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יְדַע

to know

‘to know’ is one of 3 main senses fuller range ↓

H3046 Strong's Hebrew
yᵉdaʻ Transliteration
/yed-ah'/ Pronunciation
Usage in the Hebrew Bible 47 appearances

Compare with another word →

About this entry

At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.

At its core, ידע (yᵉdaʻ) means “to know.” Its uses cluster heavily in Daniel (79% of all occurrences). With 42 verses in 2 books, it is a moderately common word in the Hebrew Bible. Read the stem: it spans 2 stems, including Peal and Haphel. Translators differ — “make known” in the King James Version, then “known” (unfoldingWord Literal Text), as the renderings breakdown shows. Each statement above links to its evidence; the full detail follows below.

Gloss history

Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship

Strong's · 1890
certify
Modern gloss
to know
Strong's 1890 sometimes compressed multiple senses — or homonymous roots — under one number, and used 19th-century English phrasing that no longer carries the same connotation. The modern gloss reflects current BDB scholarship; open the Lexicon Entry tab for the full sense breakdown. Download share card

About this word

Strong's H3046 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.

These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →

42
distinct verses
The word appears in 42 distinct verses.
2 / 39
OT books
The word appears in 2 of 39 Old Testament books.
Ezra 4:12
first appearance
The earliest occurrence is in Ezra 4:12.
Daniel 7:16
last appearance
The latest occurrence is in Daniel 7:16.
#783
by frequency
Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 783 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).

View all 42 occurrences in the concordance →


Most concentrated in

By section of the Old Testament

  • Pentateuch 0 · 0%
  • Historical 9 · 21%
  • Wisdom 0 · 0%
  • Prophets 33 · 79%

By traditional corpus

Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 42 distinct verses.

  • Writings (Ketuvim) 42 verses · 100%

How translations render this word

Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).

  • King James Version: Make known 9×, Know 7×, Known 4×
  • American Standard Version: Know 6×, Known 6×, Make known 6×
  • Berean Standard Bible: Know 3×, Known 3×, Me 3×
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text: Known 6×, Know 5×, Make known to me 4×

King James Version Public Domain

Renders H3046 across 46 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Make known” 9×
  • “Know” 7×
  • “Known” 4×
  • “Certify” 2×
  • “Maketh known” 2×
  • “Thou know” 2×

Plus 20 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.

American Standard Version Public Domain

Renders H3046 across 46 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Know” 6×
  • “Known” 6×
  • “Make known” 6×
  • “Certify” 2×
  • “Hath made known” 2×
  • “Me” 2×

Plus 22 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.

Berean Standard Bible Public Domain

Renders H3046 across 44 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Know” 3×
  • “Known” 3×
  • “Me” 3×
  • “Tell me” 3×
  • “You acknowledge” 3×
  • “Explained” 2×

Plus 27 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 3 further occurrences.

unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Renders H3046 across 56 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Known” 6×
  • “Know” 5×
  • “Make known to me” 4×
  • “Make known” 3×
  • “Made” 2×
  • “You acknowledge” 2×
  • “You do” 2×

Plus 32 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.


Senses in the full BDB

Hebrew verbs can shift meaning by stem (binyan): Qal is the basic action, Niphal is often passive or reflexive, Piel often intensifies or makes it factitive, and Hiphil is typically causative. The senses below are grouped under the stem BDB assigns to each. This entry also uses Peal (the basic Aramaic stem, parallel to Qal) and Haphel (the causative Aramaic stem, parallel to Hiphil).

What do BDB’s symbols mean?

BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:

Symbol Meaning
𝔊 the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX)
𝔙 the Vulgate (the Latin translation)
𝔖 the Syriac version (the Peshitta)
𝔗 the Targum (the Aramaic translation)
ψ the Psalms
√ root (the underlying root or stem)
‖ parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel)
† the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited

The 2 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.

Peal

  • . know

Haphel

  • . cause to know, inform

Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.


Word origin

Derived from ידע (yâdaʻ) (H3045) — to know.

Part of speech: Verb TWOT: 2765


Jastrow Dictionary

A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.

