to get out in front of someone or something: to meet or confront them face to face, to go on ahead, or to act ahead of time
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong
At its heart this verb means to put yourself in front. Everything it covers grows out of that one picture. When you get in front of a person you meet them, and the verse decides whether that meeting is a welcome or an ambush: the same word describes townspeople carrying water out to thirsty travelers and the cords of death closing in on a drowning man.
From meeting face to face the word stretches in two more directions. In space it means to walk in front, to lead the way, as when the singers go before the musicians in a festal procession. In time it means to be early, to do a thing before its due moment, whether rising before dawn to pray or acting before an event can catch up with you.
Because the range is so wide, no single English word fits every verse, and older translations chose the now confusing word prevent for it. The thread that holds all of it together is simple: someone or something arrives out in front, in place or in time.
Nuances
1ato come out to meet someone with kindness: to greet, welcome, or bring them help
Deu 23:4(5)Neh 13:2Job 3:12Psa 21:3(4)Psa 59:10(11)Psa 79:8Isa 21:14
1bto confront or close in on someone: to come against them as an attacker, or of danger and trouble pressing upon a person
To happen or befall: an event, good or bad, comes upon someone without their initiative.Gen 42:29Gen 44:29Ecc 9:11Est 4:7
A chance encounter: coming upon someone or something by accident rather than by design.Rut 2:32Sa 1:6Num 35:11
Of God causing an encounter or outcome to come about, so that a meeting simply comes to pass.Gen 24:12Num 23:3Num 23:4
פָּגַשׁto run into or come upon someone, a plain encounter, without the sense of pressing forward to meet or confront them
qadam in the other biblical languages
προφθάνωGreek“to come before”the Greek verb for coming before or acting first; it matches the being-early, anticipating side of this word
ἀπαντάωGreek“to meet”the Greek verb for meeting or coming to meet someone; it matches the face-to-face side of this word but not its timing or hostile edges
Carries the core idea of coming face to face with someone, warm or hostile, that the Greek word lacks: to come out to greet and welcome a traveler with bread and water, or the opposite, to fail to do so.Deu 23:4Isa 21:14Neh 13:2
Is the word for danger and enemies closing in on a person, pressing up against them: the cords of death confront the psalmist and foes fall upon him in the day of his disaster.2Sa 22:62Sa 22:19Psa 18:5
Names the act of coming before God to present oneself in worship, an approach into his presence that the Greek word never expresses.Mic 6:6Psa 95:2
Both
Both can mean simply going out in front of others and leading the way, one moving ahead while the rest follow.Mat 21:9Mrk 10:32Psa 68:25
Both reach into time as well as space, describing what comes earlier or is done ahead of the expected moment: the Greek of prophecies once spoken and a commandment now superseded, the Hebrew of rising before dawn to pray and of acting first before the fact.1Ti 1:18Heb 7:18Psa 119:147Jon 4:2
Adds a causative, judicial move the Hebrew word never makes: to bring or lead another person out to the front, most often marching a prisoner forward to face the authorities. The action is done to someone, not toward someone.Act 12:6Act 25:26Act 17:5
Can turn negative in a way the Hebrew word does not: to run on ahead beyond the proper limit, going further than one should and so leaving sound teaching behind.2Jn 1:9
Only the Hebrew word turns hostile. The cords of death close in on a man, the day of trouble comes at him, and God is asked to go out and face an enemy down. It is also what a besieging army will not get to do to a defended city: come at it with a shield.2Sa 22:62Sa 22:19Psa 18:5Psa 18:18Psa 17:13Job 30:272Ki 19:32Isa 37:33Amo 9:10
It also covers going out to meet someone with what they need, which is why failing to do it can be held against a nation for generations: Ammon and Moab did not come out to meet Israel with bread and water, while the people of Tema did carry bread out to the runaway. Turned toward God's own action, it is his blessing and his mercy coming out to meet a person.Deu 23:4Neh 13:2Isa 21:14Psa 21:3Psa 79:8
It is a worship word in a way the Greek verb never is: coming into God's presence with thanksgiving, asking what to bring when you come before him, and a prayer that reaches him early in the morning.Psa 95:2Mic 6:6Psa 88:13
It can be about time rather than place: being up before the dawn, staying ahead of the night watches, running for Tarshish first rather than waiting to see what God would do, and the question of whether anyone has ever done God a favor first so that God owes them a repayment.Psa 119:147Psa 119:148Jon 4:2Job 41:11
