H5975 — עָמַד (ʻâmad)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: H5975
Original: עָמַד
Transliteration: ʻâmad
Pronunciation: aw-mad'
Part of Speech: Verb (primitive root)
Occurrences: 597 tokens in 497 unique OT verses
Book Coverage: 36 books (all OT books except Song, Ruth, Zeph, Joel — Ruth/Song lexicon hits in gather report are data artifacts with "[not found]" KJV texts)
First Occurrence: Gen 18:8 — "And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set [it] before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat."
Hapax Legomenon: No

Lexicon Definition¶

A primitive root: to stand, in various relations (literal and figurative, intransitive and transitive) — rendered: abide (behind), appoint, arise, cease, confirm, continue, dwell, be employed, endure, establish, leave, make, ordain, be (over), place, (be) present (self), raise up, remain, repair, serve, set (forth, over, -tle, up), (make to, make to be at a, with-) stand (by, fast, firm, still, up), (be at a) stay (up), tarry.

The verb has a wide semantic range but a common core: assuming or maintaining an upright, established, fixed position. That position may be physical (standing on one's feet), relational (standing before someone in service or in hostility), durational (enduring, continuing, remaining), or institutional (being set up, appointed, installed). In the Hiphil the verb is causative — "cause to stand," hence "appoint, station, establish." The root is closely related semantically to H6965 קוּם (qûm, to rise up), H5324 נָצַב (nâtsab, to station), and H3320 יָצַב (yâtsab, to take one's stand) — these four verbs form the core "stand / take a stand" field in Biblical Hebrew.

Verb Stem Distribution¶

Tallied from 521 parsed verbal occurrences (excluding 62 nominal occurrences of the homograph noun/preposition עִמָּד ʿimmâdî "with me"):

Stem	Count	Typical Force
Qal	434	intransitive — "stand, take a stand, remain, endure, continue" (subject assumes or maintains an upright / fixed position)
Hiphil	85	causative / factitive — "cause to stand, set up, station, appoint, establish" (subject places or installs an object)
Hophal	2	passive of Hiphil — "be caused to stand, be set in place"

The Niphal, Piel, Pual, and Hithpael stems are unattested. The verb operates almost entirely on a binary Qal / Hiphil axis: one either stands (Qal) or causes something else to stand (Hiphil). The Hophal appears only when the Hiphil's action is passivized — the object has been stationed / set by another. About 83% of verbal uses are Qal intransitive.

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Clustered into translation families (n=497 unique verses):

Translation Family	Verses	%
stood / stood up / stood still / stood by / there stood / stood fast	~200	~40%
stand / shall stand / to stand / stand up / stand still / shall stand up	~120	~24%
standing / standeth / standest / upright	~25	~5%
set / set up / set forth / set him / set me / set them	~35	~7%
appoint / appointed / ordained / made / confirmed / established / settled	~25	~5%
remain / remained / abide / abideth / continue / continueth / endure / endureth / dwell	~25	~5%
stay / stayed / tarried / ceased / left / waited / present / served	~25	~5%
withstand / withstood / could withstand / could not stand	~8	~2%
conjunctions / particles translating nothing directly (parsing artifacts: "And", "Then", "So", "Let", etc.)	~34	~7%

The "stand / stood / standing" core covers roughly 70% of all renderings. The Hiphil senses ("set up," "appoint," "establish," "ordain," "confirm," "present") account for most of the remaining specialized vocabulary.

Distribution by Book¶

Sorted by density (per 100 verses in book):

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
Daniel	38	10.6
Obadiah	2	9.5
Esther	12	7.2
2 Chronicles	50	6.1
Nehemiah	24	5.9
Habakkuk	3	5.4
Zechariah	11	5.2
Nahum	2	4.3
2 Kings	26	3.6
Ezra	10	3.6
1 Kings	28	3.4
Joshua	18	2.7
Haggai	1	2.6
Ezekiel	32	2.5
Ecclesiastes	5	2.3
2 Samuel	15	2.2
Jeremiah	28	2.1
Jonah	1	2.1
1 Samuel	16	2.0
Deuteronomy	17	1.8
Malachi	1	1.8
Numbers	21	1.6
Judges	10	1.6
Exodus	18	1.5
1 Chronicles	14	1.5
Leviticus	12	1.4
Psalms	31	1.3
Isaiah	17	1.3
Genesis	16	1.0
Hosea	2	1.0
Micah	1	1.0
Job	8	0.7
Amos	1	0.7
Proverbs	4	0.4

Patterns: - Daniel concentration: By far the densest book for this verb (10.6 per 100 verses — nearly twice any other). All 38 Hebrew occurrences cluster in the Hebrew chapters (Dan 1, 8–12); Dan 2–7 is Aramaic and uses the cognate verb קוּם H6966 instead. - Post-exilic / late-prophetic weight: Dan, Est, 2Chr, Neh, Zec, Ezr, Hag, Mal together account for about 150 of 497 verses (~30%) — heavy concentration in the second-temple / restoration corpus where the verb carries senses of "stationing" priests and Levites, "establishing" the temple cultus, and "standing up" of successive kingdoms. - Cultic / architectural use in Chronicles: 2 Chronicles' high density reflects the verb's technical use for appointing Levitical service orders and setting up temple furniture / gates. - Absent or rare: Song, Ruth, Zephaniah, Joel (no legitimate occurrences in KJV data).

