amad

עָמַד

HebrewH5975“stand, remain, ...”

Appears 521 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 18:8Gen 18:22Gen 19:27Gen 24:30Gen 41:1Gen 41:17Gen 41:46Gen 43:15Gen 45:1Gen 47:7Exo 3:5Exo 8:22(18)Exo 9:10Exo 9:11Exo 9:28Exo 14:19Exo 17:6Exo 18:13Exo 18:23Exo 20:18Exo 20:21Exo 21:21Exo 26:15Exo 32:26Exo 33:10Exo 36:20Lev 9:5Lev 13:5Lev 13:37Num 1:5Num 7:2Num 11:24Num 12:5Num 14:14Num 16:9Num 16:18Num 16:48(17:13)Num 22:24Num 22:26Num 27:21Num 27:22Num 35:12Deu 1:38Deu 5:5Deu 10:8Deu 17:12Deu 18:5Deu 18:7Deu 27:12Deu 27:13

Root family

amadעָמַדto stand: stand521H5975

Word studyResearch-gradeah-MAHDverb

What amad means

to stand: to be on one's feet and in place, and so to take up a position, come to a halt, or wait there on someone

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This is the plain bodily sense and by far the most common: a person, an army, or an object is upright and in place rather than sitting, lying, or moving. Hebrew has another verb for the motion of getting up (קוּם); this one looks at the being there afterward, the figure planted in one spot.

From that one picture the word reaches into several everyday scenes:

someone who was walking comes to a halt and stays put
a servant takes his place in front of a king or a priest, waiting on their word
a prophet is let into God's own circle of counsel and hears what is decided there
two parties take their places before judges to have a case settled

None of those needs a different Hebrew word. What the standing means in each case is supplied by the scene, and often by the small word that follows: standing "before" a superior is service, standing "in" a council is admission to it, standing "against" someone is opposition.

Nuances

1ato be on one's feet in a place; to take up a position there

TranslatabilityDirect

Gen 18:8Gen 18:22Gen 19:27Gen 24:30Gen 24:31Gen 41:1Gen 41:3Gen 41:17Gen 43:15Gen 45:1Exo 3:5Exo 8:22(18)

1bto stand still: to stop moving and stay where one is

Gen 19:17Gen 29:35Gen 30:9Gen 45:9Lev 13:5Lev 13:23Lev 13:28Lev 13:37Num 9:8Num 16:48(17:13)Jos 3:8Jos 3:13

1cto stand before someone: to be on duty in their presence, attending or serving them

TranslatabilityPartial

Gen 41:46Num 16:9Num 27:21Deu 1:38Deu 4:10Deu 10:8Deu 17:12Deu 18:5Deu 18:7Deu 29:15Jdg 20:281Sa 16:21

1dto stand before God on someone else's behalf: to plead for them, to stand in the gap

Psa 106:23Psa 106:30Jer 15:1Jer 18:20Ezk 22:30

1eto stand in God's council: to be admitted to his inner circle and hear what he has decided

TranslatabilityPartial

1Ki 22:191Ki 22:212Ch 18:182Ch 18:20Isa 6:2Jer 23:18Jer 23:22Zec 3:1Zec 3:3Zec 3:4Zec 3:5Zec 3:7

1fto stand before judges: to appear in a legal case, as accuser, accused, or witness

Num 35:12Deu 19:17Deu 25:8Jos 20:4Jos 20:6Jos 20:91Ki 3:16Psa 109:6Psa 109:31Isa 3:13Isa 44:11Isa 50:8

to remain: to keep standing over time, and so to last, to hold one's ground, or to be valid rather than fall

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

Standing also means lasting. Where the first meaning is about posture in a place, this one is about staying in being over time. What stands does not collapse, run out, or pass away: a plan, a promise, a name, a price, a body that keeps going, the earth itself.

Tied closely to that is holding firm under pressure. To stand when attacked is to withstand and not be driven back; to stand at a reckoning is to come through it without falling. So the same verb says that a wall is still there, that an army has kept the line, and that no one could face God's anger and remain upright.

A third turn is legal. A word, a plan, or a vow that "stands" is one that holds good, that takes effect. Earlier Hebrew usually said this with the verb for arising (קוּם), which is why the handful of places that use this verb instead stand out.

Nuances

2ato last, continue, or stay in being over time

Exo 9:28Exo 21:21Deu 10:10Jos 18:5 (2×)2Ki 6:312Ki 13:62Ki 15:20Job 14:2Psa 19:9Psa 33:9Psa 33:11Psa 102:26

2bto hold one's ground: to withstand pressure and not be overthrown

Exo 9:11Exo 18:23Jos 10:8Jos 21:44Jos 23:9Jdg 2:141Sa 6:202Ki 10:4Ezr 9:15Est 8:11Est 9:2Est 9:16

2cof a word, plan, or vow: to hold good, to be valid and take effect

Est 3:4Dan 11:17

to arise: to come onto the scene and take one's place, as a king coming to power

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

In the later books of the Hebrew Bible this verb starts doing a job that earlier writers gave to the verb for arising (קוּם). Instead of a figure already in place, the picture is a figure arriving in place: someone steps forward and takes up his position in the story.

The clearest run of this is in Daniel, where kings do not "arise" but "stand": three kings of Persia, then a mighty king, then the ruler who breaks the covenant. The same wording covers an adversary who appears and stands against someone or blocks his way, a successor who takes another's place, and a priest who will one day come forward with the sacred lots.

Its most striking use is the last verse of Daniel, where the man himself is told he will rest and then stand to receive his allotted portion at the end of the age. The verb for a king taking power is the verb for the faithful taking their place among the raised.

Nuances

3aof a king, ruler, or officeholder: to arise and take his place

Ezr 2:63Neh 7:65Est 4:14Ecc 4:15Dan 8:22Dan 8:23Dan 11:2Dan 11:3Dan 11:4Dan 11:7Dan 11:20Dan 11:21

3bto take a stand against someone as an adversary, either rising up against them or blocking their way

Jdg 6:311Ch 21:12Ch 20:23Ezr 10:15Dan 8:25Dan 10:13Dan 11:14

3cto take one's place at the end of the age, receiving one's allotted portion

Dan 12:13

Disputed

Whether the "arise, come on the scene" usage is a genuine feature of Late Biblical Hebrew, in which עמד takes over functions classical prose reserved for קוּם, and whether that concentration can date a text.

majorityThe usage is a real diachronic development. Its clustering in Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemiah, Esther, Daniel and Ecclesiastes, its deviation from the classical counterpart, and its parallels in Aramaic and Rabbinic Hebrew mark it as characteristic of Second Temple Hebrew.; BDB, s.v. עָמַד, Qal 6a and 6c (flagged 'late'); A. Hurvitz with L. Gottlieb, A. Hornkohl and E. Mastéy, A Concise Lexicon of Late Biblical Hebrew, VTSup 160 (Brill, 2014), 217; R. Polzin, Late Biblical Hebrew: Toward an Historical Typology of Biblical Hebrew Prose (Scholars Press, 1976); M. F. Rooker, Biblical Hebrew in Transition: The Language of the Book of Ezekiel, JSOTSup 90 (Sheffield, 1990)
minorityFeatures of this kind cannot by themselves date a text, since isolated instances of the same usage occur in books normally judged early; the distribution reflects style and genre as much as chronology.; I. Young and R. Rezetko, Linguistic Dating of Biblical Texts, 2 vols. (Equinox, 2008)

to set up: to make something or someone stand, and so to erect, station, appoint, present, or confirm

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled

Hebrew can turn this verb around so that the standing is done to something else: not "it stands" but "he makes it stand." Everything in this range comes back to placing a thing or a person so that it stays where it is put.

That covers a lot of practical ground:

doors, altars, images and a ruined temple are set up so they stand
priests, singers, judges, gatekeepers and watchmen are put in their posts
a person or an animal is presented before God or a priest for a decision
a covenant, a decree, a throne or the heavens themselves are made to hold firm
an army or a storm wind is raised up and brought onto the scene

Two of the plainest uses are also the oldest looking. A dying king is held upright in his chariot so his army will not break, and the goat for Azazel is made to stand before the LORD. Related languages built their word for a pillar or a prop on this same root, and Hebrew did too, which is why the causative shades so easily from setting a thing on its feet into holding it steady.

Nuances

4ato set something or someone upright: to erect it, put it in place, or hold it up

1Ki 22:352Ch 18:342Ch 24:132Ch 25:142Ch 33:19Ezr 2:68Ezr 9:9Neh 3:1Neh 3:3Neh 3:6Neh 3:13Neh 3:14

4bto station or appoint a person to a post or an office

Num 3:6Num 8:13Num 11:24Num 27:19Num 27:22Jdg 16:251Ki 12:321Ch 6:311Ch 15:161Ch 15:171Ch 22:22Ch 8:14

4cto present a person or an animal before someone for inspection, valuation, or judgment

Gen 47:7Lev 14:11Lev 16:7Lev 16:10Lev 27:8Lev 27:11Num 5:16Num 5:18Num 5:30

4dto establish or confirm something so that it holds firm

Exo 9:162Sa 22:341Ki 15:41Ch 16:171Ch 17:142Ch 30:52Ch 33:82Ch 34:32Neh 10:32Psa 18:33Psa 30:7Psa 31:8

4eto raise up and bring onto the scene, as an army or a wind

Psa 107:25Dan 11:11Dan 11:13

What amad does not mean

English Bibles render this one verb a dozen ways (stand, stop, stay, remain, endure, present, set up, appoint, establish), so two different English words on the page very often translate the same Hebrew word. Four traps in particular:

Do not read it as the upward motion of getting up. That belongs to the verb for arising (קוּם); this word is about being in place and staying there.
Do not assume that "standing before" the LORD is only about posture. In priestly and prophetic language it means being on duty, and in the council scenes it means being let in on what God has decided.
Do not flatten the later books into the earlier ones. When Daniel says a king "stands," he means the king arises and takes power, which older Hebrew would have said with the verb for arising.
Do not build a doctrine of territorial spirits on Daniel 10:13. That verse has a hostile prince holding up a messenger sent to Daniel, and a good deal of modern teaching about naming and binding the spirits that rule particular places rests on it. Daniel does none of that in the chapter: he prays and fasts, and the conflict is left to others.

One more caution about origins. The oldest layer of this root, judging by the related languages, is closer to propping or supporting than to standing upright, and the noun for a pillar is built on it. That is a fact about the word's history, not a hidden meaning to read into any verse.

What scholars say about amad

BDB (pp. 763-764) remains the fullest analysis, parsing roughly 520 occurrences as Qal 435, Hiphil 83, Hophal 2, with no Niphal, and arranging the Qal in seven bands: taking one's stand, standing still or ceasing, tarrying and enduring, making a stand in battle, standing upright as against sitting or lying, arising or appearing on the scene, and a set of idioms (עמד בברית, עמד בסוד יהוה, the Leviticus 18:23 euphemism). Unusually for a lexicon of its date, BDB flags four of those uses as late substitutions for קוּם. HALOT reorders the same data from concrete to abstract and supplies the comparative apparatus (Akkadian emēdu, Phoenician, Old and Imperial Aramaic, Syriac, Sabaean, Middle Hebrew, Jewish Aramaic); DCH vol. 6 catalogues subjects, objects and prepositional government exhaustively and adds the Qumran evidence (1QS, 1QM, 1QHa, CD), where עמד לפני אל and עמד ברית are frequent. The fullest theological treatment is H. Ringgren's TDOT XI:178-187; TLOT has no independent entry, handling עמד under E. Jenni's article on קוּם, where the classical pair is described as קוּם for the onset of rising and עמד for the durative condition of standing and remaining. Earlier attributions of a TLOT article to S. Amsler are mistaken.

On etymology, the reconstructed root and its nominal "pillar, prop" are uncontroversial; which semantic branch is older is not. Akkadian emēdu means "lean on, impose, attach," with nominal derivatives meaning "support, prop, throne-base"; Arabic has no verb ʿamada meaning "to stand upright" but a rich nominal system (ʿamūd "pillar, tent-pole"); Geʿez and Sabaic likewise preserve mainly the noun; and Ugaritic, which uses qm and nṣb for standing, registers ʿmd chiefly as a noun. Fronzaroli, Kogan and Huehnergard accordingly treat "be firmly placed, prop, support" as primary and "stand upright" as a Canaanite-Aramaic specialization, with the Hophal of 1 Kings 22:35 (Ahab propped up in his chariot) the most archaic-looking occurrence in the Hebrew Bible.

