יָדַע
ya.da (H3045)
to know
AI Word Study
# Understanding Hebrew יָדַע (to know) The Hebrew word יָדַע appears 945 times throughout the Hebrew Bible, making it one of the most frequently used verbs in ancient Jewish scripture. Its fundamental meaning is "to know," yet this simple English translation masks the word's considerable semantic range in Hebrew thought. The high frequency of occurrence alone indicates that this concept was central to how ancient Hebrew speakers and writers expressed understanding, awareness, and relationship. The sheer prevalence of יָדַע across nearly a thousand biblical passages suggests that "knowing" held multivalent importance in ancient Israelite culture and religious thought. Rather than being narrowly intellectual, the Hebrew concept of knowing likely encompassed experiential awareness, relational understanding, and practical recognition—dimensions that a single English word cannot fully capture. This breadth of usage across diverse biblical contexts (narrative, legal, poetic, and prophetic texts) reflects how fundamental the act and state of knowing were to Hebrew expression and worldview. Given its overwhelming frequency in scripture, יָדַע served as a primary vehicle for expressing how humans and God relate to reality, to one another, and to the divine. The word's centrality to biblical language indicates that questions of knowledge, recognition, and understanding were woven throughout Israel's religious and cultural discourse, making this verb essential for anyone seeking to grasp how ancient Hebrew texts conveyed meaning and constructed meaning.
AI synthesis uses only provided lexicon data -- never training knowledge.
for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Their eyes were opened, and they both knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together, and made coverings for themselves.
Yahweh God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand, and also take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever—”
The man knew Eve his wife. She conceived, and gave birth to Cain, and said, “I have gotten a man with Yahweh’s help.”
Yahweh said to Cain, “Where is Abel, your brother?” He said, “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Cain knew his wife. She conceived, and gave birth to Enoch. He built a city, and named the city after the name of his son, Enoch.
Adam knew his wife again. She gave birth to a son, and named him Seth, saying, “for God has given me another child instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.”
The dove came back to him at evening and, behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters were abated from the earth.
Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his youngest son had done to him.
When he had come near to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “See now, I know that you are a beautiful woman to look at.
He said, “Lord Yahweh, how will I know that I will inherit it?”
He said to Abram, “Know for sure that your offspring will live as foreigners in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them. They will afflict them four hundred years.
For I have known him, to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of Yahweh, to do righteousness and justice; to the end that Yahweh may bring on Abraham that which he has spoken of him.”
I will go down now, and see whether their deeds are as bad as the reports which have come to me. If not, I will know.”
They called to Lot, and said to him, “Where are the men who came in to you this night? Bring them out to us, that we may have sex with them.”
See now, I have two virgin daughters. Please let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them what seems good to you. Only don’t do anything to these men, because they have come under the shadow of my roof.”
They made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father. He didn’t know when she lay down, nor when she arose.
They made their father drink wine that night also. The younger went and lay with him. He didn’t know when she lay down, nor when she got up.
God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that in the integrity of your heart you have done this, and I also withheld you from sinning against me. Therefore I didn’t allow you to touch her.
Now therefore, restore the man’s wife. For he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you will live. If you don’t restore her, know for sure that you will die, you, and all who are yours.”
Abimelech said, “I don’t know who has done this thing. You didn’t tell me, and I didn’t hear of it until today.”
He said, “Don’t lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”
Let it happen, that the young lady to whom I will say, ‘Please let down your pitcher, that I may drink,’ then she says, ‘Drink, and I will also give your camels a drink,’—let her be the one you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master.”
The young lady was very beautiful to look at, a virgin. No man had known her. She went down to the spring, filled her pitcher, and came up.
The man looked steadfastly at her, remaining silent, to know whether Yahweh had made his journey prosperous or not.
The boys grew. Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field. Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents.
He said, “See now, I am old. I don’t know the day of my death.
Jacob awakened out of his sleep, and he said, “Surely Yahweh is in this place, and I didn’t know it.”
He said to them, “Do you know Laban, the son of Nahor?” They said, “We know him.”
Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service with which I have served you.”
Jacob said to him, “You know how I have served you, and how your livestock have fared with me.
Anyone you find your gods with shall not live. Before our relatives, discern what is yours with me, and take it.” For Jacob didn’t know that Rachel had stolen them.
Jacob said to him, “My lord knows that the children are tender, and that the flocks and herds with me have their young, and if they overdrive them one day, all the flocks will die.
Onan knew that the offspring wouldn’t be his; and when he went in to his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground, lest he should give offspring to his brother.
He turned to her by the way, and said, “Please come, let me come in to you,” for he didn’t know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, “What will you give me, that you may come in to me?”
Judah acknowledged them, and said, “She is more righteous than I, because I didn’t give her to Shelah, my son.” He knew her again no more.
He left all that he had in Joseph’s hand. He didn’t concern himself with anything, except for the food which he ate. Joseph was well-built and handsome.
But he refused, and said to his master’s wife, “Behold, my master doesn’t know what is with me in the house, and he has put all that he has into my hand.
and when they had eaten them up, it couldn’t be known that they had eaten them, but they were still ugly, as at the beginning. So I awoke.
and the plenty will not be known in the land by reason of that famine which follows; for it will be very grievous.
Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Because God has shown you all of this, there is no one so discreet and wise as you.
They didn’t know that Joseph understood them; for there was an interpreter between them.
The man, the lord of the land, said to us, ‘By this I will know that you are honest men: leave one of your brothers with me, and take grain for the famine of your houses, and go your way.
Bring your youngest brother to me. Then I will know that you are not spies, but that you are honest men. So I will deliver your brother to you, and you shall trade in the land.’ ”
They said, “The man asked directly concerning ourselves, and concerning our relatives, saying, ‘Is your father still alive? Have you another brother?’ We just answered his questions. Is there any way we could know that he would say, ‘Bring your brother down?’ ”
We have brought down other money in our hand to buy food. We don’t know who put our money in our sacks.”
Joseph said to them, “What deed is this that you have done? Don’t you know that such a man as I can indeed do divination?”
Your servant, my father, said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons.
Then Joseph couldn’t control himself before all those who stood before him, and he called out, “Cause everyone to go out from me!” No one else stood with him, while Joseph made himself known to his brothers.
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