יָדַע

  • [to point out, select, love,]
  • 1. to recognize, know; to find out. Pes. 87ᵇ כיון שי׳ שחטא when he was convinced that he had done wrong. Ib. ואין אתה יוֹדֵעַ אם וכ׳ and thou knowest not whether &c. Ib. יודע הקב"ה את ישראל וכ׳ the Lord knows that Israel cannot endure the cruel persecutions of Rome (v. Rabb. D. S. a. l. note); Yalk. Hos. 529. Shebu. 4ᵇ; ib. 5ᵃ ונעלם מבלל שי׳ it says, ‘and it escaped his memory’ (Lev. V, 3)—this proves that there was a time when he knew (the nature of his act, v. יְדִיעָה). Zeb. 115ᵇ דבר זה … ולא יְדָעוֹ וכ׳ this word (Ex. XXIX, 43) the Lord had said to Moses, but he did not understand it, until the sons of Aaron died. Ib. כיון שי׳ … יְדוּעֵי מקום הן when Aaron learned that his sons were the chosen of the Lord (Lev. X, 3); a. v. fr.—Part. pass. יָדוּעַ a) chosen. Pl. יְדוּעִים, constr. יְדוּעֵי, v. supra.—b) known, special, certain. Sifra Vayikra, Ḥobah, Par. 6, ch. VIII חטא י׳ a known (discovered) sin, v. יְדִיעָה. Y. Sot. I, 16ᶜ טומאה יְדוּעָה (not ידוע) an ascertained levitical uncleanness, opp. ספק; a. fr.—בְּיָדוּעַ it is sure. R. Hash. 20ᵇ בי׳ שנראה וכ׳ the moon must have been visible &c. Succ. 49ᵇ כל אדם … בי׳ שהוא וכ׳ a popular man (v. חֵן) is, you may be sure, a God-fearing man; a. fr. e.g. Leviticus 5:3
  • 2. (euphem.) to have sexual intercourse with. Yeb. 57ᵃ בלא יְדָעָהּ when he never had connection with her. Esth. R. to III, 7 שלא יְדָעָהּ איש וכ׳ whom no man except her husband touched; a. e.
    • to make known, inform. Gen. R. s. 22, beg. (ref. to Gen. IV, 1, reading יִדַּע for homiletical purposes) ה׳ דרך ארץ לכל he showed to all the way of the land (propagation, v. דֶּרֶךְ). Ḥull. V, 3 צריך להוֹדִיעַ must inform (the purchaser). Ab. IV, 22 לֵידַע להודיע ולהִוָּורַע to learn, to proclaim and to be made to feel (be thoroughly convinced). Sabb. 10ᵇ צריך להוֹדִיעוֹ must inform him. Ib. לך והוֹדִיעֵם go and tell them. Ib. הנותן … צריך לה׳ לאמו he who gives bread to a child must inform his mother; a. fr. e.g. Genesis 4:1
    • to be informed, become conscious; to be made known. Shebu. I, 6 ה׳ ולא ה׳ whether he became conscious (of his transgression) or not. Sifra Vayikra, Ḥobah, ch. XX, Par. 12 (ref. to Lev. IV, 23; 28) את ה׳ שלהם when they become known; a. fr.—B. Bath. 113ᵇ הוֹדְעָה Ms. M. (v. אָרַע II). e.g. Leviticus 4:23
    • same. Hor. III, 3. Ab. IV, 22, v. supra. Shebu. 9ᵇ שסופו לִיוָּדַע of which he is likely to be informed. Ḥull. 9ᵃ עד שיִוָּדַע לך, v. חֲזָקָה. Nidd. IX, 5, v. infra; a. fr.
    • , Nithpa. נִתְוַודַּע
    • 1. same. Bekh. 25ᵇ עד שיִתְוַורַּע הטומאה (Nidd. l. c. עד שיודע לך וכ׳) until he ascertains the exact place of uncleanness; Pes. 10ᵃ עד שתִּיוָּדַע לך Ms. M. (v. Rabb. D. S. a. l.). Y. Sabb. III, 6ᵇ נתודע לו וכ׳ he found it out after sunset; a. fr.
    • 2. (v. מוֹדַע) to force one’s self upon the notice of, to pretend friendship for. Ab. I, 10 אל תִּתְוַדַּע לרשות do not make thyself a partisan of the (foreign) government.

יְדַע

  • Targ. Gen. IV, 1; a. fr.—Ib. XXX, 26; a. fr:—Fut. יִדַּע, יִנְדַּע (fr. נדע). Targ. Ps. XXXIX, 5 אִידַּע Ms. (ed. אֵידַע). Targ. Ex. VIII, 6; a. fr.—Ber. 33ᵇ אנא לא האי יְדַעְנָע I learned nothing either about this &c. Snh. 103ᵃ (prov.—of one who derives no lesson from adversity or success) בכיי ליה למר ולא י׳ וכ׳ Ms. M. (ed. דלא, v. Rabb. D. S. a. l.) they lament to you and you understand it not, they laugh to you and you understand it not; וי ליה למאן דלא י׳ וכ׳ (not למר) woe to him who knows not the difference between good and evil; a. fr.
    • as preced. Hif. Targ. Ex. XXXIII, 13. Targ. Ps. CVI, 8 לאוֹדָעָה (Ms. לאַנְדָּ׳, v. supra); a. fr.—Snh. 11ᵇ מְהוֹדְעִין אנחנא וכ׳ we (the Sanhedrin) notify you &c.; Y. ib. I, 18ᵈ top מוֹדַעְנָא; Tosef. ib. II, 6 מְהוֹדַעְנָא (Var. מְהוֹדְעֵי אנחנא). Sabb. 33ᵇ מאן לוֹדְעֵיה לבר וכ׳ (Ms. M. מוֹדְעֵיה) Oh, that some one would inform the son of Yoḥai &c. Ned. 62ᵃ לאוֹדוּעֵי נפשיה to make one’s self known (as a scholar). Gen. R. s. 11 מנאן את מוֹדַע לי (some ed. מְיַדַּע) how will you prove it to me?; a. fr.
    • same. Cant. R. to III, 6 לינא מְיַדַּע לדין וכ׳ shall I not let him know with whom he is dealing?. Gen. R. s. 11, v. supra.—Part. pass. מְיַדַּע friend. Targ. Ps. LXXXVIII, 9 מְיַדְּעַי Ms. (ed. מיודעי, hebraism).
    • to be made known, to make one’s self known. Targ. O. Gen. XLV, 1. Ib. XLI, 21; a. fr.—[Targ. Y. Deut. XXI, 11 תתידעון, read: תיתרעון, as in v. 14.]—Hor. 2ᵃ כי מִתְיַדַּע להו לבי דינא if the court were made aware of it. Sabb. 71ᵇ א׳ ליה קודם וכ׳ he became aware of it before setting the sacrifice aside; a. e.

