Hebrew word · Strong's H6485

פָּקַד

pâqad · paw-kad' · verb · “to visit, attend to”

In a sentence

Paqad means to visit, to attend to, to call to account. God’s “visiting” can mean tender care or solemn reckoning — both expressions of his attention.

Paqad covers a range of attention — to visit, to muster (as for a census), to appoint, to call to account. Its sense depends on the direction of God’s attention.

God paqads Sarah in mercy, granting a son; he paqads idolatry in judgment. Either way, the verb means God is not detached: he attends to his people and to evil.

Strong's reference

Definition: to visit (with friendly or hostile intent); by analogy, to oversee, muster, charge, care for, miss, deposit, etc.

KJV usage: appoint, [idiom] at all, avenge, bestow, (appoint to have the, give a) charge, commit, count, deliver to keep, be empty, enjoin, go see, hurt, do judgment, lack, lay up, look, make, [idiom] by any means, miss, number, officer, (make) overseer, have (the) oversight, punish, reckon, (call to) remember(-brance), set (over), sum, [idiom] surely, visit, want.

Reference gloss from Strong's Concordance (1890, public domain).

Key verses BSB · Public Domain (CC0)

Genesis 21:1 “Now the LORD attended to Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what He had promised.” Exodus 20:5 “You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,” Luke 1:68 ““Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has visited and redeemed His people.”

Original BibleDawn word study. Original-language data and the public-domain Strong's (1890) gloss are referenced; see sources.