Bible Strands
Psalms 135:4
For the LORD has chosen Jacob as His own, Israel as His treasured possession.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses the worshiping assembly, declaring Yahweh's election of Jacob and Israel immediately after praising His goodness and before affirming His supremacy over all other deities.
The words — The Hebrew verb בָּחַר (baChar, "he has chosen") and the noun סְגֻלָּה (segullah, "treasured possession") frame the covenant relationship as deliberate selection and exclusive ownership.
The thread — This claim of divine election appears in Deuteronomy 7:6 and 10:15 regarding national Israel, and is later cited in 1 Peter 2:9 to describe the church.
Why it lands — The verse requires the reader to acknowledge that divine belonging originates in God's unilateral choice, providing the factual basis for corporate identity and subsequent praise.
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
For the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure.
Cross-references
- 1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
- Deuteronomy 10:15 Yet the LORD has set His affection on your fathers and loved them. And He has chosen you, their descendants after them, above all the peoples, even to this day.
- Deuteronomy 7:6 For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all peoples on the face of the earth.
- Malachi 3:17 “They will be Mine,” says the LORD of Hosts, “on the day when I prepare My treasured possession. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.
- Deuteronomy 32:9 But the LORD’s portion is His people, Jacob His allotted inheritance.
- 1 Samuel 12:22 Indeed, for the sake of His great name, the LORD will not abandon His people, because He was pleased to make you His own.
- Psalms 33:12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people He has chosen as His inheritance!
- Psalms 105:6 O offspring of His servant Abraham, O sons of Jacob, His chosen ones.
- Isaiah 41:8 “But you, O Israel, My servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, descendant of Abraham My friend—
- Isaiah 43:20 The beasts of the field will honor Me, the jackals and the ostriches, because I provide water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My chosen people.