Lexicon

H3173 - yachid

Strong's: H3173 · BLB lookup Pronunciation: yaw-kheed' Part of speech: adjective (frequently substantival) Frequency: 12 occurrences in the Hebrew Bible LXX equivalents: ἀγαπητός (agapētos, "beloved", the LXX's striking translation in Genesis 22 and elsewhere), μονογενής (monogenēs, "only-begotten / unique", Judges 11:34; Psalm 22:21; 25:16; 35:17)

Semantic range (Brown-Driver-Briggs)

Only, sole, uniqueness in number; the only-one-of-its-kind. Used predominantly of an only child (Genesis 22:2, 12, 16; Judges 11:34; Jeremiah 6:26; Amos 8:10; Zechariah 12:10).
Solitary, alone, derived sense of aloneness / isolation (Psalm 25:16; 68:6).
Beloved (derived from "only" by extension, the only one is the cherished one), the LXX's agapētos rendering captures this affective sense.
Life / one's only soul (in poetic body / soul parallelism), Psalm 22:21; 35:17 (yəḥidāti, "my only one" / "my unique soul / life"), paralleled with naphshi ("my soul").

Theological force

Yachid is the Hebrew lexeme for uniqueness as solitary numerical singularity. It is the natural Hebrew word for "absolute one, only-one." This makes it the deliberately-chosen counterfactual against which the Deuteronomy 6.4 Shema is read by Christian Trinitarians.

Function 1, Moses did NOT use yachid; he used echad

The Shema declares YHWH ʾeloheinu YHWH ʾechad, "the LORD our God, the LORD is echad", using H0259 - echad ("one"), not yachid ("only one / solitary"). The lexical contrast:

H0259 - echad, "one", the cardinal number; can name compound unities (Genesis 2:24, "one flesh" of two persons; Numbers 13:23, "one cluster" of grapes; Ezra 3:1, "one man" naming a unified people)
H3173 yachid, "only / solitary", bare numerical singularity admitting no internal complexity; the natural Hebrew word for "uniquely alone"

If Moses had wanted to assert Tritarian-impossible bare singularity, yachid was the available lexeme. He chose echad. The Christian Trinitarian reading argues, not that the Shema teaches Trinity, but that the Shema does not preclude internal differentiation in the divine being, and the lexical choice of echad over yachid is part of the evidence.

This is precisely why Maimonides's Thirteen Principles (12th c.) deliberately substitutes yachid for echad in the second principle: Ani maʾamin… she-ha-borēʾ… yachid v-ein yachidut k'mōthō b-shum panim, "I believe… that the Creator is yachid, and there is no yachidut (uniqueness) like His in any way." The substitution is itself evidence: a major medieval Jewish authority found the original echad of the Shema insufficiently exclusivist for his purposes and reached for the unambiguous bare-singularity word yachid. The Christian reading takes Maimonides's substitution as an admission against interest: if echad were itself bare-singular, Maimonides would have had no need to substitute. See H0259 - echad for the full argument.

Function 2, Yachid and the offered son: Genesis 22 (the Akedah)

Yachid is the dominant lexeme of Genesis 22:2, 12, 16, the binding-of-Isaac narrative. Three times God commands and commends Abraham regarding his yachid son:

Genesis 22:2, qach-na ʾet-binka ʾet-yəḥidkā ʾasher-ʾahavtā ʾet-Yitzchaq, "take now your son, your yachid whom you love, Isaac"
Genesis 22:12, velo chasakta ʾet-binka ʾet-yəḥidkā mimmenni, "you have not withheld your son, your yachid, from Me"
Genesis 22:16, ʾasher ʿasita ʾet-haddabar hazze velo chasakta ʾet-binka ʾet-yəḥidkā, "because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your yachid"

The LXX renders yachid in all three verses as ἀγαπητός (agapētos, "beloved"), a striking choice that activates the affective sense ("the only-one is the cherished one") and ties the yachid to the rich Greek vocabulary of beloved-only-son.

The NT picks up this LXX-rendering decisively in the baptism and transfiguration declarations of Jesus: houtos estin ho hyios mou ho agapētos, "this is My Son, the Beloved" (Matthew 3:17; 17:5; Mark 1:11; 9:7; Luke 3:22; 9:35 with eklelegmenos; 2 Peter 1:17). The agapētos echoes the LXX of Genesis 22, deliberately framing Jesus as the antitype of Isaac, the yachid son whom the Father gives up. The Akedah typology runs through the NT (Hebrews 11:17-19; James 2:21-23; Romans 8:32, "He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all" echoing Gen 22:12, 16).

