To fix upon (by agreement or appointment); by implication, to meet (at a stated time), to summon (to trial), to direct (in a certain quarter or position), to engage (for marriage)
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יָעַד is a Hebrew verb used for appointing, designating, agreeing, meeting, assembling, or betrothing, depending on stem and context. Its local occurrences are far fewer than those of the related noun מוֹעֵד (H4150), an appointed time or place.
Reader summary
Full entry for יָעַד (H3259) · Open the biblical lexicon
יָעַד is a Hebrew verb used for appointing, designating, agreeing, meeting, assembling, or betrothing, depending on stem and context. Its local occurrences are far fewer than those of the related noun מוֹעֵד (H4150), an appointed time or place.
The BSB source-word alignment has 29 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include I will meet (3), can challenge Me (2), let us meet (2), who had assembled (2), agreeing [where to go] (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Exodus 21:8. Its strongest book concentrations include Exodus (7), Numbers (6), Jeremiah (4), Job (2).
יָעַד is a Hebrew verb used for appointing, designating, agreeing, meeting, assembling, or betrothing, depending on stem and context. Its local occurrences are far fewer than those of the related noun מוֹעֵד (H4150), an appointed time or place. The relationship is important, but H4150 passages should be labeled as word-family evidence rather than direct H3259 verbal occurrences.
Exodus 25:22 uses the Niphal form when the Lord says he will meet Moses above the atonement cover and speak his commands. This is a direct H3259 occurrence concerning a divinely promised meeting with Israel’s mediator. It helps explain the related name “Tent of Meeting,” but the tent is not automatically a “time and space where yaad happens” in every use of מוֹעֵד.
Amos 3:3 asks whether two can walk together unless they have agreed or met by appointment. Translation of the form and precise scenario varies. Within Amos’s chain of cause-and-effect questions, the verse prepares for the certainty that the Lord’s action and speech have causes. The text does not say the prophet received the word in a special H3259 meeting or make the walking pair a direct image of Israel’s covenant.
Leviticus 23 and Habakkuk 2:3 use מוֹעֵד (H4150), not the H3259 verb. They show related appointment language for Israel’s festivals and the vision’s appointed time. Israel observes times the Lord appoints, but Scripture does not describe each festival simply as a scheduled divine-human meeting or guarantee that every perceived delay is an uncancellable personal appointment.
For teaching, יָעַד supports careful reflection on God’s appointed meetings and human obligations where the verb actually occurs. Christian claims about the incarnation, cross, resurrection, return, or weekly gathering require their own New Testament texts and should not be called H3259 appointments merely because God planned them.
The local Hebrew index currently counts about 29 H3259 uses. Its key semantic range covers the appointed meeting (Amos 3:3), the covenant-meeting at the Tent of Meeting (Exod 25:22), the feast-calendar appointments (Lev 23:2-4), the prophetic appointed time (Hab 2:3), and the assembly of the wicked by appointment against YHWH (Ps 2:2). The noun derivative מוֹעֵד (moed, H4150) — appointed time, sacred season, Tent of Meeting — is one of the most theologically dense nouns in the OT, occurring about 223 times.
Can two walk together without agreeing where to go?
Yaad as the precondition of the covenant walk: 'Can two walk together unless they have met by appointment (noadu)?' The Niphal of yaad — 'unless they have been appointed together' — is Amos's question about the covenant relationship. The walking together (halak, H1980 — already companioned separately) presupposes the prior appointment: YHWH and Israel are walking together in the covenant because YHWH called the meeting at Sinai.
The prophetic word (v. 7-8) is the result of YHWH's meeting with his prophet. The question is also an implicit warning: if Israel breaks the appointment, the walk breaks.
And I will meet with you there above the mercy seat, between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the Testimony; I will speak with you about all that I command you regarding the Israelites.
YHWH's yaad at the mercy seat: 'There I will meet with you (noadti lecha) — from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim, I will speak with you.' The Tent of Meeting is named after yaad: ohel moed (H168+H4150). YHWH appoints the place (the mercy seat, kapporet), the mediator (Moses, then the high priest), and the content (all that I command for the people).
The yaad at the mercy seat is the OT's most concentrated image of the divine appointment: blood on the mercy seat makes the meeting possible (Lev 16:14-15), and the word comes from between the cherubim.
“Speak to the Israelites and say to them, ‘These are My appointed feasts, the feasts of the Lord that you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.
