Can a Human Redeem Souls?

Can a man offer his life or physical body to redeem or ransom another person? Please comment thoughts below!

Dowd writes in Psalm 49:7-9 "No man can redeem the life of another!"

This all comes down to perception. If you had never heard of the Christian New Testament (which I wholesale reject), how would you approach the songs of King David (Dowyd)? Religion twists his cries of anguish into a lens that is anti-Torah.

We’ve all been taught that Jesus came to give his body as a sacrifice or offering to ransom or redeem souls. Some say because there’s no proof of Jesus, it was really King David who returned to help save others by gifting or offering his physical body to redeem or ransom souls from liability for sin: yet Torah calls this act an abomination.

This deed is not authorized by YHWH, and David confirms this by distinctly saying it cannot be done. No man can ever offer his body to cover another man’s sins.

Dabarym 24:16: “Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death for their fathers; each shall be put to death for his own sin.”

Psalm 49:7 - 9: “No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him for the ransom for a life is too costly, no payment is ever enough, that he should live on forever.”

YHWH stated it. David witnesses it is impossible. It makes sense, after all, how can a mortal, worthless shell be traded for a priceless soul's eternity?

There’s no wiggle room. Twist, reframe, deny, rebel, or shift this clearly communicated message to your own peril. For me, it's not hard to relinquish such a vile practice. YHWH has long fought against the idea that He would require a human to be killed in dedication, devotion, as a gift of redemption, as an offering, or as a sacrifice.

YHWH stopped Abraham from sacrificing Isaac, because God does not require human sacrifice.

"They have built the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal, something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind". Jeremiah 19:5

He stopped the gorer from taking the lives of the sons of anyone who put the sign of permission for protection on their doors during the first Pesach in Egypt:

“For indeed YHWH will cross through to strike down the oppressors of Mitsrayim. Yet when He sees the blood, the sign of life, upon the upper beam and upon the two standing posts, then YHWH will pass over, shielding the entrance, and He will not allow the Destroyer, the one who corrupts and devastates, to come into your houses to strike you down.” Exodus 12:23

And yet, somehow, despite all of this evidence to the nature of YHWH, humankind has managed to convince that God wants to kill His own son as a bodily offering to atone for your sins, in violation of His own words, character, and reputation.

There's an easy explanation why. Control through fear. By controlling the narrative, humans put YHWH in a box of their own making and then use this creation to shame, humiliate, threaten, condemn, and act like tyrants over one another. But humans have no authority over each other's souls:

Psalm 75:7: “God is the judge; He puts down one and lifts up another.”

Judgment belongs to YHWH alone. This is YHWH’s decision, and only YHWH decides the fate of souls. YHWH makes this exclusive claim:

Deuteronomy 32:39: “See now that I, I am He, and there is no god beside Me; I put to death and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and none can deliver out of My hand.”

1 Samuel 2:6: “YHWH kills and makes alive; He brings down to Sheol and raises up.”

Ecclesiastes 12:14: “For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether good or evil.”

Only YHWH kills or makes alive, wounds or heals, judges or redeems. Humans can help carry out Torah’s earthly justice within the community and within their family home, but no man can pay the ransom for another soul, and no man can pass judgement over the fate of your soul.

“In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?” Psalm 56:4, 11

The psalmist mocks man’s power, affirming that only God holds the real power. I stand united with David in this. I am not afraid of any mortal, fleshly being. You should not be either.

“YHWH is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” Psalm 118:6

“I, I am He who comforts you; who are you that you fear man who dies, the son of man who is made like grass, and forget YHWH your Maker…?” Isaiah 51:12 -13

So how can we look at Psalm 22 differently, staying true to the intended context? When David says, “my hands and feet are pierced” or “my bones are out of joint,” this is not about nails and upright poles or crosses, items he does not mention. His hands are his writings - his body of work. His feet are his walk - the path he laid as our guide. His bones disjointed are his foundational framework distorted, dysfunctional, and rendered useless. His garments divided are his royal presentation, his clothes as the outer visible covering that every man sees, that which represents him outwardly - words, writings, and accomplishments shredded and gambled over by others to steal his inheritance.

