To know (properly, to ascertain by seeing ); used in a great variety of senses, figuratively, literally, euphemistically and inferentially (including observation , care , recognition ; and causatively, instruction , designation , punishment , etc.)
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יָדַע (yādaʿ) is the Hebrew verb for knowing, but it encompasses far more than cognitive awareness. Hebrew yādaʿ is experiential, relational, and covenantal knowledge — the knowledge that comes from encounter, intimacy, and ongoing relationship, not merely from information received.
Reader summary
Full entry for יָדַע (H3045) · Open the biblical lexicon
יָדַע (yādaʿ) is the Hebrew verb for knowing, but it encompasses far more than cognitive awareness. Hebrew yādaʿ is experiential, relational, and covenantal knowledge — the knowledge that comes from encounter, intimacy, and ongoing relationship, not merely from information received.
The BSB source-word alignment has 946 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include know (150), I know (38), knows (36), Then you will know (35), . . . (30).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 3:5. Its strongest book concentrations include Ezekiel (99), Psalms (93), Isaiah (75), Jeremiah (73).
This entry includes 6 verse guides that explain exact original-language forms in context.
יָדַע (yādaʿ) is the Hebrew verb for knowing, but it encompasses far more than cognitive awareness. Hebrew yādaʿ is experiential, relational, and covenantal knowledge — the knowledge that comes from encounter, intimacy, and ongoing relationship, not merely from information received. The OT uses yādaʿ for the most intimate human relationship (Gen 4:1: 'Adam knew his wife Eve'), for the prophetic encounter with God ('before I formed you in the womb I knew you,' Jer 1:5), and for the covenantal recognition formula that drives the prophetic books.
The most theologically significant yādaʿ in the OT is the divine-human knowing: God knowing his people and his people knowing God. The formula 'you shall know (wĕyādaʿtem) that I am the Lord' recurs throughout Ezekiel, and the divine self-disclosure is pointed toward recognition. YHWH acts in history so that both Israel and the nations will yādaʿ his identity.
This recognition formula gives the prophetic movement a clear horizon: YHWH acts so Israel and the nations will recognize him. The prophetic promise of the new covenant is formulated in yādaʿ terms: Jeremiah 31:34 — 'they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest' — defines the new covenant by the universality and completeness of the yādaʿ that will characterize it.
This is why John 17:3 defines eternal life as knowing the Father and the Son: the covenant goal of yādaʿ, now available in Christ.
יָדַע is currently counted by the local OT index at about 953 uses, making it one of the most common verbs. Its range covers cognitive knowledge, experiential intimacy, sexual union, skill/craft knowledge, the prophetic recognition formula ('you shall know that I am the Lord'), the new-covenant knowing of Jer 31:34, and the wisdom literature's pursuit of knowing God.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
The divine yādaʿ before birth: 'before I formed you I knew you.' The knowing here is prior to existence — it is God's personal, covenantal engagement with Jeremiah before Jeremiah could have any experience, achievement, or knowledge himself. This is yādaʿ as election and commissioning: to be known by God is to be called and claimed. The same pattern appears in Paul's election language (Gal 1:15: 'set apart before I was born') and in the Psalmist (Ps 139: 'you knew my substance before I was born').
No longer will each man teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more.”
The new covenant's defining promise in yādaʿ terms: all will know the Lord, without mediated instruction, because the forgiveness of sin removes the barrier to direct knowledge. The new covenant is not primarily a new legal code; it is a new knowing-relationship, universal and immediate. This is the text that grounds the NT claim that the Spirit teaches believers directly (1 John 2:27: 'his anointing teaches you about everything') — the Jer 31 yādaʿ promise.
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you as My priests. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.
The covenant consequence of refusing yādaʿ: 'destroyed for lack of knowledge.' The knowledge in view is not intellectual deficit but the relational-covenantal yādaʿ of God that produces faithfulness. Hosea's diagnosis of Israel is that they do not know God (Hos 2:20: 'you will know the Lord' is the new covenant promise; 4:6 describes the present covenant failure). The rejection of knowledge leads to the loss of the priestly role — Israel's vocation as a kingdom of priests requires the yādaʿ they are abandoning.
I will show the holiness of My great name, which has been profaned among the nations—the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when I show My holiness in you before their eyes.