Moadei YHWH (appointed feasts of YHWH): 'these are the moadei YHWH, the holy convocations (mikraei kodesh) — these are my moadim.' The Leviticus 23 feast-calendar is a yaad-calendar: YHWH has set the appointments (Passover, Firstfruits, Shavuot, Trumpets, Atonement, Booths) and Israel keeps them. The word moad (from yaad) for the feast-seasons signals that these are not Israel's religious choices but YHWH's meeting-invitations.
Missing a moad is missing an appointment YHWH himself called. The NT picks up this appointment-language: Paul in 1 Corinthians 5:7-8 ('Christ our Passover has been sacrificed; let us keep the feast') and Colossians 2:17 (the feasts are 'a shadow of things to come; the substance is Christ').
For the vision awaits an appointed time; it testifies of the end and does not lie. Though it lingers, wait for it, since it will surely come and will not delay.
The prophetic moed: 'the vision is yet for the appointed time (lamoed); it will surely come; it will not delay.' Habakkuk's patience-word is grounded in yaad-theology: YHWH has an appointment for the vision's fulfillment. The moed is not negotiable, not cancellable, and not late — the believer's experience of delay is not evidence that the appointment has been forgotten.
The word is 'ki yavo yavo' — 'it will come, it will come' — a doubled certainty. Hebrews 10:37 quotes this in the form 'the coming one will come and will not delay,' applying the prophetic moed to the return of Christ.
The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together, against the Lord and against His Anointed One:
Yaad in the wicked assembly: 'the rulers of the earth yitvasdu (counsel/assemble) together against YHWH and against his Anointed (mashiach).' Psalm 2:2 uses the Hithpael of yasad (to conspire, to take counsel) — related to the yoad concept of assembly. The nations' assembly against YHWH's adon (Ps 110:1) is a counterfeit yaad: they call their own appointment against the divine appointment.
YHWH's response is laughter (Ps 2:4) — their assembly against the moed-God cannot stand. Acts 4:25-26 quotes Psalm 2:1-2 as describing the conspiracy of Herod and Pilate against Jesus.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Fixing a time or place by mutual agreement; encompasses covenant assembly, legal summons, and betrothal arrangements.
Fixing a time or place by mutual agreement; encompasses covenant assembly, legal summons, and betrothal arrangements.
to fix upon (by agreement or appointment); by implication, to meet (at a stated time), to summon (to trial), to direct (in a certain quarter or position), to engage (for marriage) BDB: appoint Usage: agree,(maxke an) appoint(-ment, a time), assemble (selves), betroth, gather (selves, together), meet (together), set (a time).
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
יָעַד is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
יָעַד can describe appointing, designating, agreeing, or meeting, while the related noun מוֹעֵד names an appointed time or place. Exodus 25:22 provides a direct verbal anchor: the Lord promises to meet Moses at the atonement cover and speak there. Amos 3:3 uses the verb in a debated question about two walking together by agreement or appointment. These contexts should govern before a broad “divine calendar” theology is built.
Leviticus 23’s festivals and Habakkuk 2:3’s appointed vision use H4150. They are legitimate word-family connections, not direct H3259 evidence. Habakkuk calls the faithful to wait for the vision within a specific prophetic crisis; it does not define every Christian delay as a meeting God has scheduled.
Acts 2:23 says Jesus was delivered up according to God’s definite plan and foreknowledge, and Galatians 4:4 speaks of the fullness of time. Those passages establish divine purpose and timing. Calling the cross, resurrection, return, or Lord’s Day gathering a יָעַד imports the Hebrew lexeme where the New Testament does not use or quote it.
Amos.3.3
יָעַד has senses including appoint, designate, agree, meet, assemble, and betroth, shaped by stem and syntax. מוֹעֵד (H4150) is a related noun for an appointed time, place, assembly, or festival. Because English “appointment” spans both terms, source work must preserve which identity occurs in a verse. Amos 3:3 is translated in more than one way, including agreeing and meeting by appointment; the verse should not settle the entire semantic range.
The New Testament teaches that Christ came in the fullness of time, died according to God’s plan, and will return at a time under divine authority. Hebrews 10 adapts Habakkuk’s waiting language in its own exhortation, and Hebrews 9 presents Christ’s superior sanctuary ministry. These are strong canonical connections to divine purpose, appointed time, and access to God.
They do not identify the incarnation, cross, resurrection, return, weekly gathering, or Christ’s sacrifice as direct fulfillments of H3259. First Corinthians 5:7 connects Christ with Passover, but it does not turn every Levitical מוֹעֵד into a verbal יָעַד prophecy.
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