StrongerBible

mo'ed

מוֹעֵד

HebrewH4150“appointed time, feast, ...”

Appears 223 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 1:14Gen 17:21Gen 18:14Gen 21:2Exo 9:5Exo 13:10Exo 23:15Exo 27:21Exo 28:43Exo 29:4Exo 29:10Exo 29:11Exo 29:30Exo 29:32Exo 29:42Exo 29:44Exo 30:16Exo 30:18Exo 34:18Lev 23:2 (2×)Lev 23:4 (2×)Lev 23:37Lev 23:44Num 9:2Num 9:3Num 9:7Num 9:13Num 10:10Num 15:3Num 28:2Num 29:39Deu 16:6Deu 31:10Jos 8:14Jdg 20:381Sa 9:241Sa 13:81Sa 13:111Sa 20:352Sa 20:52Ki 4:162Ki 4:171Ch 23:312Ch 1:32Ch 2:4(3)2Ch 8:132Ch 30:222Ch 31:3Ezr 3:5Neh 10:33(34)
Root family
Word studyResearch-grademoh-EDnoun

What mo'ed means

an appointment fixed in advance: a set time, a sacred festival, the place where God arranged to meet His people, an agreed gathering or signal, or the fixed moment of the end

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled

This word comes from a verb that means to fix or agree on something ahead of time, so at its heart it names whatever has been settled by appointment rather than left to chance. That single idea fans out in several directions depending on what is being appointed: a moment on the calendar, a recurring religious festival held at that moment, the spot where two parties arrange to meet, the gathering itself, an agreed signal, even the fixed hour when history reaches its end.

The senses shade into one another because Israel's life with God tied them together. A festival is simply an appointed time that has become a fixed sacred event. The place where God promised to meet His people is named by the very same word, and so is the moment He has set for judgment to fall. So a reader who finds "the time God set" in one verse, "the feast" in another, "the meeting place" in a third, and "the appointed end" in a fourth is looking at one concept turned in different directions, not separate words that happen to be spelled alike.

By far the most common phrase the Bible builds on this word is the name of the portable sanctuary in the wilderness, usually translated "tent of meeting." There the word carries its meeting sense: it is the appointed place where God and Israel come together, named from God's own promise, "there I will meet with you." Roughly two thirds of all its appearances belong to that one phrase.

The poets and prophets press the word's range deliberately. Lamentations grieves that God let both the meeting place and the festivals be forgotten in the same breath, and Daniel takes the bare idea of a fixed time and makes it the word for the appointed end of all things. The same word that names the tent where God met Moses names the hour He has set for the close of history.

Nuances

1aa set time fixed in advance, the appointed moment or season for something to happen
Gen 17:21Gen 18:14Gen 21:2Exo 9:5Exo 13:10Exo 23:15Exo 34:18Num 9:2Num 9:3Num 9:7Num 9:13Deu 16:6
1ba sacred festival: a religious gathering held at its appointed time on the calendar
Lev 23:2 (2×)Lev 23:4 (2×)Lev 23:37Lev 23:44Num 10:10Num 15:3Num 28:2Num 29:392Ch 2:4(3)2Ch 8:132Ch 30:222Ch 31:3
1can appointed place of meeting, above all the tent where God arranged to meet His people
Exo 27:21Exo 28:43Exo 29:4Exo 29:42Exo 29:44Exo 30:16Exo 33:7Exo 40:2Exo 40:34Exo 40:35Lev 1:1Lev 1:3
1dan appointed meeting or assembly, the gathering that convenes by arrangement, including the gathered council of the gods imagined in pagan myth
Num 16:2Psa 74:8Isa 14:13Lam 1:15
1ean appointed signal or agreed rendezvous, the prearranged sign or meeting two parties have set between them
Jos 8:14Jdg 20:381Sa 20:35
1fthe appointed time of the end, the fixed moment God has set for judgment or for the close of history
Psa 75:2Psa 102:13Dan 8:19Dan 11:27Dan 11:29Dan 11:35Dan 12:7 (2×)Hab 2:3

What scholars say about mo'ed

The standard lexica treat this as a single noun built on the root meaning to appoint or fix by agreement, whose Niphal means to meet by appointment (BDB; HALOT; DCH). From that one root the word fans out into several closely linked uses: an appointed time, a sacred festival, an appointed place of meeting, an appointed gathering or signal, and (in Daniel and Habakkuk) the fixed time of the end. Most occurrences belong to the fixed phrase tent of meeting, which scholars ground in God's own words in Exodus, where I will meet with you (Milgrom; Sarna; Levine), naming the appointed spot of encounter between God and Israel rather than the assembled people. Modern translators such as Gesenius render it tent of encounter against the older tent of the congregation. Comparative evidence is strong: Arabic and Old South Arabian preserve the same pattern for an appointed time or place, and at Ugarit the cognate term names the assembly of the gods on the cosmic mountain, the background most scholars see behind the mount of assembly in Isaiah 14:13 (Cross; Mullen; Smith). For Genesis 1:14 a wide range of recent priestly-source scholarship reads the word as Israel's sacred festivals fixed by the moon, inscribing the worship calendar into creation (Skinner; Smith; Rudolph), though some prefer the more open set times (Sarna). In the laments the word is pressed deliberately: Lamentations 2:6 uses it twice in one verse for both the place and the time of meeting (Hillers; Dobbs-Allsopp), and Daniel develops the bare temporal sense into the technical vocabulary of the appointed end (Collins; Newsom).