What inheritance is it that Dowd was promised? The remnant. The earth. The kingdom. The very souls he was meant to shepherd back to YHWH. This is a condemnation of who have shredded David’s psalms to pieces with the intention and goal of stealing scraps of his inheritance for themselves. Fighting like packs of wild dogs for their pound of flesh, they carrying their plunder back to their own dens, heaping up what belongs to David. Some trample David down like lusty wild bulls, desiring what they were never apportioned.

And when you look at the context, David tells us exactly what causes his suffering:

Psalm 22:6 - 8 “I am scorned by mankind, despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: ‘He trusts in YHWH; let Him deliver him.’”

Psalm 22:12 - 13 “Many bulls surround me… they open wide their mouths at me like a ravening lion.”

Psalm 31:11 - 13 “I am the utter contempt of my neighbors… vs 12 - I am forgotten like one dead, out of mind; I have become like a broken vessel. vs 13 - I hear the slander of many; terror on every side! They scheme to take away my nefesh.”

Psalm 35:20 - 21 “They devise false accusations… they open their mouths wide against me and say, ‘Aha! Aha! Our eyes have seen it!’”

His torment is verbal; slander, lies, betrayal, mockery. His Songs twisted for personal gain, misused to destroy everything Dowd was promised, everything he wanted to accomplish. His anguish is reputational, not ritual. He is treated as though dead because his name, words, and mission are dragged through the mud to death.

He also says in Psalm 31:5,

“Into Your hand I entrust my ruach, breath, my life-force; You Yourself have redeemed me, YHWH, God of steadfast truth.”

David is not talking about surrendering at the moment of physical death (as Christianity often co-opts this verse to make it sound). Instead, he is deliberately placing his life-force into YHWH’s guardianship because of being surrounded by enemies. It’s a statement of loyalty and trust, not a “dying breath.”

What about Isaiah 53? Let's look into it!

“YHWH found it favorable as a deliberate strategy {chaphets} to orchestrate the crushing {daka‘} and wearing down {hacholy} of His chosen one. If he appoints his life-force {naphsho} as a means of reparation for damage caused {’asham}, then he will look and behold offspring {zera‘}, and his days will be prolonged {ya‘arikh yamim}. Through his hand {bayado}, YHWH’s purpose {chaphets} will succeed {yatslach}, rushing to victory with triumphant power.”

This is not about a substitutionary death. It is about David appointing his life as a living testimony of restitution, his suffering, his being diminished, his being falsely accused, become the very way by which others recognize truth and come back into relationship with YHWH in the end. Allowing his life to be used as a strategy, YHWH is able to test those who truly seek the truth vs those who will go along with the Great Rebellion.

Isaiah 53:6

“And YHWH caused the crooked distortions {‘awon ~ twisted guilt, perversion, injustice} of us all to converge against him {hipgia‘ ~ to make contact, strike, encounter, collide}."

They ran headlong into him, not because he was guilty, but because he stood in the way, becoming the point of collision with our rebellion.

Isaiah 53:11

“And their perversions and guilt {‘awonotam} he will bear up under {sabal ~ to carry a heavy load, to endure a crushing weight}."

He shoulders what was hurled upon him, enduring the fallout of their crookedness, not as the source of it, but as the one forced to carry its weight.

Isaiah 53:12

““Therefore I will assign to him a portion with the many, and he will divide the spoils with the mighty, because he poured out laid bare his very soul, exposing himself to death, draining his life as if emptied out with nothing held back, and was counted among the transgressors. He himself carried the burden of many offenses, and for the rebels he interceded, making entreaty on their behalf.”

The text never says he was killed in place of others. He drained himself in loyalty to YHWH, holding nothing back - so much so that people counted him as one already dead. Isaiah conveys that his life was poured out all the way to his death, and he bore the burden of others’ guilt. Victory, not victimhood: the conclusion is inheritance and spoils of battle, not humiliation. He emerges as conqueror.

