a peg, pin, or stake: a pointed length of wood or metal driven in to hold something fast or to hang something on
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
The core idea is a small, sturdy spike that is fixed in place and then bears a load. Most often it is a tent peg pounded into the ground so the ropes hold the tent taut, and it is the word for the many pins that anchored the tabernacle and its courtyard. From that basic picture the word spreads to other pointed pins: the peg set in a wall to hang a vessel on, the pin of a weaver's loom, and even the sharpened tool a soldier carries to dig with.
Because a peg driven home is the very image of something firm and dependable, the word also turns figurative. A leader on whom a whole community leans, or a secure foothold given to a people, can be called their peg: the one thing fixed in place that everything else hangs on.
The senses below are all one object seen in different jobs, not different words. What ties them together is a pointed fastener that is set fast and then relied upon.
Nuances
1aa tent peg or stake driven into the ground to hold a tent or structure taut
names a peg or stake driven in to anchor a tent or to serve as a fixed point for hanging things, and is often wooden rather than metalEzk 15:3
Both
both name a pointed fastener that is driven into a surfaceJdg 4:21
Only nail
the English word nail pictures a small metal spike hammered flush to fasten two things together, a joining function that is not the point of the Hebrew word
“peg”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“pin”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“stake”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“paddle”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How yated differs from similar Hebrew words
מַסְמֵרa nail hammered in to join pieces together, where this word is a peg driven in to anchor or to hang things on
Hammered into the ground and tied to the tent's ropes, so it does its work by holding against a pull, which is why the lists of the sanctuary's parts name these together with the cords every time.Exo 35:18Num 3:37Isa 54:2Isa 33:20
Made of plain hard material for rough use, bronze for the tent and its courtyard, or any wood strong enough to bear a load hung on it.Exo 27:19Exo 38:20Ezk 15:3
Turns up far outside the sanctuary in ordinary life: a digging tool a man kept with his gear, the pin of a weaver's loom, and in Jael's hand a weapon driven through a sleeping man's head.Deu 23:13Jdg 16:14Jdg 4:21Jdg 5:26
Because one driven in well holds fast, it becomes a picture of security: a firm foothold granted to a surviving remnant, a man set in lasting authority, a ruler the people can lean their weight on.Ezr 9:8Isa 22:23Isa 22:25Zec 10:4
Both
Both are plain hardware rather than furniture or vessels, named in the building lists by their material and by the part of the tent they serve rather than described for their own sake.Exo 27:10Exo 35:18
Both keep the sanctuary's fabric stretched tight so the structure stands, one carrying the cloth from above and the other pinning it down below, and the record of the courtyard names them within a verse or two of each other.Exo 38:19Exo 38:20Exo 27:17Exo 27:19
Both are counted in the final tally of the finished work, so the account treats each small fitting as a piece the tent could not stand without.Exo 36:38Exo 38:31
Fixed to the top of an upright post so that cloth hangs down from it, taking the weight of the inner curtain and of the screen at the doorway from above.Exo 26:32Exo 26:37Exo 27:10
Always made of precious metal, gold on the pillars of the sanctuary itself and silver on the pillars ringing the courtyard, and counted in shekels when the metal was accounted for.Exo 26:32Exo 27:17Exo 38:28
Belongs wholly to the account of the tent of meeting, turning up only in the instructions for building it and the record of the work finished, and never once as a picture of something else.Exo 36:36Exo 38:11Exo 38:17
yated in the other biblical languages
ἧλοςGreek“nail”the Greek word for a metal nail, such as the crucifixion nails, where the Hebrew word is a driven peg or stake for fastening and hanging
The tent peg driven into the ground to hold a tent secure, including all the pegs of the tabernacle.Exo 27:19Isa 54:2Isa 33:20
A peg fixed in a firm place, a figure for a secure, load-bearing position or a leader on whom others hang.Isa 22:23Ezr 9:8Zec 10:4
A peg pressed into service as a tool or weapon, from the loom pin to the digging paddle to the spike Jael drove through Sisera.Jdg 16:14Deu 23:13Jdg 4:21
Both
Both name a pointed spike hammered in to fasten or hold something firmly in place.Jhn 20:25Jdg 4:21
The iron nail driven through flesh to fix a body to the cross, remembered in the wound-marks left in Jesus' hands.Jhn 20:25
What scholars say about yated
The lexicons treat יָתֵד as a single noun meaning peg, pin, or stake, with a well-defined range: the tent-pin of the tabernacle and its court (Exodus, Numbers) and of ordinary tents (Judges 4; Isaiah 33:20; 54:2); the peg fixed for hanging (Ezekiel 15:3), extended figuratively to a person as a load-bearing support (Isaiah 22:23-25; Ezra 9:8;Zechariah 10:4); the pin of a loom (Judges 16:13-14); and a pointed digging implement (Deuteronomy 23:13). BDB, HALOT, and DCH agree on this inventory; the figurative peg of Isaiah 22 and Zechariah 10 is standardly read against the concrete wall-peg image.