A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.


Forms in the corpus

The 44 distinct written forms H3046 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that stem’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.

Form Parsing Example Uses
יְדִ֨יעַ֙ Verb, Qal Passive, Participle Passive, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Ezra 4:12 2
לְ/הוֹדָ֣עֻתַ֔/נִי Verb, Hiphil, Infinitive Construct Daniel 4:18 2
תִנְדַּ֗ע Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Daniel 4:25 2
אֲהוֹדְעִנֵּֽ/הּ Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular Daniel 5:17 1
דַּ֤ע Verb, Qal, Imperative, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Daniel 6:15 1
הֽוֹדַעְתַּ֨/נִי֙ Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Daniel 2:23 1
הוֹדְעָ֖/ךְ Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Daniel 2:29 1
הוֹדַ֣ע Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Daniel 2:45 1
הוֹדַ֥ע Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Daniel 2:15 1
הוֹדַֽע Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Daniel 2:17 1
הוֹדַעְתֶּֽ/נָא Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Daniel 2:23 1
וְ/הוֹדַ֗ע Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Daniel 2:28 1
וְ/הוֹדַ֥עְנָא Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Plural Ezra 4:14 1
וְ/תִנְדַּע֒ Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Ezra 4:15 1
וְֽ/אִנְדַּ֕ע Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular Daniel 2:9 1
יְדִ֣יעַ Verb, Qal Passive, Participle Passive, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Ezra 5:8 1
יְדִ֥יעַ Verb, Qal, Participle Passive, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Daniel 3:18 1
יְדַ֗ע Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Daniel 5:21 1
יְדַ֜ע Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Daniel 6:10 1
יְדַֽעְתָּ Verb, Qal, Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Daniel 5:22 1
יְהֽוֹדְעֻנַּֽ/נִי Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Daniel 4:6 1
יְהוֹדְע֔וּן Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Daniel 2:30 1
יְהוֹדְעִנַּֽ/נִי Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Daniel 7:16 1
יְהוֹדַֽע Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Daniel 2:25 1
יִדְעֵ֗ת Verb, Qal, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular Daniel 4:9 1
יִנְדְּע֣וּן Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural Daniel 4:17 1
יָדְעִ֖ין Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Daniel 5:23 1
יָדְעֵ֖י Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Construct Ezra 7:25 1
יָדַ֖ע Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular Ezra 7:25 1
יָדַ֣ע Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Daniel 2:8 1
יָדַע֙ Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Daniel 2:22 1
לְ/הוֹדָעָ֥ה Verb, Hiphil, Infinitive Construct Daniel 5:8 1
לְ/הוֹדָעֻתַ֑/נִי Verb, Hiphil, Infinitive Construct Daniel 5:15 1
לְ/הוֹדָעֻתַ֛/נִי Verb, Hiphil, Infinitive Construct Daniel 2:26 1
לְ/הוֹדָעוּתָ֑/ךְ Verb, Hiphil, Infinitive Construct Ezra 5:10 1
לְ/יָדְעֵ֥י Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Construct Daniel 2:21 1
מְהוֹדְעִ֗ין Verb, Hiphil, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Ezra 7:24 1
מְהוֹדְעִ֤ין Verb, Hiphil, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Ezra 4:16 1
מְהוֹדְעִ֥ין Verb, Hiphil, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Daniel 4:7 1
תְהֽוֹדְעֻנַּ֜/נִי Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural Daniel 2:9 1
תְהֽוֹדְעוּנַּ֨/נִי֙ Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural Daniel 2:5 1
תִנְדַּ֔ע Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Daniel 4:26 1
תְּהוֹדְעֽוּן Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural Ezra 7:25 1
תִּנְדַּֽע Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular Daniel 2:30 1

Same root — word family

Other BDB entries built from the same root as H3046, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.

Derives from

Shares the same root

Proper names from this root

People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.

Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 13 — not the complete family. 5 of the same-root words are proper names (people or places). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.


Septuagint verse parallels

This word appears in 38 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 42 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.

Read these verses in the Septuagint

This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.

Reading settings

Reading text

Shown beneath each verse's original-language words.

Old Testament
Old Testament edition

Read the OT as the Masoretic Hebrew (MT) or the Greek Septuagint (LXX).

English shown for the Greek Septuagint (in the Hebrew ↔ Greek comparison).

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