One of Psalm 119's eight words for the instruction. From a root meaning to attend to, to visit, to entrust a charge. Not rules imposed from a height but something committed to your care.
The full definition
English says "precepts" and the word lands cold and administrative. The Hebrew root paqad is warmer and stranger than that. It means to attend to, to visit, to muster, to appoint someone over something, to place a charge into a person's hands. It is the word used when HaShem visits His people, and when a steward is set over a house.
Piqqudim, then, are not regulations dropped on you from above. They are things committed to your care. The psalmist says "you have commanded your piqqudim to be kept diligently" (Psalm 119:4), and the sense is nearer to a trust than a statute.
KJV, ESV and NASB all render it "precepts," which is defensible and lifeless. What goes missing is the entrusting. Someone handed you this on purpose, because He meant for you to keep it.
Key passages
- Psalm 119:4
- Psalm 119:15
- Psalm 119:40
- Psalm 119:94