קָדַם
to meet
also: confront, go before fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Piel verb in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem. Here: ‘denom.’
- Hiphil
- The causative active stem (“he caused / brought about”).
Form
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Cohortative
- A first-person volitional form expressing wish or resolve (“let me / let us write”).
- Imperative
- A direct command (“write!”).
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
Gender
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
- Singular
- One.
Grammatical forms 11 distinct
- Verb, Piel, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural 9 times (35%)
- Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural 4 times (15%)
- Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 3 times (12%)
- Verb, Piel, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular 2 times (8%)
- Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular 2 times (8%)
- Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular 1 time (4%)
- Verb, Hiphil, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 1 time (4%)
- Verb, Piel, Cohortative, 1st Person, Common, Plural 1 time (4%)
+3 more forms (3 occurrences)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 26 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H6923 appears — 25 distinct verses across 10 books. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Deuteronomy 1 verse
2 Samuel 2 verses
2 Kings 1 verse
Nehemiah 1 verse
Job 3 verses
- Job 3:12 קִדְּמ֣וּ/נִי Piel pf 3cp + sfx pers 1cs Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breast, that I should suck?
- Job 30:27 קִדְּמֻ֥/נִי Piel pf 3cp + sfx pers 1cs My heart is troubled, and doesn't rest. Days of affliction have come on me.
- Job 41:11 הִ֭קְדִּימַ/נִי Hiphil pf 3ms + sfx pers 1cs Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Everything under the heavens is mine.
Psalms 12 verses
- Psalms 17:13 קַדְּמָ֣/ה Piel impv 2ms + sfx h Arise, Yahweh, Confront him, cast him down. Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword;
- Psalms 18:5 קִ֝דְּמ֗וּ/נִי Piel pf 3cp + sfx pers 1cs The cords of Sheol were round about me; The snares of death came on me.
- Psalms 18:18 יְקַדְּמ֥וּ/נִי Piel impf 3mp + sfx pers 1cs They came on me in the day of my calamity, But Yahweh was my support.
- Psalms 21:3 תְ֭קַדְּמֶ/נּוּ Piel impf 2ms + sfx pers 3ms For you meet him with the blessings of goodness; You set a crown of fine gold on his head.
- Psalms 59:10 יְקַדְּמֵ֑/נִי Piel impf 3ms + sfx pers 1cs My God will go before me with his loving kindness. God will let me look at my enemies in triumph.
- Psalms 68:25 קִדְּמ֣וּ Piel pf 3cp The singers went before, the minstrels followed after, In the midst of the ladies playing with tambourines,
- Psalms 79:8 יְקַדְּמ֣וּ/נוּ Piel impf 3mp + sfx pers 1cp Don't hold the iniquities of our forefathers against us. Let your tender mercies speedily meet us, For we are in desperate need.
- Psalms 88:13 תְקַדְּמֶֽ/ךָּ Piel impf 3fs + sfx pers 2ms But to you, Yahweh, I have cried. In the morning, my prayer comes before you.
- Psalms 89:14 יְֽקַדְּמ֥וּ Piel impf 3mp Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Loving kindness and truth go before your face.
- Psalms 95:2 נְקַדְּמָ֣ה Piel coh 1cp Let's come before his presence with thanksgiving. Let's extol him with songs!
- Psalms 119:147 קִדַּ֣מְתִּי Piel pf 1cs I rise before dawn and cry for help. I put my hope in your words.
- Psalms 119:148 קִדְּמ֣וּ Piel pf 3cp My eyes stay open through the night watches, That I might meditate on your word.
Isaiah 2 verses
- Isaiah 21:14 קִדְּמ֥וּ Piel pf 3cp To him who was thirsty they brought water; the inhabitants of the land of Tema did meet the fugitives with their bread.
- Isaiah 37:33 יְקַדְּמֶ֣/נָּה Piel impf 3ms + sfx pers 3fs Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come to this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither shall he come before it with shield, nor cast up a mound against it.
Amos 1 verse
Jonah 1 verse
Micah 1 verse
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.