Where scholars disagree about mo'ed

Whether the construct phrase usually translated tent of meeting means tent of meeting or tent of assembly. Most scholars derive it from God's promise in Exodus, where I will meet with you, so the tent is the place of God's appointed meeting with Moses and Israel; a comparative line of scholarship, weighing the Ugaritic term for the assembly of the gods, prefers tent of assembly. The two readings are widely held to be compatible: an inherited phrase that already evoked the divine assembly, re-centered by the priestly writers on God's revelatory meeting.

  • majoritytent of meeting, from the inner-biblical promise to meet; Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16, Anchor Bible 3 (1991), 133; Sarna, Exodus, JPS Torah Commentary (1991), 158; Levine, Leviticus, JPS Torah Commentary (1989), 4-6
  • minoritytent of assembly, from the Northwest Semitic divine-council background; Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic (Harvard, 1973), 36-43, 177-186; Clifford, "The Tent of El and the Israelite Tent of Meeting," Catholic Biblical Quarterly 33 (1971): 221-227

Whether the appointed times of Genesis 1:14 are Israel's sacred festivals or the natural seasons of the year. A large body of recent priestly-source scholarship argues that this word elsewhere in the priestly material denotes the sacred festivals fixed by the moon, so creation is being made to mark out the worship calendar; a more cautious reading keeps the broader set times, leaving both the natural and the cultic sense open.

  • majorityIsrael's sacred festivals, written into creation; Skinner, Genesis, International Critical Commentary (1910), 26; Smith, The Priestly Vision of Genesis 1 (Fortress, 2010); Rudolph, "Festivals in Genesis 1:14," Tyndale Bulletin 54.2 (2003): 23-40
  • minoritythe more open set times, leaving natural and cultic readings both possible; Sarna, Genesis, JPS Torah Commentary (1989), 9
In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • Brown, Driver, and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, 416-417, s.v. מוֹעֵדlexicon
  • Koehler and Baumgartner, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, 2:557-558, s.v. מוֹעֵדlexicon
  • Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, vol. V, s.v. מוֹעֵדlexicon
  • Koch, "יעד / מוֹעֵד," Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, vol. VIdictionary
  • Milgrom, Leviticus 1-16, Anchor Bible 3 (1991), 133commentary
  • Levine, Leviticus, JPS Torah Commentary (1989), 4-6commentary
  • Sarna, Exodus, JPS Torah Commentary (1991), 158commentary
  • Haran, "The Nature of the ʾOhel Moʿedh in Pentateuchal Sources," Journal of Semitic Studies 5 (1960): 50-65article
  • Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic (Harvard, 1973), 36-43, 177-186monograph
  • Mullen, The Divine Council in Canaanite and Early Hebrew Literature, Harvard Semitic Monographs 24 (1980)monograph
  • Smith, The Priestly Vision of Genesis 1 (Fortress, 2010)monograph
  • Rudolph, "Festivals in Genesis 1:14," Tyndale Bulletin 54.2 (2003): 23-40article
  • Dobbs-Allsopp, Lamentations, Interpretation (2002)commentary
  • Collins, Daniel, Hermeneia (1993), 339-341, 384-388commentary

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of מוֹעֵד

m s absolute

מוֹעֵד, לַמּוֹעֵד, הַמּוֹעֵד, וְהַמּוֹעֵד, לְמוֹעֵד, מִמּוֹעֵד

Exo 9:5, Exo 27:21, Exo 28:43, Exo 29:4, Exo 29:10, Exo 29:11, Exo 29:30, Exo 29:32

m p absolute

מֹּעֲדִים, בַּמּוֹעֲדִים, וּבַמּוֹעֲדִים, וּלְמוֹעֲדִים, לְמוֹעֲדִים, לַמּוֹעֲדִים, מוֹעֲדִים, מֹעֲדִים

1Ch 23:31, 2Ch 31:3, Ezk 46:9, Ezk 46:11, Gen 1:14, Psa 104:19, Neh 10:33, Dan 12:7

m p construct

מוֹעֲדֵי, וּלְמוֹעֲדֵי, מֹעֲדֵי

Lev 23:2, Lev 23:4, Lev 23:37, Ezr 3:5, Psa 74:8, Ezk 45:17, 2Ch 2:4, Lev 23:44

m s construct

לְמוֹעֵד, מוֹעֵד, מֹעֵד

Exo 23:15, Exo 34:18, 1Sa 13:11, 1Sa 20:35, Dan 8:19, Deu 16:6, 2Ch 1:3, Deu 31:10

m s construct

בְּמוֹעֲדוֹ, מֹעֲדוֹ, מוֹעֲדוֹ

Num 9:2, Num 9:3, Num 28:2, Hos 2:9, Num 9:7, Num 9:13, Lam 2:6

m p construct

בְּמוֹעֲדֵיכֶם, וּבְמוֹעֲדֵיכֶם, וּמוֹעֲדֵיכֶם, מֹעֲדֵיכֶם

Num 29:39, Num 10:10, Isa 1:14, Num 15:3

m p construct

מוֹעֲדַי, מוֹעֲדָי

Ezk 44:24, Lev 23:2

m p construct

בְּמוֹעֲדֶיהָ, מוֹעֲדֶיהָ

Ezk 36:38, Jer 8:7

m s construct

לְמוֹעֲדָהּ, מוֹעֲדָהּ

Exo 13:10, Hos 2:11

f p absolute

וְלַמּוֹעֲדוֹת

2Ch 8:13

m s construct

מוֹעֲדֵנוּ

Isa 33:20

m s construct

מוֹעֲדֶךָ

Psa 74:4

m s construct

בְּמוֹעֲדָם

Lev 23:4