For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob... — Of the two verbs “redeem” and ransom” here used, the first expresses the act of setting free, the other that of acting as the goel, or nearest kinsman, who was not only the liberator, but the avenger of those to whom he stood in that relation. (Comp. Numbers 35:19; Deuteronomy 19:6; 2 Samuel 14:11; Isaiah 59:20; Psalms 19:14.) The idea of a “ransom,” however — i.e., of a price paid for freedom — does not lie in the Hebrew word.

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