Semantic Categories¶

Derived from scanning the 497 unique KJV verses across all 36 books.

1. Physical Standing (Posture / Location)¶

The verb's base sense — assuming or maintaining an upright bodily posture, usually in a specific location.

Gen 18:8 — "he stood by them under the tree" (Abraham standing to serve)
Gen 24:30 — "he stood by the camels at the well" (Laban)
Ex 33:10 — "the cloudy pillar stood at the tabernacle door"
Judg 4:20 — "Stand in the door of the tent"
Neh 8:5 — "when he opened [the book], all the people stood up"
Dan 8:3 — "there stood before the river a ram which had two horns"

2. Standing Before Someone (Service, Presence, Attendance)¶

The verb in collocation with לִפְנֵי liphnê "before the face of" — to stand in the presence of a superior, typically denoting service, ministry, or audience.

Gen 18:22 — "Abraham stood yet before the LORD"
Deut 1:38 — "Joshua… which standeth before thee, he shall go in thither"
1 Sam 16:22 — "Let David, I pray thee, stand before me" (as Saul's attendant)
1 Kgs 17:1 — "the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand" (Elijah)
1 Kgs 22:21 — "there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD"
Jer 15:1 — "Though Moses and Samuel stood before me"
Zec 3:1 — "Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD"

3. Priestly / Levitical Cultic Standing (Service at the Sanctuary)¶

A technical use: ministers standing in the sanctuary to officiate. The participle "them that stand" functions as a standing title for the serving order.

Num 3:6 — "Bring the tribe of Levi near, and present them before Aaron the priest"
Deut 10:8 — "to stand before the LORD to minister unto him, and to bless in his name"
Deut 18:5, 7 — "to stand to minister in the name of the LORD"
1 Chr 6:31–33 — Levites whom David "set over the service of song… they waited with their children"
2 Chr 29:11 — "the LORD hath chosen you to stand before him, to serve him"
Eze 44:11 — "they shall stand before them to minister unto them"

4. Standing Before YHWH / Before the Angelic Court¶

A specialized extension of category 2 — standing in the heavenly throne-council, usually of angelic beings, and in Daniel of the visionary encountering the angelic presence.

1 Kgs 22:19 — "all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand"
Isa 6:2 — "Above it stood the seraphims"
Zec 1:8, 10, 11 — "a man… he stood among the myrtle trees… the angel of the LORD that stood among the myrtle trees"
Zec 4:14 — "These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth"
Dan 8:15 — "there stood before me as the appearance of a man" (Gabriel)
Dan 10:11 — "stand upright, for unto thee am I now sent"
Dan 12:1 — "Michael… the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people"
Dan 12:5 — "behold, there stood other two, the one on this side of the bank of the river"

5. Standing Up of Kings / Kingdoms (Political Accession)¶

A distinct political idiom centered in Daniel: a kingdom or ruler "stands up" at the moment of rising to power or taking the throne. Used repeatedly of successive world empires and of the "king of fierce countenance."

Dan 8:22 — "four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation"
Dan 8:23 — "a king of fierce countenance… shall stand up"
Dan 11:2 — "there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia"
Dan 11:3 — "a mighty king shall stand up"
Dan 11:4 — "when he shall stand up, his kingdom shall be broken"
Dan 11:7, 20, 21 — successive rulers "stand up in his estate"
Dan 11:14 — "there shall many stand up against the king of the south"
Dan 12:1 — "at that time shall Michael stand up"

6. Enduring / Remaining / Continuing (Durative)¶

When the object of "standing" is time or permanence, the verb shades into "remain, endure, continue." Common in wisdom and prophetic contexts about what survives or lasts.

Ps 19:9 — "the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever"
Ps 33:11 — "the counsel of the LORD standeth for ever"
Ps 102:26 — "They shall perish, but thou shalt endure"
Ps 111:3 — "his righteousness endureth for ever"
Ecc 1:4 — "the earth abideth for ever"
Prov 12:7 — "the house of the righteous shall stand"
Isa 40:8 — [cognate sense] "the word of our God shall stand for ever" (here H6965, but parallel idiom)

7. Taking a Stand / Withstanding (Resistance)¶

Either one's own stand in battle/judgment, or an opponent's inability to stand. Often with נֶגֶד or לִפְנֵי.