“to meet” is the headline sense of the Hebrew verb קדם (qâdam). Scripture first uses it in Deuteronomy 23:4. With 25 verses in 10 books, it is an uncommon word in the Hebrew Bible. It concentrates in Psalms, which alone accounts for 48% of its uses. As a verb its force shifts by stem, across 2 stems (Piel, Hiphil, and more). The sections below give every sense, occurrence, and version rendering.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H6923 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 →
- 25
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 25 distinct verses.
- 10 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 10 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #1,251
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 1,251 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 25 occurrences in the concordance →
By section of the Old Testament
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 25 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 16 verses · 64%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 8 verses · 32%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 1 verse · 4%
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: Prevent 5×, Prevented 3×, They prevented 3×
- American Standard Version: Came upon me 2×, There 2×, They came upon 2×
- Berean Standard Bible: Confronted me 2×, He will not come before it 2×, Meet 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Come before it 2×, Confronted me 2×, He will 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H6923 across 26 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 11 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H6923 across 26 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 18 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 H6923 across 26 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 18 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H6923 across 32 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 20 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
9 senses and sub-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.
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 9 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.
Piel
- denom. (Gerber130) come or be in front, meet;—Pf. 1 s. קִדַּמְתִּי Jon 4:2 ψ 119:147; 3 pl. קִדְּמוּ Dt 23:5 +, etc.; Impf. 3 ms. sf. יְקַדְּמֵנִי ψ 59:11; 3 fs. sf. תְּקַדְּמַךָּ ψ 88:14; 1s. אֲקַדֵּם Mi 6:6; Imv. ms. קַדְּמָה ψ 17:13;— e.g. Jonah 4:2
- 1.
- a. meet, confront (with hostility) c. acc. pers. 2 S 22:6, 19 = ψ 18:6, 19, Jb 30:27, c. acc. פָּנָיו ψ 17:13; of hostile approach to city (acc.) 2 K 19:32 = Is 37:33 (+ adv. acc.). e.g. 2 Samuel 22:6
- b. come to meet one (acc.) as friend, with (ב) sthg. Is 21:14; Dt 23:5; Ne 13:2, so, as worshippers (acc. of י׳), Mi 6:6(×2); c. acc. pers. + rei ψ 21:4; so 59:11 Kt 𝔊 𝔙 (acc. pers. alone Qr), acc. pers. alone ψ 79:8; acc. י׳ 88:14, acc. פָּנָיו (of י׳) 95:2 (+ בְּ), cf. חֶסֶד וֶאֱמֶת יְקַדְּמוּ פָנֶיךָ 89:15 (viz., to join themselves to thee). e.g. Isaiah 21:14
- c. meet, receive, acc. pers., Jb 3:12. e.g. Job 3:12
- 2.
- a. go before, in front ψ 68:28. e.g. Psalms 68:28
- b. be in front, 1 S 20:25 (read וַיְקַדֵּם for וַיָּקָם) 𝔊 Ew Th We Dr al. e.g. 1 Samuel 20:25
- 3. be beforehand, c. ב temp. ψ 119:147; + inf. cstr. Jon 4:2; anticipate, forestall, c. acc. rei ψ 119:148. e.g. Psalms 119:147
Hiphil
- 1. Impf. 3 fs. תַּקְדִּים (We Now GASm תְּקַדֵּם) Am 9:10 calamity … shall not come in front about us (בַּעֲדֵינוּ). e.g. Amos 9:10
- 2. Pf. 3 ms. sf. הִקְדִּימַנִי Jb 41:3 who has anticipated me [God]? 𝔊 Me Bi Bu confronted me (reading וַיִּשְׁלָ֑ם for foll. וַאֲשַׁלֵּם); Du יְקַדְּמֶנּוּ confronted him (the crocodile). e.g. Job 41:3
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
Origin: a primitive root
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.