Both
Both words describe walking out at the head of others, and English Bibles say "go before" for either one. In Hebrew the singers go in front with the musicians behind, and God's love and faithfulness go out ahead of him; in Greek John will go on ahead of the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, and Judas walks in front of the crowd that comes to arrest Jesus. This narrow overlap is most of what the Greek word does and only one corner of what the Hebrew word does.Psa 68:25Psa 89:14Luk 1:17Luk 22:47
It can be a plain step forward, with nobody met and nobody led: Jesus goes a little farther from his disciples before he prays, and Peter and the angel simply move on down one street. The Hebrew word always has some other person or thing that is being gotten in front of.Mat 26:39Mrk 14:35Act 12:10
It is the ordinary travel word for part of a group setting out first and waiting for the rest to catch up, and for the crowd that hurries around on foot and gets to the far shore before the boat does. Nothing in it suggests welcome or threat, only who arrives first.Act 20:5Act 20:132Co 9:5Mrk 6:33
Going out to meet travelers on the road and putting food and water in front of them, which makes withholding that welcome an act of hostility worth remembering for generations. Israel recalls being refused bread and water, while desert people carry water out to the thirsty.Deu 23:4Neh 13:2Isa 21:14
Walking up to God with something in hand, the ordinary language of approaching him in worship. A worshipper asks what he should bring when he comes before God, a crowd is called to come into his presence with thanks, and a sufferer says his prayer gets there at daybreak.Mic 6:6Psa 95:2Psa 88:13
Squaring off against an enemy face to face, stepping into his path rather than waiting for him. The psalmist asks God to go out and cut his attacker off, and Isaiah promises the Assyrian king will never get in front of Jerusalem with a shield.Psa 17:13Isa 37:332Ki 19:32
God's loyal kindness pictured as a person who comes out to meet you. Blessing reaches the king before he has finished asking, mercy is asked to hurry out to a beaten people, and steadfast love walks in front of God himself.Psa 21:3Psa 79:8Psa 89:14
Both
Both words can describe trouble getting to a person before there is any way out of it, which is why the Greek word is a standard way of rendering the Hebrew one into Greek. Hebrew poetry has the ropes of death closing in on the psalmist, and the Greek word says the same kind of thing about a judgment that has already arrived.2Sa 22:6Psa 18:51Th 2:16
Both can mean getting there first, ahead of someone else in time. Paul promises that Christians still alive will not go on ahead of those who have died, and the Hebrew word covers rising before daybreak and running ahead of a plan you want to dodge.1Th 4:15Psa 119:147Jon 4:2
Reaching a goal you have been straining toward, the way a runner reaches a mark. Paul says Israel chased a standard of righteousness and never got there, and he tells his readers to keep living by whatever ground they have already gained. The Hebrew word never measures progress toward a standard like this.Rom 9:31Php 3:16
Covering real distance and getting all the way to a place with a message. Paul reminds the Corinthians that he was the first to reach as far as their city with the good news.2Co 10:14
Saying that God's reign has already landed on the people standing there, an arrival they did not go out to meet and cannot reverse. This is the word behind the announcement that the kingdom of God "has come upon you".Mat 12:28Luk 11:20
What scholars say about qadam
Standard lexica (BDB; HALOT; DCH) treat this as a single denominative verb tied to qedem, front or east, with the core notion be or come in front. In the piel it ranges over meeting and confronting (both benevolent reception, as when townspeople bring water in Isa 21:14 or the knees receive the newborn in Job 3:12, and hostile onslaught, as with the cords of death in Ps 18:5 = 2 Sam 22:6 or the enemy in Ps 17:13), going before or leading (Ps 68:26 MT; the divine attributes preceding God's face in Ps 89:15 MT), and coming before in time, that is anticipating or doing early (Ps 119:147 to 148; Ps 88:14 MT; Jonah 4:2). The hiphil means to do beforehand or give first, notably in Job 41:3 MT (Eng 41:11), which Paul cites at Romans 11:35. TDOT surveys the qdm root and its temporal-spatial semantics. The sense range is well established; disagreement is confined to individual renderings (for example the force of the hiphil in Amos 9:10) rather than to what the verb denotes.