A servant
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through the Connect page. Screenshots are helpful.
עֶבֶד (eved) means slave, servant, or worshiper — a range that moves from the legal institution of slavery to the most honorable title the OT can give to one who belongs to and serves God. The local Hebrew index counts about 803 occurrences, and the entry's theological center is the eved YHWH (servant of the LORD) — the title given to Moses, David, the prophets, and supremely to the Servant of Isaiah 40-53 whose.
Reader summary
Full entry for עֶבֶד (H5650) · Open the biblical lexicon
עֶבֶד (eved) means slave, servant, or worshiper — a range that moves from the legal institution of slavery to the most honorable title the OT can give to one who belongs to and serves God. The local Hebrew index counts about 803 occurrences, and the entry's theological center is the eved YHWH (servant of the LORD) — the title given to Moses, David, the.
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) means slave, servant, or worshiper — a range that moves from the legal institution of slavery to the most honorable title the OT can give to one who belongs to and serves God. The local Hebrew index counts about 803 occurrences, and the entry's theological center is the eved YHWH (servant of the Lord) — the title given to Moses, David, the prophets, and supremely to the Servant of Isaiah 40-53 whose suffering and vindication Isaiah describes in detail.
The eved YHWH title in Isaiah's servant songs (Isa 42:1-9; 49:1-13; 50:4-11; 52:13-53:12) is the OT's most developed theology of servanthood. The servant is God's chosen one in whom God delights (42:1), the one who brings justice to the nations (42:1-4), the light of the world (42:6), and — in the most striking movement — the one who bears the iniquities of the many and is 'wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities' (53:5). The eved suffers not for his own sins but for the sins of others, and through his suffering the covenant purposes of God are advanced.
Moses is the paradigmatic eved YHWH in the Pentateuch: 'Moses the servant (eved) of the Lord died there in the land of Moab' (Deut 34:5). The title at Moses' death is the OT's highest recognition of a human life — he who served the Lord is memorialized as His eved. The Psalms use eved as a self-designation before God: 'Save your servant (eved) who trusts in you' (Ps 86:2), 'your servant meditates on your statutes' (Ps 119:23). This is the posture of the covenant person before God: not a contractor negotiating terms but a eved belonging entirely to the one who is Lord.
The word's dual use — both legal slavery and honored service — is itself theologically significant. To be an eved YHWH is to be completely dependent on and belonging to God: one's labor, one's direction, one's identity all flow from the Lord. What looks like limitation from outside is honor from within. The greatest human beings in the OT are called God's eved; the greatest NT servants take their vocabulary from this tradition (Paul: 'Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus').
For the preacher, עֶבֶד is the word that names the ultimate human vocation: belonging to and serving the God who made us and redeemed us, after the pattern of the One who came 'not to be served but to serve' (Mark 10:45).
עֶבֶד appears in the local Hebrew index about 803 times. The legal-slavery dimension appears in Exodus and Leviticus. The honorific servant-of-the-Lord title appears in Deuteronomy (Moses), Samuel (David), and Isaiah (the Servant). Psalms use it as a self-address before God. The four servant songs of Isaiah are the theological peak, anticipating the NT's application of the eved YHWH to Christ.
After the anguish of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities.
The climax of the fourth servant song: the eved justifies many by bearing their iniquities. The 'righteous servant' (eved tsaddiq) is declared righteous — and through his righteousness and his bearing of iniquity, many are justified. This is the most explicit OT anticipation of the NT's atonement theology: one person bearing the guilt of many, the righteous bearing what the unrighteous deserve. The NT reads this as fulfilled in Christ (Act 8:32-35; 1 Pet 2:22-25).
“Here is My Servant, whom I uphold, My Chosen One, in whom My soul delights. I will put My Spirit on Him, and He will bring justice to the nations.
The first servant song: God's introduction of His eved. The three gifts — upholding, choosing, Spirit-endowment — establish the servant's dependence on God and his divine mandate. He will bring mishpat (justice, right order) to the nations — not through conquest but through gentleness and persistence (v. 2-4: 'He won't break a bruised reed'). This is the servant's method: patient, persevering service that does not crush what is fragile.
The Spirit on the servant is the endowment that makes the universal mission possible.
So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, as the Lord had said.