Josh 10:8 — "there shall not a man of them stand before thee"
Nah 1:6 — "Who can stand before his indignation?"
Mal 3:2 — "who shall stand when he appeareth?"
Dan 8:4 — "no beasts might stand before him" (ram)
Dan 8:7 — "there was no power in the ram to stand before him" (goat)
Dan 10:13 — "the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days"
Dan 11:16 — "none shall stand before him"

8. Hiphil "Cause to Stand" — Appoint, Station, Set Up, Establish¶

The causative stem carries the institutional senses: installing a person in office, stationing a guard, erecting an object, confirming a covenant, setting one on one's feet.

Gen 47:7 — "Joseph brought in Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh"
Lev 14:11 — "the priest… shall present… the man… before the LORD"
Num 27:22 — Moses "set [Joshua] before Eleazar the priest"
1 Kgs 12:32 — Jeroboam "ordained a feast… and he placed in Bethel the priests"
Neh 6:7 — "appointed prophets to preach"
Ps 33:9 — "he commanded, and it stood fast" (Hiphil — "he caused it to stand")
Dan 8:18 — "he touched me, and set me upright" (way-yaʿămîdēnî)
Dan 11:11, 13 — king of the north "shall set forth a great multitude"
Dan 11:31 — "arms shall stand on his part" (Qal here, but paired with Hiphil of naph'l "take away the daily")

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Typical Pattern
עַל ʻal	H5921	167x (34%)	"stand upon / over" — location ("stood upon the rock," "stood over him")
פָּנִים pânîym	H6440	137x (28%)	"stand before the face of" — the hallmark idiom for service, presence, audience (priests, courtiers, angels)
יְהֹוָה Yᵉhôvâh	H3068	128x (26%)	"stand before YHWH" / "YHWH stood" — the theological centerpiece collocation
אָמַר ʼâmar	H559	112x (23%)	"stood and said" — narrative formula introducing speech from a standing position (prophets, kings, officers)
כֹּל kôl	H3605	110x (22%)	"all the people stood" / "all that stood by" — mass assembly at covenant / cultic events
מֶלֶךְ melek	H4428	75x (15%)	"the king stood" / "stand before the king" / "stood up" of kings — courtly and political
בַּיִת bayith	H1004	57x (11%)	"stand in the house" — temple / palace settings
אֱלֹהִים ʼĕlôhîym	H430	55x (11%)	parallel to YHWH collocation — "stand before God"
כֹּהֵן kôhên	H3548	49x (10%)	"priests stood" — explicit cultic-service pattern
עַם ʻam	H5971	49x (10%)	"the people stood" — covenant-assembly scenes (Sinai, Shechem, Ezra's reading)
רָאָה râʼâh	H7200	47x (9%)	"I saw… and stood" or "stood and beheld" — vision-report formula (Dan, Eze, Zec)
יָד yâd	H3027	44x (9%)	"stood on his right hand" — positional idiom in legal / courtly scenes

Notable patterns: - The top three collocations (ʻal, pânîym, YHWH) together establish the verb's core usage domain: standing in a position before someone. The pânîym (face/before) collocation is the single most theologically loaded — it generates the "stand before YHWH" idiom that defines priestly and prophetic office. - The melek collocation (75x) generates the Daniel "kings shall stand up" pattern. - The râʼâh collocation (47x) generates the visionary formula "I saw, and behold, [X] stood" — foundational for Daniel 7–12 and Zechariah's night visions.

Word Family / Cognates¶

H5977 עֹמֶד (ʿōmed) — "standing place, station" (noun from this root; Dan 8:17, 18; 10:11; 11:20, 21, 38 — "in his estate")
H4612 מַעֲמָד (maʿămād) — "office, station, attendance" (noun from Hiphil stem; Isa 22:19; 1 Chr 23:28; 2 Chr 35:15)
H4613 מָעֳמָד (moʿŏmād) — "standing-place, foothold" (Ps 69:2)
H5976 עָמַד II (ʿāmad) — homograph "to sleep" — rare, contested
H5978 עִמָּד (ʿimmād) — preposition "with" (same consonants but distinct lexeme; do not conflate — "with me" ʿimmādî appears 62x in the parser dataset as a noun/preposition, NOT a form of H5975)

Synonyms¶

No direct synonyms were returned by search_relationships.py for H5975.

Antonyms¶

H3372 יָרֵא (yârêʼ) — contrast term returned by search_relationships.py; fear/trembling stands opposite the verb's frequent "stand firm / stand before" profile.
H926 בָּהַל (bâhal) — contrast term returned by search_relationships.py; alarm or dismay opposes the idea of remaining fixed or steady.

