Except Yahuah Had Left Us a Seed

What Your Bible Says

And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.

Romans 9:29 KJV

In Romans 9 Paul explains why most of Israel had not received Messiah. He quotes Isaiah twice. First, “a remnant shall be saved” (Romans 9:27). Then, Yahuah of hosts left “a seed.” Without that seed, Israel would have been wiped out like Sodom. Sabaoth means “hosts,” the armies of heaven.

What the Jewish Bible Says

Except Yahuah of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

Isaiah 1:9 KJV

In the later Hebrew, what Yahuah left is a few survivors. That is true as far as it goes. But it is a crowd of leftovers, not a seed.

What Changed

One word. The older text says Yahuah left a seed. The later text says He left a small remnant.

Seed is not a small word in Scripture. It runs from the seed of the woman in Genesis 3:15, through the seed promised to Abraham, to the seed of David. And elsewhere Paul tells us who that Seed is:

Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Messiah.

Galatians 3:16 KJV

A remnant is many people. The Seed is one Person, and through Him a people is kept alive.

Which One Is Right?

The Greek Bible, translated before Messiah, reads “a seed.”

Paul quotes that wording in Romans 9:29, right after quoting “a remnant” from Isaiah 10. Both words stand side by side in his argument.

The Masoretic text reads “a very small remnant.”

Purpose of the Change

The effect of the later wording is that Israel’s survival rests on a few leftover people, and the word “seed,” with its long promise, is gone from the verse Paul quoted.