קָדַם
- (b. h.) [to bend, go forward,] to advance, precede; to anticipate. Y. Meg. III, 74ᵃ bot. צפה … מוטב שיִקְדּוֹם … לכספו וכ׳ the Lord foresaw that Haman the wicked would weigh his silver for Israel’s destruction (Esth. III, 9), and he said, it is better that my children’s silver (the half-Shekel, Ex. XXX, 11 sq.) anticipate Haman’s silver (to act as a protection from evil designs); ib. I, 70ᵈ bot. שיַּקְדִּים (Hif.). Sifra Vayiḳra, Ḥob., Par. 3, ch. V, v. infra. Gen. R. s. 1 ששה דברים קָדְמוּ וכ׳ six things preceded the creation of the world. Ib. איני יודע איזה מהן קוֹדֵם אם התורה קָדְמָה וכ׳ I know not yet, which of them was first, whether the Torah was created before the throne of glory &c. Ib. התורה קדמה וכ׳, v. קְרִימָה. Ḥull. 100ᵃ, sq. ק׳ וסלקו he removed it first (before putting in other pieces). Snh. 38ᵃ; Lev. R. s. 14, beg. יתוש קְדָמְךָ, v. יַתּוּשׁ. B. Mets. II, 11 אבדתו … אבדתו קוֹדֶמֶת if a man’s own loss and his father’s loss are to be attended to, his own has the precedence; ib. שלו קודמת (Bab. ed. 33ᵃ קודם). Ab. III, 9 כל … קודמת לחכמתו וכ׳ he to whom fear of sin comes before his learning, his learning will endure. Y. Ned. IX, 42ᶜ bot. חיי העיר הזאת קוֹדְמִין וכ׳ the supply of provisions for the people of one’s own town has the precedence over &c. Kel. XXV, 4, v. כַּתְּ; a. fr. e.g. Esther 3:9
- , Taan. 20ᵃ נקדמה, v. נָקַד I.]
- to get the start of. Y. Taan. I, end, 64ᵈ שלא יְקַדְּמֶנּוּ אחר lest another man get ahead of him (in proposing to a woman he desires to marry); Y. Bets. V, 63ᵃ bot. Sifré Deut. 34 לא קִידְּמוּם מצוות וכ׳ no other commands were promulgated before them; a. fr.
- 1. to advance; to do first; to anticipate, provide against. Y. Meg. l. c. לפיכך מַקְדִּימִין וקירין וכ׳ therefore we read the section of Sh’ḳalim first (before the first of Adar, and before the Sabbath Zakhor); Bab. ib. 13ᵇ לפיכך ה׳ שקליהן וכ׳ therefore the Lord ordered their Shekels in anticipation of his (Haman’s) Shekels, v. supra. Ib. 30ᵃ מקדימין לשבת שעברה we read it the Sabbath before, opp. מאחרין. Ib. when Purim falls on a Friday, מקדימין פרשת זכור we read the section Zakhor on the Sabbath previous. Y. Sot. VIII, 22ᵈ bot. ה׳ לו שכרי if he paid the builder in advance. Zeb. 106ᵃ (ref. to Lev. IV, 12) שיהא שם דשן שיַקְדִּים לשם דשן this means that ashes must be there, that he must first have put ashes there; Sifra Vayikra l. c. שׁיִקְדּו̇ם; a. fr.—ה׳ שלום to salute first. Ber. 6ᵇ כל שיודע … יקדים לו שלום he who knows his neighbor to be in the habit of greeting him, should salute him first. Ib. 17ᵃ לא הִקְדִּימוֹ אדם וכ׳ never was a man the first in saluting him, not even a stranger &c. Ex. R. s. 23 באו … להַקְדִּים שירה the angels came wanting to be the first to offer song; יַקְדִּימוּ בני תחלה let my children be the first; a. v. fr.—Part. pass. מוּקְדָּם; f. מוּקְדֶּמֶת; pl. מוּקְדָּמִים &c. Pes. 6ᵇ, a. fr. אין מ׳ ומאוחר וכ׳, v. אָחַר. Shebi. X, 5, v. פְּרוֹזְבּוּל. Ib. שטרי חוב המ׳ antedated notes of indebtedness. M. Mets. V, 10 נתן עיניו … זו היא רבית מ׳ if he intends to borrow money, and he sends his neighbor a gift and says, ‘in order to make thee inclined to lend me money’,—this is interest paid in advance; a. fr.—2) to be early, zealous. Naz. 23ᵇ, a. e. לעולם יקדים אדם לדבר וכ׳ man should always be anxious to do a good deed as early as possible. Pes. 4ᵃ, a. e. מקדימין וכ׳, v. זָרִיז; a. fr.—[Y. Erub. V, 22ᵈ top שמקדימין העליון, read: שמקדירין or שמקדרין, v. קָדַר I.] e.g. Leviticus 4:12
קְדַם
- ; Pa. קַדֵּם
- 1. to precede; to do early, be early, first. Targ. Ps. LXIX, 32 דקַדִּימוּ קרנוי וכ׳ (some ed. דקָדִ׳) whose horns grew prior to its hoofs. Targ. Gen. XIX, 2; a. fr.—Ber. 8ᵃ מְקַדְּמֵי וכ׳; קַדִּימוּ וחשיכו, v. חֲשַׁךְ I. Tam. 27ᵇ וקַדֵּים וכ׳, v. הֲשַׁךְ I; a. e.
