Bible word study

Abad (Strong’s H5647): Meaning in the Bible

Abad (עָבַד) is the Hebrew word numbered H5647 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as to work (in any sense); by implication, to serve, till, (causatively) enslave, etc. In the King James Bible it is translated keep in bondage, be bondmen, bond-service, compel, do.

• Original wordעָבַד
• Transliterationʻâbad
• Pronunciationaw-bad'
• Part of speechverb (v)
• Strong’s numberH5647
• LanguageHebrew

The full Strong’s definition

Derivation. a primitive root;

How the King James Bible translates it

Where Abad appears in the Bible

In the King James Bible’s text tagged with Strong’s numbers, Abad (H5647) stands behind 291 English renderings in 261 verses across 25 of the 66 books. It is most frequent in Deuteronomy (35), Jeremiah (35), Exodus (32).

How the King James Bible renders Abad, by count

• serve161 of 291 (55 percent)
• served60 of 291 (21 percent)
• do14 of 291 (5 percent)
• work5 of 291 (2 percent)
• worshippers5 of 291 (2 percent)
• servants4 of 291 (1 percent)

Three places to read Abad

• Genesis 2:5 And 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.
• Deuteronomy 12:2 Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree:
• 2 Kings 18:7 And the LORD was with him; and he prospered whithersoever he went forth: and he rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not.

Counts are made at build time from the King James text tagged with Strong’s numbers (eBible.org, public domain). Verses are read from the stored King James text, never typed.

Why the word matters

Every word the biblical writers chose carries weight. Studying Abad in the original Hebrew lets you read the passages where it appears more carefully, closer to what the first hearers understood, so the meaning is drawn from the text itself rather than from the English alone.

The lexical data on this page comes from the public-domain Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890), a Hebrew and Greek dictionary keyed to the King James Bible. It is a reference tool, not a settled verdict: no single word decides a doctrine, and meaning is finally shaped by how a word is used in its sentences. Read the passages themselves, prayerfully, and in full.

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