The eved YHWH title at death: the most honorable designation the Torah can give Moses is 'servant of the Lord.' His life is summed up in this relationship. The phrase 'according to the Lord's word' (al pi YHWH — literally 'at the mouth of the Lord') gives the death itself a dabar-shaped character: Moses dies as he lived, at the Lord's direction. To be an eved YHWH is to be so completely belonging to God that even one's death occurs in obedience to His word.
I am Your servant; give me understanding, that I may know Your testimonies.
The eved self-designation in prayer: 'I am your servant.' The claim of servanthood is the basis of the petition — the servant has a right to the resources needed to do the master's work. 'Give me understanding' is not a request for personal intellectual enhancement but for the capacity to know and keep God's testimonies — the servant needs the master's instruction in order to serve well. The eved-posture in prayer is both dependent (I need what only you can give) and expectant (you will give it to your servant).
“But you, O Israel, My servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, descendant of Abraham My friend—
Israel as eved YHWH: the corporate servant identity. The nation as a whole is called God's servant — chosen from Abraham's line, belonging to the God of the covenant. The eved identity is not only for exceptional individuals (Moses, David) but for the entire covenant people. They are the servant-nation through whom God will accomplish His purposes in the world.
The servant songs then develop the theme: the nation-servant has failed in its mission (42:18-25), and the individual servant (Isa 52-53) comes as the one who does what the nation could not.
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.
עֶבֶד is one of the words the OT can use for profound human honor. Moses — the one who spoke with God face to face — is remembered as 'the servant of the Lord.' David — the man after God's own heart — is repeatedly called 'my servant David.' The prophets are 'my servants the prophets.' And the apex of the OT's hope is the eved YHWH of Isaiah 52-53, the servant who bears iniquity and justifies many.
The theology of the eved is a complete inversion of the world's logic: greatness in God's economy is measured by the completeness of belonging to God and the depth of service on behalf of others, not by the accumulation of honor and authority for oneself. Mark 10:45's summary of Jesus' ministry — 'the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many' — is the NT reading of Isaiah 53 in a single verse.
Christ is the eved YHWH who bore the iniquities of the many, and His way of being the eved defines the way of His disciples: the greatest is the servant of all (Mark 9:35). The preacher who teaches eved will help the congregation understand that the slave/servant vocabulary Paul embraces for himself ('Paul, a doulos of Christ Jesus') is not self-deprecation but the highest possible identification — with the one who came to serve and give His life.
Isa.53.11
עֶבֶד is from the root ABD, the verb abad (to work, to serve, to worship). The same root produces both eved (servant/slave) and avodah (work, service, worship). This range — from forced labor to freely given worship — is built into the word's DNA: what the slave does under compulsion, the worshiper does in freedom, but in both cases the activity is the same: abad, to serve.
The eved YHWH title ('servant of the Lord') appears approximately 20 times in the OT and functions as a designation of honor and special relationship: Moses (Deut 34:5), Joshua (Josh 24:29), David (2 Sam 7:5; Ps 89:3), Israel (Isa 41:8), and the Servant of the songs (Isa 42-53). The plural avadim (servants) is used for those who serve God in general covenant faithfulness.
The NT's doulos (slave, servant) directly translates eved and is used by Paul, Peter, James, Jude, and John in self-descriptions.
The NT's servant Christology is built directly on the eved YHWH of Isaiah. Matthew 12:18-21 quotes Isaiah 42:1-4 and applies it explicitly to Jesus ('behold, my servant whom I have chosen'). Philip's explanation of Isaiah 53 in Acts 8:32-35 — 'about whom does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?' — and his response (he told him the good news about Jesus) establishes the early church's hermeneutic: the eved of Isaiah 52-53 is Jesus.
Peter in 1 Peter 2:22-25 quotes directly from Isaiah 53 to describe Christ's suffering and its atoning effect. Paul's use of doulos (slave) as his primary self-designation (Rom 1:1; Php 1:1; Tit 1:1) is the NT's continuation of the eved-YHWH tradition: to be a slave of Christ Jesus is to stand in the line of Moses, David, and the prophets who were called God's servants.
James 1:1, Jude 1:1, and Revelation 1:1 all open with the same self-designation.
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain