taught, trained: someone or something that instruction or long practice has shaped into a settled way of being.
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong
This word is the receiving end of the verb for teaching and learning (לָמַד). It does not describe the teacher, and it does not describe the lesson. It describes the one who has been worked on, and it assumes the work took hold.
That is why one word covers such different pictures:
people God himself has taught, given a mouth ready to speak and an ear ready to listen
a wild donkey that knows the desert as its own home
a nation so practiced at wrongdoing that doing good is now out of reach
What holds those together is not the subject matter but the result. In each case something outside the person or the animal did the shaping, and the shaping became second nature. Isaiah uses the word hopefully, of children the LORD teaches and of a servant taught morning by morning. Jeremiah turns it the other way and uses it as an accusation: the same process that makes a good student can make a settled wrongdoer, and by then the habit is as fixed as the spots on a leopard.
So the word carries a quiet warning alongside its promise. Being trained is not in itself a good thing. Everything depends on who did the training.
Nuances
1aone who has been taught: a pupil, someone whose readiness to hear and speak comes from a teacher.
Isa 8:16*Isa 50:4 (2×)Isa 54:13
1bbroken in to something: so used to a place or a practice that it has become second nature.
the Hebrew is a standing description of a person rather than a report of one lesson: it marks someone in whom the teaching has settled and is still working.Isa 54:13Isa 50:4
Both
both say the shaping came from outside, from a teacher, and not from the person's own effort.Isa 54:13Isa 8:16
Only taught
English "taught" is a plain past action, and it can just as easily describe a lesson that was delivered and never took hold at all.
the Hebrew keeps the person on the receiving end, which is why Isaiah 50:4 pictures an ear being opened again every morning rather than a store of knowledge already gathered.Isa 50:4
Both
both describe someone who has genuinely been through instruction rather than picking things up on their own.Isa 50:4
Only learned
in modern English a "learned" person is an erudite scholar who has amassed knowledge, so the word suggests mastery and expertise instead of teachability.
the Hebrew claims only "the ones I have taught," saying nothing about membership, vows, or an organized following.Isa 8:16
Both
both name people bound to a teacher's instruction and entrusted with it.Isa 8:16
Only disciples
English "disciple" now calls up a rabbi's formal circle or a follower of Jesus, a personal loyalty to a leader and a movement that the Hebrew word does not by itself assert.
the Hebrew reaches for its teaching word here, so being used to something is pictured as having been trained into it by long practice.Jer 13:23Jer 2:24
Both
both describe a habit worn so deep that it now runs on its own.Jer 13:23Jer 2:24
Only accustomed
English "accustomed" suggests familiarity or comfort with a thing and carries no hint of teaching or training behind it.
“used to”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How limmud differs from similar Hebrew words
לָמַדthe verb this word comes from, covering both learning and teaching. It names the activity; this word names the person or creature the activity has already shaped.
Is a label rather than an action: it names the person the teaching has produced, and can name a whole circle of them, the prophet's followers among whom his sealed message is kept safe.Isa 8:16Isa 54:13Isa 50:4
Describes a condition that has hardened into second nature, so settled that the text can ask whether it could ever be shed, and it can be used where no teacher is in view at all: a wild donkey simply at home in the desert.Jer 13:23Jer 2:24
Both
Both assume that being taught really does form a person, and both put God in the place of the one doing the forming: he shows his people how to walk, and Zion's children are those he himself has taught.Psa 143:10Psa 25:5Isa 54:13
Both work just as well for schooling in what is wrong: Israel picked up the practices of the nations around them, and Jeremiah addresses people who have grown used to doing evil.Psa 106:35Jer 9:5Jer 13:23
Names the act of instruction itself, so a verse can say who taught, whom, and what: God showing his ways, Moses handing on the commands, David having a lament taught to Judah.Deu 4:5Psa 25:42Sa 1:18
Covers the receiving side of that same exchange, the taking in of what is taught, which is why a crowd can be gathered to "learn" reverence for God and why the nations can stop learning war.Deu 14:23Deu 31:12Isa 2:4
Reaches drill in a physical craft, with hands and fingers trained for battle and troops trained to handle a bow or a sword.Psa 144:12Sa 22:351Ch 5:18
תַּלְמִידthe ordinary word for a pupil, used once of apprentice temple singers learning from the skilled. It describes a position in a training program, where this word describes a person the teaching has already taken hold of.
It reaches beyond the classroom to anything long practice has shaped, including animals and whole nations: a wild donkey at home in the desert (Jeremiah 2:24), and a people so practiced at wrongdoing that doing good is now beyond them (Jeremiah 13:23). It can therefore be an accusation as easily as a compliment.Jer 2:24Jer 13:23
The teacher behind it can be God himself: children who are "taught of the LORD" (Isaiah 54:13), and a servant given a tongue and a waking ear by the Lord morning after morning (Isaiah 50:4).Isa 54:13Isa 50:4
It reports a finished result rather than a rank: the shaping has taken hold and become second nature, which is why the ready tongue in Isaiah 50:4 and the fixed habit of Jeremiah 13:23 can wear the same word.Isa 50:4Jer 13:23
Both
Both name the person on the receiving end of teaching, never the teacher and never the lesson: the ones the prophet has taught (Isaiah 8:16) and the apprentice singer of the temple choir (1 Chronicles 25:8).Isa 8:161Ch 25:8
Each can define a person by the human expert standing over him: the prophet entrusts his sealed message to the circle he has taught (Isaiah 8:16), and the young musician takes his turn beside the master player (1 Chronicles 25:8).Isa 8:161Ch 25:8
It names a place in a working apprenticeship. Among the temple musicians the lots fall alike on "the skilled along with the pupil" (1 Chronicles 25:8), so the word marks the junior member of a guild standing next to his trainer.1Ch 25:8
It leaves open whether the training has worked yet. In 1 Chronicles 25:8 the pupil is precisely the one set opposite the accomplished player, still on his way rather than already formed.1Ch 25:8
תּוֹרָהthe instruction itself, the teaching that is handed on (it stands alongside this word in Isaiah 8:16). One is the content, the other is the person shaped by it.
Names a person, not a subject: the learner whose ear and tongue have been trained by a teacher.Isa 50:4Isa 54:13
Can describe being broken in to a habit, and the habit may be a bad one: a wild donkey at home in the desert, or people so practiced at doing wrong that they cannot change.Jer 2:24Jer 13:23
Both
Both belong to the world of teaching and neither makes sense without it: one is what a teacher hands on, the other is the person it is handed to, which is why Isaiah 8:16 seals up the instruction among those who have been taught.Isa 8:16
Names the teaching itself, something you can write down, put in a book, copy out, and read aloud to a crowd.Deu 31:9Deu 17:18Deu 31:11
Often means the set procedure for one particular case, closer to "the rules for this situation" than to a lesson learned: the rules for the burnt offering, for skin disease, for a death inside a tent.Lev 6:9Lev 13:59Num 19:14
Carries public, binding force: it comes with curses for those who ignore it, and it holds the same for the foreigner living in Israel as for the Israelite.Deu 27:26Exo 12:49Num 15:16
מוּסָרtraining that comes through correction and hard discipline, often with the rod in view. This word says nothing about how the training was delivered, only that it stuck.
Names the person the teaching has already shaped, not the teaching itself. It is the prophet's own learners, the ones his sealed message is entrusted to (Isaiah 8:16), the children who are "taught by the LORD" (Isaiah 54:13), and the servant given a trained tongue so he knows what to say to the weary (Isaiah 50:4).Isa 8:16Isa 54:13Isa 50:4
Stretches to a habit worn in by long practice, with no teacher and no lesson anywhere in view: a wild donkey "used to" the open desert (Jeremiah 2:24), and people so practiced at doing wrong that they can no more change than a leopard can change its spots (Jeremiah 13:23).Jer 2:24Jer 13:23
Says nothing about how the shaping was delivered. Whether it came gently or painfully is simply not part of the word, which is why it can sit next to the word for teaching (Isaiah 8:16) and describe a readiness to listen morning by morning (Isaiah 50:4).Isa 8:16Isa 50:4
Both
Both belong to the world of being formed by teaching rather than simply informed by it, and both name God as the one doing the forming: children "taught by the LORD" (Isaiah 54:13) and the LORD's own discipline that Israel watched with its own eyes (Deuteronomy 11:2).Isa 54:13Deu 11:2
Both live inside a teacher and pupil relationship and are spoken of as belonging to someone: a prophet's learners are "my learners" (Isaiah 8:16), and instruction is "your father's" to give and a son's to receive (Proverbs 1:8,Proverbs 4:1).Isa 8:16Pro 1:8Pro 4:1
Names a body of training a person can be handed and then hold onto or throw away: a son is told to keep his father's instruction (Proverbs 1:8), to take firm hold of it and not let go (Proverbs 4:13), to listen and grow wise (Proverbs 8:33,Proverbs 19:20), while the wicked man hates it and flings it behind him (Psalm 50:17).Pro 1:8Pro 4:13Pro 8:33Pro 19:20Psa 50:17
Carries the sting of correction, up to and including physical blows. It is the rod a father uses because he loves his son (Proverbs 13:24,Proverbs 23:13), the stick that drives folly out of a boy (Proverbs 22:15), the reproof a person resents while it is happening (Proverbs 5:12).Pro 13:24Pro 23:13Pro 22:15Pro 5:12
Is the standard word for God's corrective hand on a whole people, punishment aimed at teaching them. Israel refused it after being struck (Jeremiah 2:30,Jeremiah 5:3,Jeremiah 7:28), and it becomes an example other nations are meant to learn from (Ezekiel 5:15), even the punishment the suffering servant absorbs on others' behalf (Isaiah 53:5).Jer 2:30Jer 5:3Jer 7:28Ezk 5:15Isa 53:5
Slides in one place toward what physically holds a person, where God is said to loosen the belt or bonds of kings (Job 12:18). Whether that is a separate word spelled the same way is debated, but the correcting and restraining ideas run close together.Job 12:18
limmud in the other biblical languages
διδακτόςGreek“taught”the Greek adjective for "taught," which is how John 6:45 renders the phrase "taught of the LORD" from Isaiah 54:13.