On diachrony, Kropat, Bendavid, Polzin, Rooker and above all Hurvitz document עמד absorbing functions of קוּם in Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemiah, Esther, Ecclesiastes and Daniel: the parallel texts 1 Chronicles 21:1 against 2 Samuel 24:1, the idiom of Esther 3:4 discussed by Fox and Bush, and Daniel's dynastic vocabulary (11:2, 11:3, 8:23, 12:1). Young and Rezetko dispute the dating inference; Hendel and Joosten answer that accumulation rather than isolated attestation is decisive. Japhet and Williamson read the Hiphil of clerical installation as the Chronicler's administrative vocabulary. On individual passages: Collins, Hartman and Di Lella, and Newsom treat Daniel 12:13 as resurrection language, with Qumran's "standing in the lot of the holy ones" as background; Mullen, Cross, Miller and Kee analyse the divine-council idiom of Jeremiah 23:18 and 1 Kings 22:19; Meyers and Meyers read Zechariah 14:4 as permanent stationing over against the departure of Ezekiel 11:23; Hossfeld and Zenger, with Goldingay, read the עמד and קוּם of Psalm 1:1 and 1:5 as a deliberate contrast between chosen alignment and the capacity to survive judgment. On Daniel 10:13, BDB files עמד with לנגד under its band for rising up as a foe, beside the adversarial uses with עַל in 1 Chronicles 21:1, 2 Chronicles 20:23, Daniel 8:25 and Daniel 11:14, so the traditional "withstood" reflects the lexicon rather than paraphrasing it, and the participle carries the opposition across the whole twenty-one days. Collins, Newsom, and Hartman and Di Lella read the scene as conflict between the patron angels of the nations; Duniya argues from the length of the detention that the שרים are better taken as battle commanders than as courtiers pleading a case; Meadowcroft and, before him, Calvin keep open a human-political reading; and Walton objects at a different level, that the passage uses the ancient framework of national patron spirits as its vehicle without affirming it, a position whose lexical bearing is nil. The second half of the verse is textually disputed: MT leaves the messenger himself beside the kings of Persia, while the Old Greek and Theodotion read that he left Michael there, a reading Grätz adopted by emendation and Bevan rejected as a translator's guess.

Where scholars disagree about amad

Which of the root's two attested branches is older: "stand upright," or "prop, support, be firmly placed."

majorityThe primary sense was "be firmly placed, prop, support." Akkadian emēdu means "lean on, impose," with nominal derivatives "support, prop, throne-base"; Arabic and Geʿez preserve the nominal "pillar" with no verb meaning "stand"; Ugaritic uses other roots for standing. The upright-standing sense is therefore a Canaanite-Aramaic specialization.; L. Kogan, Genealogical Classification of Semitic (De Gruyter, 2015); J. Huehnergard, on Proto-Semitic, in The Semitic Languages, ed. J. Huehnergard and N. Pat-El, 2nd ed. (Routledge, 2019); HALOT, s.v. עָמַד (comparative section)
minority"Stand upright" is treated as the root sense from which the propping and supporting uses developed, the arrangement adopted by the older lexicons and still followed in the theological dictionaries' presentation of the verb.; BDB, s.v. עָמַד; H. Ringgren, "עָמַד ʿāmad," in TDOT XI:178-187

In-depth research

These are research papers, so they may be hard to read without scholarly background. They are useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

