To impel ; hence, to volunteer (as a soldier), to present spontaneously
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נָדַב is the Hebrew root behind one of the most theologically significant concepts in the OT sacrificial and worship vocabulary: the idea of willing, unconstrained giving. The verb means to incite or to move someone to give freely — when applied reflexively, to volunteer, to offer spontaneously.
Reader summary
Full entry for נָדַב (H5068) · Open the biblical lexicon
נָדַב is the Hebrew root behind one of the most theologically significant concepts in the OT sacrificial and worship vocabulary: the idea of willing, unconstrained giving. The verb means to incite or to move someone to give freely — when applied reflexively, to volunteer, to offer spontaneously.
The BSB source-word alignment has 17 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include prompted (2), and willingly (1), brought (1), compels him (1), gave freewill offerings (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Exodus 25:2. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Chronicles (7), Exodus (3), Ezra (3), Judges (2).
נָדַב is the Hebrew root behind one of the most theologically significant concepts in the OT sacrificial and worship vocabulary: the idea of willing, unconstrained giving. The verb means to incite or to move someone to give freely — when applied reflexively, to volunteer, to offer spontaneously. Its derivative nouns H5071 (nĕdābâh, freewill offering) and H5081 (nādîb, the generous/noble person) show the semantic field: willingness, generosity, and nobility of character are all rooted in the same act of un-compelled giving.
The theological weight of nādab emerges most clearly in the tabernacle and temple narratives. In Exodus 25:2, the Lord instructs Moses to receive contributions 'from everyone whose heart moves them' — the verb translated 'moves' is nādab, and it governs the entire offering theology of the tabernacle construction. The tabernacle was not built by taxation or corvée labor; it was built by willing movement of the heart.
This principle — that the sanctuary of God is built by willing hearts — becomes one of the OT's most persistent theological claims about the nature of true worship: it cannot be coerced. In 1 Chronicles 29, David's massive freewill offering for the temple occasions one of the most beautiful prayers in the OT (v. 14): 'Who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to give so willingly?
For all things come from you, and from your own hand we have given you.' The nādab-gift returns to the giver: everything given to God came from him first.
The root nādab (H5068) is currently counted by the local OT index at about 17 uses in the Hithpael stem (to volunteer, to give freely) and related forms across the OT, concentrated in the tabernacle construction narrative (Exodus 25, 35-36), the temple contributions (1 Chronicles 29), and the restored community (Ezra 1, 2, 3; Nehemiah 11). The cluster of nādab in the tabernacle and temple contexts establishes its primary meaning: the voluntary, heart-moved offering that constitutes genuine worship.
“Tell the Israelites to bring Me an offering. You are to receive My offering from every man whose heart compels him.
The governing principle of the tabernacle-building offering: the gift is to come from a willing heart. The Hebrew yidbennu libbo — 'whose heart moves him' — uses the nādab root to describe the internal source of the offering. The tabernacle is built not by compulsion but by the overflow of willing devotion. This is not merely a funding strategy; it is a theological statement about the relationship between the donor's heart and God's dwelling place.
So all the men and women of the Israelites whose hearts prompted them brought a freewill offering to the Lord for all the work that the Lord through Moses had commanded them to do.
The narrative fulfillment of the Exodus 25:2 instruction: the people respond with the willingness that was called for. The repetition of the nādab root — 'heart made them willing to bring' — emphasizes that the response matched the call: a freewill instruction produced freewill giving. Moses has to stop them because they give more than enough (Exod 36:6-7), a remarkable theological moment: the God who calls for willing hearts produces an abundance that exceeds the need.
And the people rejoiced at the willing response of their leaders, for they had given to the Lord freely and wholeheartedly. And King David also rejoiced greatly.
David's freewill offering for the temple produces corporate joy. The repetition — 'offered willingly... offered willingly' — and the connection between willing giving and 'perfect heart' establishes the OT principle that generosity is an index of the heart's orientation toward God. The people's joy is not in their own generosity but in the act of willing devotion itself.
But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? For everything comes from You, and from Your own hand we have given to You.
David's prayer is the theological climax of the nādab concept: willing offering is framed as a return of what was first given. The willingness of the human donor is itself a gift — even the capacity for generous devotion comes from God. This dissolves any pride in generosity and grounds all giving in gratitude: we return from your own hand what you first placed in ours.
And all their neighbors supported them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with valuables, in addition to all their freewill offerings.
The return from Babylonian exile is framed in nādab language: the first act of restored worship is the freewill offering. The pattern repeats the exodus-tabernacle structure: a new community forming around the worship of God begins with willing hearts bringing what they have. Ezra and Nehemiah use nādab repeatedly to describe the restored community's offering (Ezra 2:68-69; 3:5; 7:16; Neh 11:2) — voluntary devotion as the signature of genuine covenant renewal.
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. Voluntary action driven by internal impulse; giving or serving willingly without obligation or external compulsion.
Voluntary action driven by internal impulse; giving or serving willingly without obligation or external compulsion.
to impel; hence, to volunteer (as a soldier), to present spontaneously BDB: incite Usage: offer freely, be (give, make, offer self) willing(-ly).
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 1 selected witness from 17 lexical occurrence verses.
נָדַב 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.
The nādab principle is a searching OT critique of performance-based religion and one of its most positive descriptions of what genuine worship looks like from the inside. Compelled giving produces obedience; willing giving produces joy. The tabernacle passages insist on this distinction: Moses calls for freewill offerings specifically, and the people bring so much that Moses has to restrain them.
This is not an accident of narrative; it is the OT's portrait of what happens when the heart is genuinely oriented toward God — giving flows naturally and abundantly. David's prayer in 1 Chronicles 29 takes the principle to its theological depth: even the willingness itself is a gift, which means genuine generosity is not a human achievement but a response to prior grace.
The preacher who wants to ground giving or volunteering in the congregation needs to start here, not with obligation or guilt: what is the shape of a heart moved by the goodness of God? How does the tabernacle abundance (giving more than enough) challenge the fear and scarcity that often governs church giving? And what does it mean to give back to God 'from his own hand' — to recognize that we are not donors but stewards returning what was always his?
1Chr.29.14
The root nādab generates a semantic cluster: H5068 (the verb, to move/volunteer), H5071 (nĕdābâh, the freewill offering noun), and H5081 (nādîb, the noble/generous person — the character of someone regularly moved to give). This triad shows that in Hebrew, willingness, generosity, and nobility of character are conceived as a single organic reality: the person who gives freely (H5071) is the nādîb (H5081), the person of elevated character.
The voluntary offering does not merely fund the sanctuary; it forms the character of the offerer.
The NT's a direct appropriation of the nādab principle is in 2 Corinthians 9:7: 'Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.' Paul is articulating the nādab theology in Greek: giving must be heart-initiated, unconstrained, and joyful. The connection to the tabernacle narrative is almost certainly intentional — Paul has just spent two chapters on the Macedonians' extraordinary generosity (2 Cor 8-9), and the Macedonian offering mirrors the Exodus 25/35 pattern: giving out of abundance of willing heart, beyond their means, without compulsion.
The eschatological extension of nādab appears in Psalm 110:3, where the Messianic King's people offer themselves 'willingly' on the day of his power — suggesting that the final community of God will be characterized by the same voluntary devotion that built the tabernacle and returned the exiles.
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