Yasha‘ is considered the mother root to express the notion of salvation. There are three nouns deriving from the verbal root (yeshû‘ah, yesha‘ and teshû‘ah accounting for an additional total of 148 occurrences) and the Old Testament features no less than fourteen proper names made of a combination of the verb yasha‘ and of a reference to God, the most famous being Yehôshu‘a (Joshua = the Lord saves), Yesha‘yahû (Isaiah = He, the Lord, Saves) and Hoshea‘ (Hosea = He saves).

Generally speaking the notion of salvation implied in the verb yasha‘ does not bear the spiritual connotation it will take in the New Testament and later in Christian theology: deliverance from evil, forgiveness of sins and partaking in eternal life. It rather evokes deliverance from a specific threat, from sickness or from a concrete and visible enemy: “O Lord my God…save me from all my pursuers” (Ps 7, 2[1]; “My savior; you save me from violence” (2 Sam 22:3)

The relatively high frequency of the verb in the book of Judges suggest that national expectations of military victory were widespread in earlier times. But the foundational meaning remains God’s intervention in Egypt to free his people from bondage and to make a covenant with them: “Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the Egyptians” (Ex 14:30); “Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord?” (Deut 33:29). From then on God will do whatever is needed to rebuild, to heal, or to gather his people facing trials, hardships and divisions: “I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior” (Isa 43, 11).  GWT

Occurrences in Old Testament: 205
1) PSALMS - 57
2) ISAIAH - 29
3) JUDGES - 21