Properly (abstractly) spontaneity , or (adjectively) spontaneous ; also (concretely) a spontaneous or (by inference, in plural) abundant gift
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נְדָבָה is the noun form of the root נָדַב (nādab — to give willingly, H5068), and it names specifically the freewill offering: the gift brought to God not because it was required by law but because the worshipper's heart overflowed with devotion. In the Levitical calendar, nĕdābôt (freewill offerings) occupied a distinctive place alongside the required sacrifices — they were voluntary additions, brought when the.
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Full entry for נְדָבָה (H5071) · Open the biblical lexicon
נְדָבָה is the noun form of the root נָדַב (nādab — to give willingly, H5068), and it names specifically the freewill offering: the gift brought to God not because it was required by law but because the worshipper's heart overflowed with devotion. In the Levitical calendar, nĕdābôt (freewill offerings) occupied a distinctive place alongside the required.
The BSB source-word alignment has 26 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include a freewill offering (4), the freewill offerings (3), and freewill offerings (2), as a freewill offering (2), freewill offering (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Exodus 35:29. Its strongest book concentrations include Leviticus (5), Deuteronomy (4), Psalms (4), Ezra (3).
נְדָבָה is the noun form of the root נָדַב (nādab — to give willingly, H5068), and it names specifically the freewill offering: the gift brought to God not because it was required by law but because the worshipper's heart overflowed with devotion. In the Levitical calendar, nĕdābôt (freewill offerings) occupied a distinctive place alongside the required sacrifices — they were voluntary additions, brought when the worshipper was moved to give more than the law demanded.
The theological significance of the nĕdābâh is precise: it reveals what the heart does when obligation alone does not require it. The required offerings show covenant faithfulness; the freewill offering shows love. Psalm 54:6 captures this exactly: 'I will sacrifice a freewill offering to you. I will give thanks to your name, Yahweh, for it is good.' The nĕdābâh here is not compensation for sin or payment of a vow — it is thanksgiving, the gift that comes purely from a full heart.
The freewill offering also has a prophetic-eschatological dimension. Hosea 14:4 records God's promise: 'I will love them freely' — the verb is from the same root, nādab — naming the divine freewill gift as the source from which human freewill devotion flows. And Psalm 110:3 — the Messianic Psalm about the Lord's Anointed — describes his people as offering themselves 'willingly' (nĕdābôt) in the day of his power.
The freewill offering, fully realized, is the worship of the eschatological community.
נְדָבָה appears about 26 times in the local Hebrew index, concentrated in the Levitical legislation (Leviticus 7, 22, 23), the Psalms, and the restoration narratives of Ezra and Nehemiah. The word consistently names the voluntary, heart-initiated offering that accompanies and exceeds the required sacrifices, and appears in both cultic (sacrifice) and non-cultic (rain, dew) metaphorical uses.
If, however, the sacrifice he offers is a vow or a freewill offering, it shall be eaten on the day he presents his sacrifice, but the remainder may be eaten on the next day.
The Levitical legislation regulates the freewill offering alongside the peace offering and vow offering — but distinct from them. The peace offering had fellowship as its goal; the vow offering discharged a specific commitment. The nĕdābâh had no prior obligation driving it: it was eaten with a distinctive freedom (two days rather than one for the vow offering) because it was the gift of a free heart, not the discharge of a debt.
Freely I will sacrifice to You; I will praise Your name, O Lord, for it is good.
David's psalm of deliverance culminates in a nĕdābâh — not a sacrifice of obligation but a voluntary offering of thanksgiving. The pairing with 'give thanks' shows the heart orientation: the freewill offering is praise in sacrificial form. The motivation ('for it is good') is purely responsive — God's goodness is the reason, and nothing else is required.
After that, they presented the regular burnt offerings and those for New Moons and for all the appointed sacred feasts of the Lord, as well as all the freewill offerings brought to the Lord.
The restoration of worship in Jerusalem after the exile includes both the required offerings (continual burnt offering, feast calendar) and the freewill offerings from those whose hearts moved them. The nĕdābâh accompanies the restoration — it is a sign that genuine worship has been re-established, not merely liturgical procedure.
Your people shall be willing on Your day of battle. Arrayed in holy splendor, from the womb of the dawn, to You belongs the dew of Your youth.