BDB, s.v. עָמַד (pp. 763-764)lexicon
HALOT, s.v. עָמַדlexicon
DCH, vol. 6 (Samekh-Pe), s.v. עמדlexicon
Gesenius, Hebräisches und Aramäisches Handwörterbuch, 18. Auflage, s.v. עמדlexicon
H. Ringgren, "עָמַד ʿāmad," in TDOT XI:178-187theological-dictionary
E. Jenni, "קום qûm to arise," in TLOT III:1141-1147theological-dictionary
NIDOTTE, vol. 3, s.v. עמדtheological-dictionary
TWOT, s.v. עָמַד (no. 1637)theological-dictionary
A. Hurvitz with L. Gottlieb, A. Hornkohl and E. Mastéy, A Concise Lexicon of Late Biblical Hebrew, VTSup 160 (Brill, 2014)monograph
R. Polzin, Late Biblical Hebrew: Toward an Historical Typology of Biblical Hebrew Prose (Scholars Press, 1976)monograph
M. F. Rooker, Biblical Hebrew in Transition: The Language of the Book of Ezekiel, JSOTSup 90 (Sheffield, 1990)monograph
I. Young and R. Rezetko, Linguistic Dating of Biblical Texts, 2 vols. (Equinox, 2008)monograph
R. Hendel and J. Joosten, How Old Is the Hebrew Bible? (Yale University Press, 2018)monograph
L. Kogan, Genealogical Classification of Semitic (De Gruyter, 2015)monograph
E. T. Mullen, The Assembly of the Gods, HSM 24 (Scholars Press, 1980)monograph
F. M. Cross, Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic (Harvard University Press, 1973)monograph
M. V. Fox, Character and Ideology in the Book of Esther, 2nd ed. (Eerdmans, 2001)monograph
J. J. Collins, Daniel, Hermeneia (Fortress, 1993)commentary
L. F. Hartman and A. A. Di Lella, The Book of Daniel, Anchor Bible (Doubleday, 1978)commentary
C. A. Newsom with B. W. Breed, Daniel, OTL (Westminster John Knox, 2014)commentary
S. Japhet, I and II Chronicles, OTL (Westminster John Knox, 1993)commentary
H. G. M. Williamson, Ezra, Nehemiah, WBC 16 (Word, 1985)commentary
F. W. Bush, Ruth, Esther, WBC 9 (Word, 1996)commentary
C. L. Meyers and E. M. Meyers, Zechariah 9-14, Anchor Bible (Doubleday, 1993)commentary
F. Hossfeld and E. Zenger, Psalms 1, Hermeneia (Fortress, 2005)commentary
P. D. Miller, "The Divine Council and the Prophetic Call to War," Vetus Testamentum 18 (1968): 100-107article
M. S. Kee, "The Heavenly Council and Its Type-Scene," Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 31 (2007): 259-273article
D. Vainstub, U. Yizhaq and U. Avner, "Joshua's Battle at Gibeon and the Solar Eclipse," Vetus Testamentum 70 (2020): 722-751article
J. Goldingay, Daniel, WBC 30 (Word, 1989)commentary
J. A. Montgomery, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Daniel, ICC (Scribner, 1927)commentary
R. E. Duniya, "The שרים in Daniel 10:13, 20-21: Princes or battle commanders?", Acta Theologica 41/1 (2021): 16-30article
T. Meadowcroft, Aramaic Daniel and Greek Daniel, JSOTSup 198 (Sheffield Academic Press, 1995)monograph
J. H. Walton and J. Harvey Walton, Demons and Spirits in Biblical Theology: Reading the Biblical Text in Its Cultural and Literary Context (Cascade, 2019)monograph
C. Lowe, Territorial Spirits and World Evangelisation? A Biblical, Historical and Missiological Critique of Strategic-Level Spiritual Warfaremonograph
C. E. Arnold, Three Crucial Questions about Spiritual Warfare (1997)monograph

What amad means

to stand: to be on one's feet and in place, and so to take up a position, come to a halt, or wait there on someone

Nuances

to remain: to keep standing over time, and so to last, to hold one's ground, or to be valid rather than fall

Nuances

to arise: to come onto the scene and take one's place, as a king coming to power

Nuances

Disputed

to set up: to make something or someone stand, and so to erect, station, appoint, present, or confirm

Nuances

Related words

The English words used to translate amad

How amad differs from similar Hebrew words

amad in the other biblical languages

What scholars say about amad

Where scholars disagree about amad

Sources

All attested forms of עָמַד

qal participle m s absolute

qal consecutive-imperfect 3ms

qal participle m p absolute

qal infinitive-construct construct

qal imperfect 3ms

qal consecutive-imperfect 3mp

hiphil consecutive-imperfect 3ms

qal imperfect 3mp

qal perfect 3ms

qal perfect 3cp

qal consecutive-perfect 3ms

hiphil consecutive-perfect 3ms

qal consecutive-imperfect 3fs

hiphil consecutive-imperfect 3mp

qal imperative 2ms

qal participle f s absolute

qal perfect 1cs

hiphil consecutive-imperfect 1cs

hiphil infinitive-construct construct

qal imperative 2mp

qal imperfect 2ms

qal imperfect 3fs

qal jussive 2ms

qal consecutive-imperfect 3fp

qal consecutive-perfect 3cp

hiphil perfect 1cs

hiphil perfect 3ms

qal perfect 3fs

hiphil consecutive-perfect 2ms

hiphil imperfect 3ms

hiphil perfect 2ms

qal jussive 2mp

qal participle f p absolute

hiphil conjunctive-imperfect 3ms

hiphil consecutive-imperfect 3fs

hiphil imperative 2ms

qal cohortative 1cp

qal conjunctive-imperfect 3ms

qal consecutive-perfect 2ms

qal imperative 2fs