- 2. to go before, come to meet. Targ. Ps. LXXXVIII, 14. Ib. LXXIX, 8 יקדמון לן Ms. (ed. לך, corr. acc.); a. fr.
- 1. to be early. Targ. Gen. XXVI, 31. Targ. I Sam. XVII, 16; a. fr.
- 2. to precede, anticipate. Targ. Job XLI, 3; a. e.
- 3. to get the start of; to prevent. Targ. Ps. XVII, 13; a. e.—3) to be earlier than, be quick in doing. Ib. CXIX, 147, sq.; a. fr.—Sabb. 119ᵃ אי רגיליתו לאַקְדּוּמֵי … אַקְדִּימוּ if you are accustomed to take an early meal, make it later (on the Sabbath), and if you are used to dine late, dine earlier. Ib. 151ᵇ when a poor man comes, אַקְדִּים … דליקַדְּמוּ וכ׳ be quick in giving him bread, in order that people may be ready to do so to thy children.
- 4. to give preference to. Y. Snh. I, 18ᶜ bot. אַקִדְּמוּן ליה … בעיבור they preferred a certain old man to him at the session for intercalation; Y. R. Hash. II, 58ᵇ top; a. e.
קֶדֶם
- (b. h.) olden time, (adv.) before, v. קוֹדֶם.
קֶדֶם ²
- Targ. Ez. XXXVIII, 17; a. e.
קָדָם
- (preced.) [precedence,]
- 1. (prepos. of time and place) before. Targ. Gen. XXIX, 26. Ib. XLIII, 29; a. fr.—With suffix of personal pronoun mostly in pl. Targ. Prov. XXIII, 1 קָדָמָךְ ed. Lag. (oth. ed. קָדָמָיִךְ). Targ. Ps. XCVI, 9 מן קֳדָמוֹי. Ib. 8 לִקְדָמוֹי; a. fr.—Lev. R. s. 37 נפק … קדמוי וכ׳ a proclamation went before him, and all the people came out to meet him. Lam. R. to III, 16; a. fr.
- 2. (conj.) a) ere, before; b) מן ק׳ since, because(h.. Targ. Y. Gen. XIII, 10 ק׳ עד לא. Targ. Prov. VIII, 23. Ib. 25 Ms. (ed. קְדִים); a. fr.—Targ. O. a. Y. II Ex. XIX, 18 מן ק׳ (Y. I מן בגלל).—Y. Yeb. XII, 13ᵃ top; Y. Snh. I, 19ᵃ bot. קרבת קַדְמָנָא she came before us; ורקת קדמנא and spat in our presence; Y. M. Kat. III, 82ᵃ bot. קוּדְמֵינָא; Yeb. 39ᵇ; a. e.—V. קַדְמִין. e.g. Exodus 19:18
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 24 distinct written forms H6923 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.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H6923, 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.
Derived from this word
- קדום qâdûwm H6917 antiquity
- קדים qâdîym H6921 east
- קדם qedem H6924 east
- קדמה qadmâh H6927 antiquity
- קדמון qadmôwn H6930 eastern
- קדמי qadmay H6933 former
- קרדם qardôm H7134 axe
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 10 — not the complete family. 2 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 20 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 25 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.