The Messianic psalm uses nĕdābôt language for the eschatological community's worship: the people of the Lord's Anointed are a freewill offering people. Their voluntary devotion on 'the day of your power' is not coerced by the display of sovereign force but flows from it — as dew appears at dawn, naturally and without effort. The eschatological community is the nĕdābâh fully realized: a people whose willingness is as natural as morning dew.
I will heal their apostasy; I will freely love them, for My anger has turned away from them.
God's promised love is described with the nādab root — 'love them freely' renders a form of nādab. The divine freewill love is the source and model of human freewill offering: God is himself the first nādab giver. The connection between H5071 nĕdābâh (human freewill offering) and the divine freewill love in Hosea 14 grounds the entire concept of voluntary devotion in the character of God rather than in human religious initiative.
You are to present these offerings to the Lord at your appointed times, in addition to your vow and freewill offerings, whether burnt offerings, grain offerings, drink offerings, or peace offerings.”
The calendar of required sacrifices is explicitly distinguished from the nĕdābôt: 'besides your vows and your freewill offerings.' The Levitical system makes structural space for the voluntary. The required offerings establish the floor of covenant obligation; the freewill offerings express the ceiling of willing devotion. Both are given to God, but they come from different places in the heart.
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How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Spontaneous, willing gift freely given—contrasts sharply with obligatory sacrifice or coerced devotion.
Spontaneous, willing gift freely given—contrasts sharply with obligatory sacrifice or coerced devotion.
properly (abstractly) spontaneity, or (adjectively) spontaneous; also (concretely) a spontaneous or (by inference, in plural) abundant gift BDB: voluntariness Usage: free(-will) offering, freely, plentiful, voluntary(-ily, offering), willing(-ly), offering).
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 1 selected witness from 26 lexical occurrence verses.
נְדָבָה is built from this root:
Emphasizes grace without compulsion. Hosea 14:4-8
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
The nĕdābâh makes a quiet theological argument that runs through the entire OT sacrificial system: God built structural space for giving beyond what was required. The Levitical calendar was meticulous in its required offerings — but Leviticus 7, Numbers 29, and the restoration narratives of Ezra all explicitly make room for the freewill offering alongside the obligatory ones.
This structure reveals something about God's vision of worship: he wants more than compliance. He wants the spontaneous overflow of a grateful heart. The preaching use of nĕdābâh is most powerful when it is placed in contrast with minimum-wage spirituality — the Christianity that asks only what is required and does precisely that. The freewill offering is the worship that goes further, not because it has calculated an obligation but because the heart has been captivated by the goodness of God.
David's massive offering for the temple (1 Chronicles 29), Ezra's restored community giving beyond what was asked (Ezra 2:68-69), the early church's mutual generosity in Acts 2-4 — these are all the nĕdābâh principle in action: communities whose giving exceeds obligation because their gratitude exceeds requirement.
Ps.110.3
The noun nĕdābâh and the verb nādab share the same root and appear together in the key OT passages (Exod 25:2; 35:29; 1 Chr 29:9,14) in a deliberate echo: the call for willing gifts (the verb) produces willing gifts (the noun). The LXX translates nĕdābâh as ἑκούσιος (hekousion, voluntary) and ἑκουσίως (hekousiōs, voluntarily) — the same vocabulary Paul uses in Philemon 14 when he says he wanted Onesimus to stay 'not as it were by compulsion, but of your own free will.'
The Greek voluntary-giving vocabulary is the bridge between the Hebrew nĕdābâh and the NT discussions of cheerful, non-compelled giving.
The NT does not use the technical language of nĕdābâh, but the concept governs some of its most important texts about giving, worship, and self-offering. Paul's theology of giving in 2 Corinthians 8-9 is structured exactly like the tabernacle nĕdābâh accounts: the Macedonians gave 'of their own accord' (2 Cor 8:3), 'beyond their ability' (v. 3), 'begging us for the favor of taking part' (v.
4). This is Exodus 25/35 in Greco-Roman garb. Romans 12:1 — 'present your bodies as a living sacrifice' — uses the cultic offering language while specifying that the offering is the whole person, voluntarily presented. And Revelation 22:17 — 'let whoever desires, take the water of life freely' — uses the voluntary-desire structure to describe the eschatological response to the gospel: the final worship community is those who came because they wanted to, which is the nĕdābâh principle applied to salvation itself.
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