The recognition formula in its nations-facing register: 'the nations will know that I am the Lord.' The divine restoration of Israel is not only for Israel's benefit but for the recognition (yādaʿ) of the divine name among the nations. Ezekiel repeatedly uses the formula to show that YHWH's public acts disclose His identity and holiness before Israel and the nations.
“Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted over the earth.”
The call to still-knowing: 'be still and yādaʿ that I am God.' The command to be still (raphâh: relax, let go, cease striving) precedes the knowing — the yādaʿ of God requires the cessation of frantic human activity. The verse is not primarily a call to personal quietism; it is the divine announcement that YHWH's exaltation among the nations will be accomplished by divine power, not human effort. The knowing that is called for is recognition of who is ultimately in charge.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
Wisdom framing of yādaʿ: the knowledge of the Holy One (daʿat qĕdōšîm) is ʿûnāh — understanding, insight. The wisdom tradition presents genuine wisdom as beginning with the covenantal relationship with the Lord: to yādaʿ wisely is to yādaʿ the one who is wisdom's source. This establishes that the OT's epistemology is covenantal, not neutral: all knowing-of-the-world is properly oriented by knowing-of-God.
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.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Hebrew word. Knowledge grounded in direct perception or experience; extends to intimate relationship, care, and moral recognition.
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.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 5 selected witnesses from 953 lexical occurrence verses.
יָדַע is a primitive root - no further derivation.
The word highlights moral discernment in communication. Hosea 6:1-3
Egypt’s restoration centers on covenantal knowledge of the Lord. Isaiah 19:18-22
Defines covenant fidelity as experiential knowledge. Proverbs 10:32
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
The Hebrew yādaʿ forces a choice between two very different epistemologies. Modern Western readers often assume that knowing is primarily cognitive: I know something when I have accurate information about it. The Hebrew yādaʿ insists that knowing is primarily relational and experiential: I know someone when I am in covenantal relationship with them, when their character has shaped my life, when I have experienced their faithfulness in real situations.
This is why the OT can use yādaʿ for the most intimate human relationship and for God's electing love of Israel — both are forms of knowing that require presence, encounter, and mutual engagement, not just information transfer. The practical pastoral consequence of this distinction is enormous. A congregation that knows about God is not the same as a congregation that knows God.
The Hosea diagnosis — 'destroyed for lack of knowledge' — is not describing theological ignorance; it is describing relational estrangement from the God who makes himself known. The Jeremiah 31 promise — 'they shall all know me' — is not a promise of better theological education; it is the promise of direct, unmediated relational access to the God who forgives and dwells within.
John 17:3 is the NT's application of this OT yādaʿ-theology to eternal life: the life of the age to come is not a state or location but a relationship — knowing the Father and the Son. The preacher who grasps yādaʿ can help the congregation move from knowing about God to the kind of knowing that transforms.
Jer.31.34
The noun daʿat (knowledge, H1847) and the related noun dēʿāh/dēaʿ (H1844, H1843) complete the yādaʿ word group. The famous 'tree of the knowledge of good and evil' (ʿēts hadaʿat ṭôb wārāʿ) uses daʿat — the forbidden knowledge is not intellectual knowledge per se but the experiential knowing of the full range of moral reality that belongs to God alone (Gen 3:5: 'you will be like God, knowing good and evil').
The daʿat of God is the goal of the new covenant (Jer 31:34; Hos 6:6: 'I desire daʿat ʾĕlōhîm more than burnt offerings'). The Hiphil of yādaʿ (hôdîaʿ) means to make known, to declare, to announce — the prophetic task of declaring the divine identity is a hôdîaʿ act.
The NT inherits the yādaʿ theology through the Johannine tradition above all. John consistently uses ginōskō (to know) in the yādaʿ sense: 'I know my sheep and my sheep know me, even as the Father knows me and I know the Father' (John 10:14-15) — mutual, relational, covenantal knowing. 'Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God' (John 17:3) is the Jer 31:34 new-covenant yādaʿ applied to Christ.
First John 2:27 — 'his anointing teaches you about everything' — is the Jeremiah promise (no need for someone to teach: they shall all know) applied to the Spirit's internal instruction. Paul's 'now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known' (1 Cor 13:12) is the eschatological yādaʿ: being known by God is the ground of knowing God, and the completion of this mutual knowing is the end-goal of redemption.
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