this place.”
- Deuteronomy 7:7 The LORD did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than the other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.
- Psalms 106:7 Our fathers in Egypt did not grasp Your wonders or remember Your abundant kindness; but they rebelled by the sea, there at the Red Sea.