---
title: Isaiah 63:9
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/isaiah-63-9/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/isaiah-63-9.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Isaiah 63:9
testament: OT
section: Prophets
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Isaiah 63:9

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> In all their distress, He too was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence saved them. In His love and compassion He redeemed them; He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (1984 edition): "During all their distress it was distressing to him. And his own personal messenger saved them. In his love and in his compassion he himself repurchased them, and he proceeded to lift them up and carry them all the days of long ago."
- NWT (2013 revision): "During all their distress it was distressing to him. And his own personal messenger saved them. In his love and compassion he repurchased them, And he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old."

## JW Usage

The NWT renders the Hebrew mal'akh panav ("the angel of his face/presence") as "his own personal messenger" — preserving the agency reading while flattening the distinctive Old Testament category of "the Angel of Jehovah's Presence" who carries Jehovah's name and acts with Jehovah's authority. JWs read the verse as describing Jehovah's care through angelic delegation, not as a Christophany.

## Protestant Usage

"The Angel of Jehovah's Presence" (mal'akh panav) is a distinctive Old Testament category — the angel who bears Jehovah's name (Exodus 23:21), accepts worship that other angels refuse (Genesis 22:11-12, Judges 13:18-22), speaks in the first person as Jehovah, and is treated by the Old Testament narrative as more than a delegated creature. Isaiah 63:9 says this Angel "saved them" — performing the deliverance Old Testament theology elsewhere attributes to Jehovah alone. Jude 5 (in its earliest manuscripts, including P72 and Codex Vaticanus) names that deliverer as Jesus: "Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt." 1 Corinthians 10:4 says "the rock that followed them was Christ." Pair these and the Old Testament's Angel of the Presence is the New Testament's pre-incarnate Christ. The doorstep form: "Who is the angel of Jehovah's presence who saved Israel? Jude says it was Jesus."

## NWT Issue

The NWT renders mal'akh panav as "his own personal messenger" rather than "the Angel of his Presence" / "the Angel of his Face." The choice obscures the distinctive Old Testament Christophany category — the Angel who carries Jehovah's name and accepts worship — and presents the figure as a generic delegated angel. Standard English translations (ESV, NASB, KJV) preserve "the Angel of his Presence." The flattening is subtle but consistent with the NWT's broader pattern of obscuring Old Testament theophany texts that the New Testament applies to Christ.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Jesus Delivered Israel from Egypt](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/jude5-jesus-delivered-israel.md) — Jude 5 [Deity of Christ]