To serve
עָבַדStrong’s H5647avad (a-vad)
Appears in 261 verses of the Old Testament
In short
Avad is the Hebrew word usually translated “serve” and “served”. It appears in 261 verses of the Old Testament.
“But he shall say, I am no prophet, I am an husbandman; for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth.”
Meaning
- To work, serve(Qal) · (Niphal) · (Pual) to be worked · (Hiphil) · (Hophal) to be led or enticed to serve
How it's translated
- to serve 25
- and you will serve 17
- and they served 16
- serve 15
- you will serve 11
- and he served 8
- and serve 7
- and they will serve 7
Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.
Where it's used most
- Deuteronomy 35
- Jeremiah 30
- Exodus 29
- Genesis 22
- Numbers 21
- Joshua 16
25 books in all.
Explore in Scripture
- Genesis 2:5And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
- Genesis 2:15And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
- Genesis 3:23Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
- Genesis 4:2And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
- Genesis 4:12When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.
- Genesis 14:4Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled.
All 261 verses, by book
- Genesis 22
- 2:52:153:234:24:1214:415:1315:1425:2327:2927:4029:1529:1829:2029:2529:2729:3030:2630:2931:631:4149:15
- Exodus 29
- 1:131:143:124:235:186:57:168:18:209:19:1310:310:710:810:1110:2410:2612:3113:514:514:1220:520:921:221:623:2423:2523:3334:21
- Deuteronomy 35
- 4:194:285:95:136:137:47:168:1910:1210:2011:1311:1612:212:3013:213:413:613:1315:1215:1815:1917:320:1121:321:428:1428:3628:3928:4728:4828:6429:1829:2630:1731:20
- Nehemiah 1
- 9:35
- Jeremiah 30
- 5:198:211:1013:1016:1116:1317:422:922:1325:625:1125:1427:627:727:827:927:1127:1227:1327:1427:1728:1430:830:934:934:1034:1435:1540:944:3
- Hosea 1
- 12:12
- Zephaniah 1
- 3:9
- Zechariah 1
- 13:5
Hebrew dictionary
עָבַד avad · to serve
: serve[someone] 1) to work, serve 1a) (Qal) 1a1) to labour, work, do work 1a2) to work for another, serve another by labour 1a3) to serve as subjects 1a4) to serve (God) 1a5) to serve (with Levitical service) 1b) (Niphal) 1b1) to be worked, be tilled (of land) 1b2) to make oneself a servant 1c) (Pual) to be worked 1d) (Hiphil) 1d1) to compel to labour or work, cause to labour, cause to serve 1d2) to cause to serve as subjects 1e) (Hophal) to be led or enticed to serve
From STEPBible’s Hebrew lexicon (based on Brown-Driver-Briggs).
Webster's 1828 Dictionary
How the English word “serve” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.
SERVE, verb transitive
serv. [Latin servio. This verb is supposed to be from the noun servus, a servant or slave, and this from servo, to keep.]
- To work for; to bestow the labor of boky and mind in the employment of another.“Jacob loved Rachel and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy youngest daughters” Genesis 29:18“No man can serve two masters” Matthew 6:24
- To act as the minister of; to perform official duties to; as, a minister serves his prince.
- To attend at command; to wait on.
- To obey servilely or meanly. be not to wealth a servant.
All definitions and other forms of “serve”
- To supply with food; as, to be served in plate.
- To be subservient or subordinate to.
- To perform the duties required in; as, the curate served two churches.
- To obey; to perform duties in the employment of; as, to serve the king or the country in the army or navy.
- To be sufficient, or to promote; as, to serve one's turn, end or purpose.
- To help by good offices; as, to serve one's country.
- To comply with; to submit to.
- To be sufficient for; to satisfy; to content.
- To be in the place of any thing to one.
- To treat; to requite; as, he served me ungratefully; he served me very ill; We say also, he served me a trick, that is he deceived me, or practiced an artifice on me.
- In Scripture and theology, to obey and worship; to act in conformity to the law of a superior, and treat him with due reverence.“Fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and truth. As for me and my house, we will serve the lord” Joshua 24:14
- In a bad sense, to obey; to yeild compliance or act according to.“Serving divers lusts and treasures” Titus 3:3
- To worship; to render homage to; as, to serve idols or false gods.
- To be a slave to; to be in bondage to.
- To serve one's self of, to use; to make use of; a Gallicism, [se sevir de.]
- To use; to manage; to apply.
- In seamen's language, to wind something round a rope to prevent friction.
SERVE, verb intransitive
serv.
- To be a servant or slave.“The Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve” Isaiah 14:3
- To be employed in labor or or other business for another.
- To be in subjection.
- To wait; to attend; to perform domestic offices to another.
- To perform duties, as in the army, navy or in any office.
- To answer; to accomplish the end.
- To be sufficient for a purpose.
- To suit; to be convenient.
- To conduce; to be of use.
- To officiate or minister; to do the honors of; as, to serve at a public dinner.
Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). Verse references are checked against the KJV. Read the full entry.
Verses are from the King James Version. Word meanings come from the original Hebrew, not from any one translation.