Words · Hebrew Words · Lesson 3, word 1 of 5
יָדַעyada
To know by experience, recognise and acknowledge.
Why this word is here. The verb behind 'Adam knew Eve', 'know that I am the LORD', and 'they will all know Me'; English 'know' flattens its range.
What it means
The lexicon range is wide: to know and learn to know; to perceive, discern and distinguish; to know by experience; to recognise, admit and acknowledge; to be acquainted with a person; to know a woman sexually; to know how, to be skilful; to have knowledge, to be wise.
Yada is knowing that involves the knower. Knowing God, in this vocabulary, is not collecting information about him but recognising him, acknowledging him and living in the relationship that knowledge creates.
Where you meet it
And Adam had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. “With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man,” she said.
Genesis 4:1 (BSB)
'Adam knew (yada) Eve his wife, and she conceived.' The most intimate use of the word in the Bible, knowledge as union. The BSB renders it 'had relations'.
“Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted over the earth.”
Psalm 46:10 (BSB)
Anchor verse 'Be still, and know (yada) that I am God.' The command is recognition, not research: acknowledge who God is and stop striving.
No longer will each man teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more.”
Jeremiah 31:34 (BSB)
The new covenant promise: 'They will all know (yada) Me, from the least of them to the greatest.' Knowing God becomes universal among his people.
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you as My priests. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.
Hosea 4:6 (BSB)
'My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge (da'at, the noun from yada).' The failure to know God is presented as national ruin, not a private option.
Why it matters
Yada reframes the Christian life. Eternal life, in John's Gospel, is knowing God (John 17:3), and the Hebrew underneath that idea is relational knowledge: covenant recognition, not examination results. It also explains why Scripture treats knowing and obeying as near-synonyms.
Watch out
The classic over-claim takes Genesis 4:1 and announces that yada 'always means deep intimate experience, not mere head knowledge'. That is illegitimate totality transfer: the same verb is used for knowing a fact and for knowing how to do something (skill). Each sentence activates part of the range. The safe statement is that yada often carries experience and relationship where English 'know' sounds thin, and context shows when.
In this lesson
- tsedeq / tsedaqah (צֶדֶק): Rightness and righteousness, in court, kingdom and character.
- mishpat (מִשְׁפָּט): Judgment and justice: deciding rightly and setting right.
- qadosh (קָדוֹשׁ): Holy: set apart as belonging to God.
- berit (בְּרִית): A covenant: a pledged, binding relationship.
Sources
- Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon (BDB, 1906)
- Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible / STEP Hebrew data
Review status: in-theological-review. Every Contend page passes a human theological review against the Statement of Faith before it is published as approved teaching. This section is in that queue.