Easily Confused Words¶

Other Hebrew verbs sharing the semantic field of "stand / rise / be fixed":

Word	Strong's	Shared Translation	Key Difference
קוּם qûm	H6965	"stand," "stand up," "shall stand" (10v overlap at "stand," 10v at "shall stand")	qûm emphasizes the inceptive act — to rise, get up, come into being ("arise and go"). ʿāmad emphasizes the resultant state — to be on one's feet, remain standing. qûm more often starts an action; ʿāmad more often describes a continuing posture. In Dan 11 some English "stand up" renderings underlie ʿāmad (the standing-into-office durative) — but many parallel "arise" texts use qûm for the moment of rising.
קוּם (Aramaic)	H6966	"stand" (shared in Dan 7 LXX overlap)	Aramaic counterpart. Dan 7 (Aramaic) uses this for "four kings shall arise" (Dan 7:17), which is the functional equivalent of the Hebrew Dan 8:22 "shall stand up" (ʿāmad). The English reader sees the same political idiom across chapters; the Hebrew reader sees two different verbs operating in parallel registers.
נָצַב nâtsab	H5324	"stand," "stood," "standing" (5v at "stood," 4v at "standing," 4v at "stand")	nâtsab = "to station, be stationed" — stronger sense of being fixed in place, often of pillars, guards, or officials posted to a location. ʿāmad is more general ("be on one's feet"); nâtsab is more locational ("be planted at this spot").
יָצַב yâtsab	H3320	"stand," "set" (6v at "stand," 2v at "stood")	yâtsab is reflexive-intensive — "to take one's stand, present oneself, station oneself." Usually Hithpael. Overlaps heavily at "stand" but carries an assertive presentation sense ("take thy stand yonder").
כּוּן kûn	H3559	"standeth," "stood fast"	kûn = "be firm, be established, be set right." Shares "establish" semantics with the Hiphil of ʿāmad, but focuses on firmness / rightness rather than posture.
סָמַר çâmar	H5568	"stood up" (1v)	çâmar = "to bristle, stand erect" (hair standing on end — Job 4:15). Only superficial overlap.

Domain Neighbors (Hebrew "stand / rise / endure" field)¶

The four-verb core field: ʿāmad (H5975) / qûm (H6965) / nâtsab (H5324) / yâtsab (H3320). All four map primarily to Greek ἵστημι (G2476) in the LXX, where the semantic distinctions of the Hebrew are flattened. A reader working from the Greek / English text alone often cannot tell which Hebrew verb stands behind a "stand up" — the Daniel text in particular depends on the Hebrew distinctions.

Semantic Domains¶

UBS / Relationship Domains¶

[002001001057] Stance — the core "stand / take a stand" field for bodily position and presence.
[002002003001] Endure — captures remaining, continuing, and standing fast through time.
[002003002022] Serve — aligns with the priestly and courtly idiom "stand before" in ministry or attendance.
[002002002008] Role — reflects Hiphil uses for stationing, appointing, and setting someone in office.
[002001001058] Steady — highlights firmness, fixity, and settled posture.
[002003002006] Conflict — fits the adversarial sense "stand against / withstand."

LXX Mapping (Hebrew → Greek)¶

PMI-ranked cross-testament alignments:

Greek Equivalent	Strong's	Co-occ	PMI	Score	Notes
ἵστημι hístēmi	G2476	338	4.85	28.24	Primary bridge — the dominant LXX rendering (68% of aligned occurrences); carries the full semantic range
παρίστημι parístēmi	G3936	31	4.50	15.59	"Stand beside / present" — for the "stand before" idiom (courtly, cultic)
μένω ménō	G3306	15	3.78	10.48	"Remain, abide" — for the durative "endure / continue" uses
στάσις stásis	G4714	8	4.02	8.83	"Standing, station" (noun) — participial / nominal renderings
διαμένω diaménō	G1265	5	4.54	8.14	"Continue throughout" — intensified durative
λειτουργέω leitourgéō	G3008	14	2.96	8.01	"Perform priestly service" — for "stand to minister" in Deut / Chr
ἔναντι énanti	G1725	24	2.48	7.98	"Before, in the presence of" — particle frequently inserted to render liphnê ʿāmad
ἀνθίστημι anthístēmi	G436	9	3.36	7.73	"Stand against, resist" — for the "withstand" sense

The primary NT echo of ʿāmad comes via ἵστημι, παρίστημι, and λειτουργέω — see the "standing before the Lord" / "ministering" language of Lk 1:19 (Gabriel: "I stand in the presence of God"), Rev 7:9, 11 (multitudes standing before the throne), and Heb 10:11 ("every priest standeth daily ministering").