G3439 - monogenes (monogenēs, "only-begotten / unique") in John 1:14, 18; 3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9 inherits the same LXX-tradition: monogenēs renders yachid in Judges 11:34 (Jephthah's daughter) and the lament-psalms; John's "ho monogenēs hyios" of the Father deliberately deploys the LXX-equivalent of yachid to name Jesus as the unique / beloved / only Son. The intertext binds Genesis 22's offered yachid to John 3:16's "God so loved the world that He gave His monogenē hyion."

Function 3, The pierced yachid: Zechariah 12:10

Zechariah 12.10 uses yachid in a christologically dense text: vehibbiṭu ʾēlay ʾēt ʾasher-daqarū və-saphədū ʿalāyw kə-misped ʿal-hayyāḥid, "they will look upon Me whom they pierced, and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for the yachid." The mourning-analogy explicitly invokes the depth of grief reserved for an only-son. John 19:37 quotes Zechariah 12:10 of the crucified Jesus, with the yachid mourning-analogy still hovering implicitly. Revelation 1:7 reprises the same Zechariah text, opsetai auton pas ophthalmos kai hoitines auton exekentēsan, kai kopsontai ep' auton pasai hai phylai tēs gēs, in the eschatological return.

Function 4, Affective / poetic uses

Judges 11:34, Jephthah's daughter is his yachid, only child, paid as the rash-vow's price (LXX monogenēs)
Jeremiah 6:26, "make for yourself mourning of a yachid", most-bitter lament
Amos 8:10, "I will make it like a mourning for a yachid", eschatological judgment-lament
Psalm 22:20-21, naphshi… yəḥidāti, "my soul… my yachid", body-soul parallelism, the speaker's only / unique life imperilled (LXX monogenēs)
Psalm 25:16, ki-yachid… ʾāni, "for I am yachid and afflicted", solitary-aloneness sense
Psalm 35:17, yəḥidāti mi-kəphirim, "my yachid from the lions"
Psalm 68:6, moshiv yechidim baytah, "[God] sets the solitary (plural) in families"
Proverbs 4:3, Solomon describes himself as having been yachid before his mother

Notable verses

The Akedah cluster (Genesis 22)

Genesis 22:2, 12, 16, Isaac as yachid; thrice-repeated for typological emphasis
Hebrews 11:17, Abraham offered up "his monogenē" (LXX-echo)
Romans 8:32, "He who did not spare His own Son" (Gen 22:12 echo)

Christological monogenes (Johannine)

John 1:14, monogenous para patros, only-Son from the Father
John 1:18, monogenēs theos (or monogenēs hyios, textual variant)
John 3:16, ton hyion ton monogenē
John 3:18, tou monogenous hyiou
1 John 4:9, God sent ton hyion autou ton monogenē

The pierced yachid

Zechariah 12.10, the mourning kə-misped ʿal-hayyāḥid
John 19:37, citation of Zech 12:10
Revelation 1:7, eschatological reprise

Solitary / lament

Judges 11:34, Jephthah's daughter
Jeremiah 6:26; Amos 8:10, mourning-of-a-yachid
Psalms 22:20-21; 25:16; 35:17; 68:6, affective uses

Patristic / scholarly note

The patristic interpretation of Genesis 22 as a type of the Father's offering of the Son is universal in the early church. Melito of Sardis (Peri Pascha, c. AD 165), Irenaeus (Against Heresies IV.5.4), Tertullian (Against the Jews 10), Origen (Homilies on Genesis 8), Augustine (City of God 16.32) all treat Isaac as the figura of Christ and Abraham's not-withholding (velo chasakta) as the prototype of Romans 8:32. The lexical bridge is the yachid / agapētos / monogenēs equivalence, a single conceptual line running from Hebrew yachid through LXX agapētos / monogenēs into the NT's Christological declarations.

The Hebrew-Christian dialogue over the Shema (Deut 6:4) and yachid / echad has been intense since the Middle Ages. The standard Jewish anti-Trinitarian argument (Maimonides; Rashi; modern apologetics e.g. Tovia Singer) cites the Shema's echad as proof of bare-singular monotheism. The standard Christian reply (Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 56; Athanasius; medieval apologetics; modern: Michael Brown, Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus vol. 2; Daniel Boyarin, The Jewish Gospels; Michael Heiser, The Unseen Realm) points to the lexical contrast with yachid and to the existence of pre-Christian Jewish Two-Powers traditions as licensing internal-differentiation readings of echad. Maimonides's substitution of yachid for echad in the Thirteen Principles is the focal exhibit. Christians do not claim Deuteronomy 6:4 teaches Trinity, only that the lexical choice is consistent with what later revelation will disclose. See H0259 - echad for the full argument; Trinity for the doctrinal exposition; Two Powers in Heaven for the Second Temple background.

Verses in this codex

See Obsidian's backlinks pane for every verse page linking here. Top-cited references using yachid: Genesis 22:2 (when present), Zechariah 12.10, Deuteronomy 6.4 (where the lexical contrast to echad matters).