You would not read it as human sacrifice unless you were programmed to interpret against YHWH's Torah - that human man can redeem or ransom another. So, it is your choice if you will continue to ignore the Torah in favor of Christian overlay, robbery, seizure, and corruption.

David is the High Priest by the inherited rights of Melek Tsadaq ~ King of Righteousness. He was authorized to provide intercession, not substitution: he pleads for transgressors, acting as mediator, not as human sacrifice.

This is why Isaiah 53 says sin was associated with him, though he was not guilty of rebellion - exactly as David declares in Psalm 19. His innocence remained; his suffering was the weight of being misrepresented.

Christianity hijacked this language and rewrote it as a physical blood offering, human sacrifice. Without Rome and the New Testament, you’d never think to read Psalm 22 as crucifixion.

Religion has simply recycled the same counterfeit, overlaying the Roman story of “Jesus” onto David and pretending it was original. It isn’t. Both stories are evil schemes to steal from David. Flipping the role from Jesus to Dowd is to flip up the opposite side of the same counterfeit coin.

David wasn’t describing ritual murder. He was recording his horror that his words would one day be grotesquely twisted while being mocked, demeaned and verbally, reputationally abused.

David's offering of pouring out his heart and soul into his songs has been ritually abused for thousands of years. His psalms mourn the betrayal of great slander, and the theft of his legacy. To read crucifixion or human sacrifice into his words is to let Rome dictate how you read Torah. That’s exactly why the New Testament was written.

You can choose to return to a pure tongue (Zephaniah 3:9). The evil influence we have all been taught has been carried down for generations. Here in the end times, it’s time to change, turn around, and be restored to a pure understanding of the Torah without looking through the lens of Christian, religious interpretation.

David did not come to be a human sacrifice. He is YHWH’s shepherd, messiah, king, and herald. His living body of work - not a dead body - is the way back home. He heralded this message thousands of years ago. He sowed the seeds that YHWH has caused to bloom after so much lifelessness. YHWH promised He would restore Dowd’s rightful reputation, place, honor, kingdom, and message at the end of time. To honor his truth is to reject the counterfeit, bury the corpse of Rome’s lie, and let YHWH’s word through David stand as it is.

Micah 3:1 - 3 “You heads of Jacob … you who hate good and love evil, who tear the skin from my people and their flesh from their bones, who eat the flesh of my people, flay their skin, and break their bones in pieces.”

The imagery of cannibalism is figurative: leaders exploiting the people as if consuming their very lives. This is exactly what it means to make merchandise of souls, something YHWH condemns. YHWH's people (prophets, witnesses, authors of the Tanakh to name a few) dedicated their lives to record the message of YHWH and send it out to anyone who would listen. By stripping them, devouring them, eating and consuming their message, these human soul-cannibals destroy the means for the messengers to be effective witnesses, killing billions in their wake throughout time.

Jeremiah 23:1 - 2 “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!”

By scattering, they cut people off from life and covenant, acting as though they can condemn the soul.

Isaiah 10:1 - 3 “Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees … to turn aside the needy from justice … what will you do on the day of punishment, when devastation comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help?”

The needy are the poor in knowledge and understanding, those two being the currency of YHWH (refined silver and gold). We're advised to seek wisdom and truth like a hidden treasure (Prov 2:4).

“My people are silenced and cut off, destroyed for lack of knowledge {da‘at ~ covenantal understanding, intimate awareness}. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you from being a priest to Me. Since you have forgotten the Torah of your God, I too will forget your children.” Hosea 4:6

So, can a man offer his life to ransom another? The answer from Torah, Psalms, and Prophets is clear: absolutely not. Judgment and redemption belong to YHWH alone.

“They take their stand, presenting themselves as kings and rulers of the material realm, and as dignitaries who govern, as important people. They laid the foundation, initiating the action together in unity against YHWH and against His Mashyach.” Psalm 2:2