To sever , i.e. ransom ; generally to release , preserve
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פָּדָה (padah) is one of the two primary Hebrew verbs for redemption, meaning to ransom or to buy back. Where גָּאַל (gaal, H1350) emphasizes the kinship relationship that creates the obligation to redeem, padah emphasizes the transaction itself: something or someone is held, and a price is paid to secure their release.
Reader summary
Full entry for פָּדָה (H6299) · Open the biblical lexicon
פָּדָה (padah) is one of the two primary Hebrew verbs for redemption, meaning to ransom or to buy back. Where גָּאַל (gaal, H1350) emphasizes the kinship relationship that creates the obligation to redeem, padah emphasizes the transaction itself: something or someone is held, and a price is paid to secure their release.
The BSB source-word alignment has 59 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include . . . (4), You must redeem (4), You redeemed (4), and redeemed you (3), redeem me (3).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Exodus 13:13. Its strongest book concentrations include Psalms (14), Exodus (8), Deuteronomy (6), Numbers (6).
פָּדָה (padah) is one of the two primary Hebrew verbs for redemption, meaning to ransom or to buy back. Where גָּאַל (gaal, H1350) emphasizes the kinship relationship that creates the obligation to redeem, padah emphasizes the transaction itself: something or someone is held, and a price is paid to secure their release.
The word is used in legal contexts (ransoming a firstborn son, Exod 13:13-15; ransoming an ox that has killed someone, Exod 21:30) and in the great redemptive narrative contexts: YHWH redeemed Israel from Egypt by padah, and the word becomes a technical term for the Exodus event. What happened at the Red Sea was not merely rescue — it was ransom: YHWH paid the full cost of Israel's freedom.
The pastoral significance of padah is that it frames salvation in transactional terms that are not cold or mechanical but weighty and covenantal. Someone paid to bring you out. The question padah repeatedly raises is: what was the price? In the NT, the answer is the blood of Christ — 'you were bought with a price' (1 Cor 6:20) and 'ransomed from the futile ways' (1 Pet 1:18-19) are both NT uses of the padah concept.
The local Hebrew artifact indexes padah at about 59 OT occurrences, concentrated in Exodus (legal codes), Deuteronomy (covenant theology), and the Psalms (individual lament and praise). It is distinct from gaal: padah focuses on the payment made (the ransom), while gaal focuses on the relational right of the redeemer (the kinsman's obligation). Both words are necessary for a full OT theology of redemption — padah supplies the transactional reality, gaal supplies the relational motivation.
Together they say: God redeems because he is your closest kin AND because he pays the full price.
Padah moves from the legal-commercial (ransom of a life, Exod 21:30) through the theological-historical (the Exodus as the paradigm of divine ransom) to the eschatological (Isaiah's new-exodus ransomed of YHWH) to the NT's atonement language (1 Pet 1:18-19, 'ransomed with the precious blood of Christ'). The OT's padah sets up the problem (human souls are in bondage, the ransom price is beyond human capacity) and the divine solution (YHWH himself pays it). The NT names the currency: the blood of the Son.
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. Release from bondage through payment or divine intervention; redemption emphasizing severance from captivity or death.
Release from bondage through payment or divine intervention; redemption emphasizing severance from captivity or death.
to sever, i.e. ransom; generally to release, preserve BDB: ransom Usage: × at all, deliver, × by any means, ransom, (that are to be, let be) redeem(-ed), rescue, × surely.
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 59 lexical occurrence verses.
פָּדָה is a primitive root - no further derivation.
The promise that Zion will be redeemed with justice anticipates the fuller biblical theme of redemption accomplished through God’s decisive saving act. Hosea 13:9-16
Connects exodus deliverance with future salvation. Isaiah 1:21-31
Introduces redemption motif later fulfilled in Christ. Isaiah 51:9-16
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Padah opens the transactional dimension of atonement — the price that was paid. In a culture that tends toward therapeutic or moral frameworks for salvation (be better, feel better), the padah framework insists that the central question is: who paid, and how much? Preaching padah lets the congregation see that their freedom cost something — and that the One who paid was God himself.
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