rhuomai

to rescue, to deliver

Often translated: deliverrescuesaveset freeprotect

What rhuomai means

The word ῥύομαι carries the visceral image of yanking someone out of danger. Not a gentle escort to safety. A grab. A pull. The kind of rescue where the rescuer reaches into fire, into flood, into the grip of an enemy, and drags the person free by sheer force and will. The root sense is of drawing something toward yourself, and that direction matters. You are not simply pushed away from danger. You are pulled toward the one rescuing you.

In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures, ῥύομαι frequently renders the Hebrew natsal, which carries the same urgency: snatch away, tear free. The rescue is personal. A father pulling a child from a burning room. David crying out to God to deliver him from Saul's armies. The word assumes the person being rescued cannot save themselves. The situation is already desperate. The deliverer acts because the endangered one has no remaining options.

Paul uses ῥύομαι in Romans 7 at his most raw, where he cries out, 'Who will deliver me from this body of death?' He is not asking for moral coaching. He is calling for a rescue from something he cannot escape on his own. And the answer is the same deliverer who rescues from wrath, from enemies, from the evil one. Matthew closes the Lord's Prayer with the petition for deliverance using this same word. You are not asking God to help you manage danger. You are asking him to pull you free from it.

Why this word matters

Most of us read the word 'deliver' in our Bibles and picture something mild. A hand extended. A polite offer of help. I spent years praying 'deliver us from evil' at the end of the Lord's Prayer the way you recite a zip code. Automatic. Weightless. But ῥύομαι is not polite. It is desperate and physical and urgent. It assumes you are in the grip of something. It assumes you cannot get free on your own. When Paul screams 'who will deliver me,' he is not requesting a resource. He is drowning and calling for someone strong enough to pull him out. That is the prayer you are actually praying every time you say those words. And God answers it as a rescuer, not a consultant.

Etymology

ῥύομαι belongs to a Greek word family connected to the idea of drawing or pulling. It shares a semantic family with ῥύσις, meaning a flowing or drawing out, and some scholars connect it to an older Proto-Indo-European root related to pulling and flowing. The word appears frequently in the Septuagint as a translation of Hebrew natsal and chalats, both meaning to snatch away or draw out. The middle voice form indicates the subject acts with personal investment in the rescue.

Key Verses

Where rhuomai appears in Scripture, and why each verse showcases it.

Romans 7:24ESV

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Paul uses ῥύομαι here at the peak of his anguish, making clear that what he needs is not self-improvement but rescue from something he is trapped inside.

Matthew 6:13ESV

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Jesus places ῥύομαι at the climax of the Lord's Prayer, framing the final petition not as avoidance but as active deliverance from a present and personal evil.

2 Timothy 4:18ESV

The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.

Paul uses ῥύομαι to express confidence rooted not in his own resilience but in the Lord's consistent pattern of reaching in and pulling him free.

2 Corinthians 1:10ESV

He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.

The triple use of ῥύομαι here across past, present, and future shows Paul treating rescue not as a single event but as the ongoing posture of God toward his people.

Romans 11:26ESV

And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, 'The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob.'

Quoting Isaiah, Paul applies ῥύομαι to the Messiah himself, naming Jesus as the Deliverer, the one who comes to pull his people free from their deepest captivity.

Related Words

Words in the same semantic family.

1 Teaching on rhuomai

Every video where Adam teaches on this word, in publication order.