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 (yaad) is the Hebrew verb for meeting by appointment — the appointed encounter, the agreed-upon assembly, the fixed time and place of meeting. Its most famous derivative is מוֹעֵד (moed, H4150): the appointed time, the sacred season, the Tent of Meeting.
Reader summary
Full entry for יָעַד (H3259) · Open the biblical lexicon
יָעַד (yaad) is the Hebrew verb for meeting by appointment — the appointed encounter, the agreed-upon assembly, the fixed time and place of meeting. Its most famous derivative is מוֹעֵד (moed, H4150): the appointed time, the sacred season, the Tent of Meeting.
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 (yaad) is the Hebrew verb for meeting by appointment — the appointed encounter, the agreed-upon assembly, the fixed time and place of meeting. Its most famous derivative is מוֹעֵד (moed, H4150): the appointed time, the sacred season, the Tent of Meeting. The moed is where yaad happens: YHWH and Israel meeting at the appointed time and place because YHWH has called the meeting and Israel has come.
Amos 3:3 gives yaad its most famous single use: 'Can two walk together unless they have met by appointment (noadu)?' The rhetorical question is the prophet's opening salvo in a chain of cause-and-effect questions (v. 3-8) that lead to the conclusion: 'The Lord YHWH has spoken; who can but prophesy?' The prophetic word is not random noise — it is the result of YHWH's yaad with his prophet, the appointed encounter in which the word is given. Two people walking together is the visible sign of a prior meeting: the covenant walk between YHWH and Israel presupposes the yaad in which the covenant was made.
Exodus 25:22 gives yaad its covenant-meeting form: 'There I will meet with you (noadti lecha, Niphal of yaad), and from above the mercy seat (kapporet), from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandment for the people of Israel.' The Tent of Meeting (ohel moed, H168+H4150) is the yaad-space: the place YHWH has appointed for the meeting with Israel's mediator. The name ohel moed ('Tent of the Appointment' or 'Tent of the Assembly') carries the full weight of yaad: YHWH has appointed this place and this time for the divine-human encounter.
Leviticus 23:2-4 gives yaad its feast-calendar form: 'These are the moadei YHWH (appointed feasts of YHWH), the holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at the time appointed for them: these are my appointed feasts (moadai).' The seven feasts of Leviticus 23 are YHWH's moadim — his appointed meeting-times with Israel. Passover, Firstfruits, Shavuot (Weeks), Trumpets, Atonement, Booths: each is a yaad, an appointment kept. The congregation does not choose the time — YHWH does. Israel's faithfulness to the moadim is Israel's faithfulness to YHWH's appointments.
Habakkuk 2:3 gives yaad its prophetic-patience form: 'For the vision is yet for an appointed time (lamoed); it hastens to the end and will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.' The lamoed here is the prophetic appointment: YHWH has appointed a time for the vision's fulfillment, and the appointed time will arrive. The believer's posture in the face of prophetic delay is patience, not doubt — the moed is set and cannot be cancelled. Hebrews 10:37 quotes this: 'For yet a little while and the coming one will come and will not delay.'
For the preacher, יָעַד (yaad) gives the congregation the grammar of divine appointment: YHWH is a God who sets appointments, keeps them, and calls his people to keep them with him.
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 (yaad) and its noun מוֹעֵד (moed) give the congregation the grammar of divine appointment: YHWH is a God who sets meetings, and his redemptive history is a history of kept appointments. The feast-calendar of Leviticus 23 is not a list of religious holidays but a yaad-calendar: YHWH's appointments with Israel across the agricultural year, each feast a meeting at which something of the covenant is displayed and renewed.
The Tent of Meeting is not just a tent but the yaad-space: the place and time YHWH has appointed for the divine-human word to be spoken and heard. Habakkuk's great patience-word — 'the vision is yet for an appointed time; wait for it' — is a yaad-word: the appointment is set; the God who set it will keep it. For the congregation, the grammar of yaad has two applications.
First: YHWH keeps his appointments. The cross was an appointment YHWH kept (Acts 2:23 — 'delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God'). The resurrection was an appointment kept. The return of Christ is an appointment set and not yet kept (Hab 2:3 in Heb 10:37). Second: when the congregation gathers for worship on the Lord's Day, it is not a religious custom but a yaad: an appointment that YHWH has set for his people to meet with him.
The congregation's gathering is the visible sign of a prior divine appointment.
Amos.3.3
יָעַד (yaad) generates the theologically rich noun מוֹעֵד (moed, H4150) — one of the most important theological nouns in the OT which the local Hebrew index currently counts at about 223 H4150 uses. Moed covers: (1) appointed time, fixed time, sacred season (the feast-calendar, Lev 23); (2) the Tent of Meeting (ohel moed, the yaad-space between YHWH and Israel, appearing repeatedly in Exodus-Numbers-Deuteronomy); (3) the general assembly (Isa 14:13, har moed, the mountain of assembly).
The word moed is the parent of the modern Hebrew word for the seasons/holidays (moadim) still used in Israeli liturgical life. The Greek equivalent of moed-as-appointed-feast is heorte (G1859, feast/festival) and kairos (G2540, the right time, the appointed moment) — the NT's kairos-language often echoes the yaad-theology: 'when the fullness of time came (pleroma tou chronou, Gal 4:4) God sent his Son' is a kairos/moed statement.
The betrothal use of Niphal yaad (to be betrothed by appointment) appears in Exodus 21:8-9 and connects to the covenant-as-marriage theme throughout the prophets.
The yaad-moed theology runs through the NT in several streams. Galatians 4:4 — 'when the fullness of time came (pleroma tou chronou) God sent his Son' — is the NT's moed-statement: the birth of Jesus was at YHWH's appointed time. Acts 2:23 describes the cross as 'the definite plan and foreknowledge of God' — the crucifixion was a yaad, an appointment YHWH kept.
Hebrews 10:37 quotes Habakkuk 2:3 directly: 'yet a little while and the coming one will come and will not delay' — the return of Christ is the outstanding prophetic moed, the appointment not yet kept. The Tent of Meeting's yaad-theology (YHWH meeting Israel through a blood-covered mercy seat) finds its NT fulfillment in Hebrews 9:11-12: Christ entered the greater tent (not made with hands) through his own blood, obtaining eternal redemption.
The meeting-at-the-mercy-seat was a shadow of the meeting at the cross. 1 Corinthians 5:7 ('Christ our Passover has been sacrificed') reads Passover as a moed: the Passover feast was an annual yaad pointing forward to the appointed sacrifice of the Lamb.
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