It can name a standing group of people who belong to a teacher, so English Bibles often render it "disciples" rather than simply "taught".Isa 8:16Isa 50:4
It stretches past classroom instruction to a habit worn in by long practice, so it can describe a wild donkey at home in the desert or a people practiced at doing wrong.Jer 2:24Jer 13:23
Both
Both name someone as "taught by God", and the link is direct: the Greek word carries the Hebrew promise of children taught by the LORD straight into the New Testament quotation of it.Isa 54:13Jhn 6:45
Each describes the receiving end of teaching, someone shaped by what was passed on to them rather than the one doing the teaching.Isa 50:41Co 2:13
It can describe the words themselves rather than the person, marking a message as something the speaker was handed by a teacher.1Co 2:13
It is used to set one source of teaching against another, weighing human wisdom on one side and God's Spirit on the other, so the point is who did the teaching.1Co 2:13
μαθητήςGreek“disciple”the Greek noun for a disciple, a committed follower of a teacher. It names an attachment to a person, where the Hebrew word names the result of having been taught.
Describes the condition of having been taught rather than membership in anyone's following, and the teacher is God himself: the servant is given the tongue of those who are taught, his ear wakened morning by morning, and Zion's children are simply "taught of the LORD".Isa 50:4Isa 54:13
Stretches to settled habit with no teacher at all, and even to an animal: a wild donkey is "accustomed" to the wilderness, shaped by what it has always known rather than by instruction from anyone.Jer 2:24
Can name training in the wrong direction. Judah is "trained" in doing evil, so ingrained that changing is as unlikely as a leopard changing its spots, a use no Greek word for a follower of Jesus ever carries.Jer 13:23
Both
Both name a person by what has been received from a teacher rather than by family, trade, or rank: Zion's children are identified simply as those taught by the LORD, and those who hold to Jesus' word are said to be truly his followers.Isa 54:13Jhn 8:31
Both can mark out a defined circle around a teacher who entrusts his instruction to them privately: Isaiah seals the teaching among his taught ones, and Jesus explains everything in private to the group that follows him.Isa 8:16Mrk 4:34
Names a standing attachment to one particular living master, so the teacher can always be named. Rival followings are set side by side in the same sentence: the followers of John, the followers of the Pharisees, and those of Jesus, and the Judean leaders draw the line by claiming Moses as theirs.Mat 9:14Mrk 2:18Jhn 9:28
The relationship is measured against the teacher and aims at becoming like him. The word is repeatedly paired with its opposite number, the teacher, and the follower is told he is not above the one he follows but will be like him once fully trained.Mat 10:24Mat 10:25Luk 6:40
The standing is entered by a call and carries a price, so it can be refused, weighed up, or abandoned. Jesus states the terms as leaving family behind, carrying a cross, and giving up possessions, one would-be follower asks first to bury his father, and a large group walks away and follows no more.Luk 14:26Luk 14:27Luk 14:33Mat 8:21Jhn 6:66
In Acts it hardens into the ordinary name for the whole body of believers, counted, multiplying, and joined by newcomers, long after the teacher is no longer physically among them.Act 6:1Act 6:7Act 11:26
What scholars say about limmud
לִמּוּד is a passive verbal adjective from the root למד, regularly used as a substantive. BDB, HALOT, and DCH treat it as a single entry with two applications: "taught, a disciple" (Isaiah 8:16; 50:4; 54:13) and "accustomed, trained to" governing the thing one is used to (Jeremiah 2:24, the wilderness; Jeremiah 13:23, doing evil). All six occurrences are prophetic, and the word is absent from wisdom literature, where מוּסָר and לֶקַח carry the vocabulary of instruction. The Isaiah 54:13 phrase לִמּוּדֵי יְהוָה is quoted at John 6:45 as διδακτοὶ θεοῦ, and the same root yields תַּלְמִיד (1 Chronicles 25:8), which becomes the standard later Jewish term for a student. Whether the Isaianic limmudim presuppose an organized prophetic circle that transmitted and sealed the prophet's testimony is debated in the commentary literature on Isaiah 8:16; the question concerns the historical referent, not the lexical sense, which is agreed.
Sources
HALOT (Koehler-Baumgartner), s.v. לִמּוּדlexicon
BDB (Brown-Driver-Briggs), s.v. לִמּוּדlexicon
DCH (Clines, ed.), s.v. לִמּוּדlexicon
Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT), s.v. לָמַדdictionary
Hans Wildberger, Isaiah 1-12, Continental Commentaries (1991)commentary
Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 40-55, Anchor Yale Bible 19A (2002)commentary
William L. Holladay, Jeremiah 1, Hermeneia (1986)commentary