StrongerBible

nadiv

נָדִיב

HebrewH5081“prince, willing, ...”

Appears 29 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Exo 35:5Exo 35:22Num 21:181Sa 2:81Ch 28:212Ch 29:31Job 12:21Job 21:28Job 34:18Psa 47:9(10)Psa 51:12(14)Psa 83:11(12)Psa 107:40Psa 113:8 (2×)Psa 118:9Psa 146:3Pro 8:16Pro 17:7Pro 17:26Pro 19:6Pro 25:7Sng 6:12Sng 7:1(2)Isa 13:2Isa 32:5Isa 32:8 (3×)
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradenah-DEEVadjective

What nadiv means

1

willing: moved from within to give or act freely, rather than under compulsion or obligation

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

This is the word for a heart that gives because it wants to, not because it has to. In the accounts of building the tabernacle, and later of funding the temple, the materials come only from people whose hearts move them; the same root names a gift offered freely rather than one owed by a vow.

The stress falls on the inner impulse. The sanctuary is deliberately paid for this way, apart from any required tax, so that the generosity flows from willingness and not from duty. When Psalm 51 asks God for a willing spirit, it is asking for exactly this inner readiness to be restored.

Nuances

1awilling-hearted: giving to the sanctuary because the heart prompts it, not because it is required
Exo 35:5Exo 35:221Ch 28:212Ch 29:31
1ba willing, generous inner spirit: an inward readiness to do what is right
Psa 51:12(14)
2

a noble or prince: a person of high rank, of whom the open-handed generosity the title implies is expected

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

Used of people, the word names someone of high standing, a noble or prince, often listed alongside kings and officials. Much of the Old Testament simply uses it for the ruling class, and it repeatedly warns against leaning on such people for security: do not put your trust in princes.

Even so, the word never fully loses its root in free generosity. In the wisdom writings and in Isaiah, the noble is expected to be open-handed and honorable, so the title carries a moral demand: a true noble devises generous things. Isaiah sets the honorable noble against the worthless fool and insists that the title ought to match the character behind it.

Because of this range, English Bibles reach for different words in different places (prince, noble, ruler, and even liberal or bountiful for the generous person), and no single one carries both the rank and the generosity at once.

Nuances

2aa noble or prince: a member of the high-ranking, ruling class
Num 21:181Sa 2:8Job 12:21Job 21:28Job 34:18Psa 47:9(10)Psa 83:11(12)Psa 107:40Psa 113:8 (2×)Psa 118:9Psa 146:3Pro 8:16
2ba generous, honorable person: the noble whose open-handed character lives up to the title
Pro 17:7Pro 19:6Isa 32:5Isa 32:8 (3×)
Isa 32:8

Whether the noble in Isaiah 32:8 denotes social rank, moral character, or a deliberate fusion of the two.

  • majorityA deliberate fusion in which the prophet redefines the social title by moral content: the true noble is the one whose plans and standing match the honor of the name.; Hans Wildberger, Isaiah 28-39 (Continental Commentary); Brevard S. Childs, Isaiah (OTL); Willem A. M. Beuken, Jesaja 28-39 (HTKAT); H. G. M. Williamson, Isaiah 28-39 (ICC)
  • minorityCharacter, not rank: the generous, large-hearted person who knows God supplies his needs and so can afford to be generous.; John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah 1-39 (NICOT)
  • minorityPrimarily the social class, whose hollow inherited titles the prophet is exposing.; Otto Kaiser, Isaiah 13-39 (OTL)

What scholars say about nadiv

Standard lexica (BDB, HALOT, Gesenius18) and TDOT (Conrad) derive נָדִיב from a volitional root נדב "to incite, impel, urge," treating "noble" as a Northwest-Semitic specialization: the etymological "one who impels himself" becomes the magnanimous donor, then the noble of character, then the social-class aristocrat. DCH (Clines) declines to posit a single etymological core and lists the senses paratactically. Comparative evidence favors the volitional core: Arabic ndb "to call, summon, volunteer" (Form I and VIII), the Old Aramaic Zinjirli abstract noun "incitement," and Amorite Mari onomastics (Huffmon; the name Ammu-nadbi, cognate to Amminadab). Akkadian nindabu is now widely judged a Sumerian loan rather than a true cognate, and nadanu "to give" belongs to a separate root. The distribution is diachronically layered: the volitional sense dominates the archaic poetry of Judges 5 and the Priestly tabernacle account (Sarna, Childs, Propp), while the social-rank sense prevails in Job, Proverbs, and the Psalms (Clines on Job 34:18; Fox and Waltke on Proverbs; Hossfeld-Zenger and Kraus on the Psalms). Isaiah 32:5-8 exploits the friction between rank and character, and most commentators (Wildberger, Childs, Sweeney, Beuken, Williamson) read v. 8 as a deliberate moral redefinition rather than a flat class term, against Oswalt (character only) and Kaiser (rank). Song 6:12 is textually undecidable, the ancient versions reading a proper name (Amminadab) and moderns splitting among "noble people," "with the prince," and a proper-name cipher (Pope, Fox, Keel, Exum, Longman).

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

  • BDB, s.v. נָדִיב (p. 621)lexicon
  • HALOT, s.v. נָדִיבlexicon
  • DCH, s.v. נָדִיב (vol. V)lexicon
  • J. Conrad, 'נדב', TDOT vol. IXtheological-dictionary
  • E. E. Carpenter, 'נדב', NIDOTTE vol. 3theological-dictionary
  • Nahum M. Sarna, Exodus (JPS Torah Commentary)commentary
  • David J. A. Clines, Job 21-37 (WBC)commentary
  • Michael V. Fox, Proverbs 10-31 (Anchor Yale Bible)commentary
  • Hans Wildberger, Isaiah 28-39 (Continental Commentary)commentary
  • John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah 1-39 (NICOT)commentary
  • Marvin H. Pope, Song of Songs (Anchor Bible)commentary
  • Herbert B. Huffmon, Amorite Personal Names in the Mari Texts (Johns Hopkins, 1965)monograph
  • R. Tournay, 'Les Chariots d'Aminadab (Cant. VI 12): Israel, Peuple Theophore', Vetus Testamentum 9 (1959): 288-309article

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

All attested forms of נָדִיב

m p absolute

נְדִיבִים

1Sa 2:8, Job 12:21, Job 34:18, Psa 107:40, Psa 113:8, Psa 118:9, Psa 146:3, Pro 8:16

m s absolute

נָדִיב

1Ch 28:21, Job 21:28, Pro 17:7, Pro 19:6, Pro 25:7, Sng 6:12, Sng 7:1, Isa 32:5

m p construct

נְדִיבֵי

Num 21:18, Psa 47:9, Psa 113:8

m s construct

נְדִיב

Exo 35:5, Exo 35:22, 2Ch 29:31

f p absolute

נְדִיבוֹת

Isa 32:8, Isa 32:8

f s absolute

נְדִיבָה

Psa 51:12

m p construct

נְדִיבֵמוֹ

Psa 83:11