יָלַד
ya.lad
to beget
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# The Hebrew Word ילד (yalad): Bearing and Begetting The Hebrew verb *yalad* fundamentally expresses the act of procreation—specifically, to beget or to bear children. With 496 occurrences across the biblical text, this word appears in both masculine and feminine forms, encompassing both the father's role in begetting and the mother's role in bearing offspring. The term operates as a core vocabulary item for describing human reproduction and family lineage throughout Scripture. The frequency and distribution of *yalad* across nearly five hundred biblical passages underscores its importance in genealogical narratives and genealogical frameworks. The word establishes parentage, traces family lines, and documents succession—functions essential to the biblical record's concern with ancestry and inheritance. Beyond literal procreation, the high occurrence rate suggests that concepts of begetting and bearing were fundamental to how ancient Hebrew speakers organized and communicated family relationships and identity. The dual application of *yalad* to both male and female reproductive roles highlights a linguistic feature of Hebrew: the same verb accommodates different biological perspectives on parenthood. This semantic breadth allowed biblical authors to discuss lineage comprehensively, whether emphasizing who fathered offspring or who gave birth to them, making *yalad* an indispensable term for the genealogical and narrative traditions that structure much of the biblical text.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
496 total occurrences across the text — showing 50
Jehoiada took for him two wives, and he became the father of sons and daughters.
Ezra 10:3Now therefore let’s make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and those who are born of them, according to the counsel of my lord, and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God. Let it be done according to the law.
Nehemiah 12:10Jeshua became the father of Joiakim, and Joiakim became the father of Eliashib, and Eliashib became the father of Joiada,
Nehemiah 12:10Jeshua became the father of Joiakim, and Joiakim became the father of Eliashib, and Eliashib became the father of Joiada,
Nehemiah 12:11and Joiada became the father of Jonathan, and Jonathan became the father of Jaddua.
Nehemiah 12:11and Joiada became the father of Jonathan, and Jonathan became the father of Jaddua.
Job 1:2There were born to him seven sons and three daughters.
Job 3:3“Let the day perish in which I was born, the night which said, ‘There is a boy conceived.’
Job 5:7but man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward.
Job 11:12An empty-headed man becomes wise when a man is born as a wild donkey’s colt.
Job 14:1“Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble.
Job 15:7“Are you the first man who was born? Or were you brought out before the hills?
Job 15:14What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
Job 15:35They conceive mischief, and produce iniquity. Their heart prepares deceit.”
Job 24:21He devours the barren who don’t bear. He shows no kindness to the widow.
Job 25:4How then can man be just with God? Or how can he who is born of a woman be clean?
Job 38:21Surely you know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great!
Job 38:28Does the rain have a father? Or who fathers the drops of dew?
Job 38:29Whose womb did the ice come out of? Who has given birth to the gray frost of the sky?
Job 39:1“Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch when the doe bears fawns?
Job 39:2Can you count the months that they fulfill? Or do you know the time when they give birth?
Psalms 2:7I will tell of the decree: Yahweh said to me, “You are my son. Today I have become your father.
Psalms 7:14Behold, he travails with iniquity. Yes, he has conceived mischief, and brought out falsehood.
Psalms 22:31They shall come and shall declare his righteousness to a people that shall be born, for he has done it.
Psalms 48:6Trembling took hold of them there, pain, as of a woman in travail.
Psalms 78:6that the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born; who should arise and tell their children,
Psalms 87:4I will record Rahab and Babylon among those who acknowledge me. Behold, Philistia, Tyre, and also Ethiopia: “This one was born there.”
Psalms 87:5Yes, of Zion it will be said, “This one and that one was born in her;” the Most High himself will establish her.
Psalms 87:6Yahweh will count, when he writes up the peoples, “This one was born there.”
Psalms 90:2Before the mountains were born, before you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.
Isaiah 7:14Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Proverbs 17:17A friend loves at all times; and a brother is born for adversity.
Proverbs 17:21He who becomes the father of a fool grieves. The father of a fool has no joy.
Proverbs 17:25A foolish son brings grief to his father, and bitterness to her who bore him.
Proverbs 23:22Listen to your father who gave you life, and don’t despise your mother when she is old.
Proverbs 23:24The father of the righteous has great joy. Whoever fathers a wise child delights in him.
Proverbs 23:25Let your father and your mother be glad! Let her who bore you rejoice!
Proverbs 27:1Don’t boast about tomorrow; for you don’t know what a day may bring.
Ecclesiastes 3:2a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
Ecclesiastes 4:14For out of prison he came out to be king; yes, even in his kingdom he was born poor.
Ecclesiastes 5:14Those riches perish by misfortune, and if he has fathered a son, there is nothing in his hand.
Ecclesiastes 6:3If a man fathers a hundred children, and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not filled with good, and moreover he has no burial; I say, that a stillborn child is better than he:
Ecclesiastes 7:1A good name is better than fine perfume; and the day of death better than the day of one’s birth.
Song of Solomon 6:9My dove, my perfect one, is unique. She is her mother’s only daughter. She is the favorite one of her who bore her. The daughters saw her, and called her blessed. The queens and the concubines saw her, and they praised her.
Song of Solomon 8:5Who is this who comes up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved? Under the apple tree I aroused you. There your mother conceived you. There she was in labor and bore you.
Isaiah 45:10Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What have you become the father of?’ or to a mother, ‘What have you given birth to?’ ”
Isaiah 8:3I went to the prophetess, and she conceived, and bore a son. Then Yahweh said to me, “Call his name ‘Maher Shalal Hash Baz.’
Isaiah 9:6For a child is born to us. A son is given to us; and the government will be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 13:8They will be dismayed. Pangs and sorrows will seize them. They will be in pain like a woman in labor. They will look in amazement one at another. Their faces will be faces of flame.
Isaiah 21:3Therefore my thighs are filled with anguish. Pains have seized me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am in so much pain that I can’t hear. I so am dismayed that I can’t see.