A servant
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עֶבֶד (eved) is a Hebrew noun for a servant or slave, a dependent household worker, a royal subordinate, or a person described in service to God. Genesis 24:2 uses it for Abraham's senior household servant, while Exodus 21:2 uses it for a Hebrew enslaved man.
Reader summary
Full entry for עֶבֶד (H5650) · Open the biblical lexicon
עֶבֶד (eved) is a Hebrew noun for a servant or slave, a dependent household worker, a royal subordinate, or a person described in service to God. Genesis 24:2 uses it for Abraham's senior household servant, while Exodus 21:2 uses it for a Hebrew enslaved man.
The BSB source-word alignment has 800 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Your servant (89), servants (52), his servants (48), Your servants (45), My servant (39).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 9:25. Its strongest book concentrations include 2 Samuel (106), Genesis (88), 1 Kings (76), 1 Samuel (62).
עֶבֶד (eved) is a Hebrew noun for a servant or slave, a dependent household worker, a royal subordinate, or a person described in service to God. Genesis 24:2 uses it for Abraham's senior household servant, while Exodus 21:2 uses it for a Hebrew enslaved man. English servant can be suitable in some relationships and dangerously soft in others. Readers must attend to ownership, freedom, vulnerability, duration, legal protection, and power rather than choosing a comforting gloss in advance.
The Hebrew Bible can use eved as an honored covenant title. Deuteronomy 34:5 calls Moses the servant of the Lord, Second Samuel 7:5 applies “my servant” to David, and Isaiah 41:8 calls Israel God's servant. Psalm 116:16 uses servant language in prayerful allegiance. The honor comes from belonging to and being commissioned by the Lord, not from a claim that all human servitude is dignified or harmless. Jeremiah 27:6 can even call Nebuchadnezzar God's servant as an instrument of judgment without endorsing the king's character or empire as morally exemplary.
Isaiah's servant language must be followed passage by passage. Israel is explicitly named as servant in Isaiah 41:8 and 49:3, while Isaiah 42:1 presents a chosen servant with a justice-bearing mission and Isaiah 52:13 through 53:11 portrays the servant's suffering, vindication, and work for many. Christian interpretation receives these songs in relation to Jesus, but the lexical noun alone does not erase Israel, make every servant text messianic, or settle every debated question about the songs' referent.
Eved names relationships of service and subordination ranging from literal enslavement to household trust, royal office, covenant identity, prophetic commission, and worshipful self-description. Social and literary context determines whether the status is oppressive, ordinary, strategic, or honorific.
Noah's curse says Canaan will be a slave of slaves to his brothers, a text later misused in racial defenses of slavery despite naming Canaan rather than a modern racial group.
Covenant law addresses a Hebrew man sold into slavery and limits his term to six years before release without payment.
Israelites are called God's servants brought from Egypt and are not to be sold as slaves under the stated Israelite arrangement.
Moses dies as the servant of the Lord, an honorific summing up covenant commission and faithful leadership.
God addresses David as “my servant” within the covenant oracle concerning David's house.
Israel is explicitly addressed as God's servant, chosen and descended from Abraham.
God presents a chosen, Spirit-endowed servant who will bring justice to the nations.
God's righteous servant will justify many and bear their iniquities within the servant song.
Nebuchadnezzar is called God's servant as the ruler to whom lands are handed in a judgment oracle.
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. Servant or slave whose identity and worth are defined entirely by relationship to a master or owner
Servant or slave whose identity and worth are defined entirely by relationship to a master or owner
a servant BDB: slave Usage: × bondage, bondman, (bond-) servant, (man-) servant.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 803 lexical occurrence verses.
עֶבֶד is built from this root:
Eliakim’s designation as servant frames leadership as accountable stewardship. Isaiah 22:20-25
Defines Israel’s covenant identity under the Lord. Isaiah 41:8-20
Identifies the chosen instrument of God’s redemptive purpose. Isaiah 42:1-9
Identifies the divinely appointed agent of restoration. Isaiah 49:1-6
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Eved requires honest translation before application. In some passages servant conveys trusted office; in others slave is necessary to show ownership and constrained freedom. The exodus says God hears enslaved people and claims Israel for divine service, so leaders cannot appeal to servant language while imitating Pharaoh. Moses and David show service as commissioned responsibility, not personal entitlement.
Israel's servant identity is corporate, and Isaiah's songs move through complex portraits that Christian interpretation connects to Jesus. A sermon can commend humble service and Christlike self-giving while clearly rejecting racialized misuse of Genesis 9, romanticized slavery, coercive church labor, domestic abuse, and demands that vulnerable people remain under harmful authority.
Isa.53.11
Eved can denote slave, household servant, royal official, subject, or servant and worshiper of God. Status and power must be inferred from the whole setting, not from one preferred English gloss.
The New Testament applies servant-song material to Jesus and presents his self-giving service as a pattern for disciples. It also addresses people within Roman slavery. Those instructions must not be turned into approval of chattel slavery or a command to remain in abuse; the wider witness includes freedom, equal standing in Christ, and accountability for masters.
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