חָנֵף
to be profaned
also: be defiled, be polluted, be corrupt fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Qal verb in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Qal
- The basic, simple active stem — the plain form of the verb (“he wrote”). Here: ‘be polluted’
- Hiphil
- The causative active stem (“he caused / brought about”). Here: ‘pollute’
Form
- Sequential Imperfect
- An imperfect with prefixed waw — the standard past-narrative form (waw-consecutive imperfect).
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
- Infinitive Absolute
- An unbound verbal noun, often intensifying or standing in for a finite verb.
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
Gender
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Grammatical forms
- Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular 2 times (18%)
- Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular 2 times (18%)
- Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular 2 times (18%)
- Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 2nd Person, Feminine, Singular 1 time (9%)
- Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural 1 time (9%)
- Verb, Qal, Infinitive Absolute 1 time (9%)
- Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural 1 time (9%)
- Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular 1 time (9%)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 11 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H2610 appears — 9 distinct verses across 6 books. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Numbers 1 verse
Psalms 1 verse
Isaiah 1 verse
Jeremiah 4 verses
- Jeremiah 3:1 חָנ֥וֹף תֶּחֱנַ֖ף Qal inf.abs Qal impf 3fs They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, will he return to her again? Won't that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the prostitute with many lovers; yet return again to me, says Yahweh.
- Jeremiah 3:2 וַ/תַּחֲנִ֣יפִי conj + Hiphil wimpf 2fs Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see; where have you not been lain with? By the ways have you sat for them, as an Arabian in the wilderness; and you have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness.
- Jeremiah 3:9 וַ/תֶּחֱנַ֖ף conj + Qal wimpf 3fs It happened through the lightness of her prostitution, that the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with stocks.
- Jeremiah 23:11 חָנֵ֑פוּ Qal pf 3cp for both prophet and priest are profane; yes, in my house have I found their wickedness, says Yahweh.
Daniel 1 verse
Micah 1 verse
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
“to be profaned” is the headline sense of the Hebrew verb חנף (chânêph). Its earliest occurrence is Numbers 35:33. It turns up in 9 verses across 6 books, an uncommon footprint. It concentrates in Jeremiah, which alone accounts for 44% of its uses. Across 2 stems, its meaning turns on the binyan (Qal, Hiphil). See the sense tree, 9-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H2610 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 9
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 9 distinct verses.
- 6 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 6 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #2,210
- by frequency
- Top 2500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 2,210 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 9 occurrences in the concordance →
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 9 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 6 verses · 67%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 2 verses · 22%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 1 verse · 11%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
BDB lists this Strong’s number as 2 distinct words (homographs). Each count above pools all of them and is not split by sense — see the Senses section below. A low-frequency rendering may belong to a different one of those words, not the primary meaning.
- King James Version†: Are profane 1×, Be greatly 1×, Defileth 1×
- American Standard Version†: Was polluted 2×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Are ungodly 1×, Be completely defiled 1×, Had defiled 1×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: And 1×, Are polluted 1×, Be 1×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H2610 across 11† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H2610 across 11† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 9 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H2610 across 10† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H2610 across 14† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings.
Senses in the full BDB
Hebrew verbs can shift meaning by stem (binyan): Qal is the basic action, Niphal is often passive or reflexive, Piel often intensifies or makes it factitive, and Hiphil is typically causative. The senses below are grouped under the stem BDB assigns to each.
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 6 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
חנף I
Qal
- Pf. 3 fs. חָֽנְפָה Is 24:5; 3 pl. חָנֵפ֑וּ Je 23:11; Impf. 3 fs. תֶּחֱנַף Je 3:1; תֶּחֱנָ֑ף Mi 4:11; וַתֶּחֱנַף Je 3:9 ψ 106:38; Inf. abs. חָנוֹף Je 3:1;— e.g. Isaiah 24:5
- 1. be polluted: of land Is 24:5; Je 3:1(×2) ψ 106:38; of Zion Mi 4:11. e.g. Isaiah 24:5
- 2. of prophet and priest = be חָנֵף (cf. infr.) i.e. profane, godless Je 23:11.—Je 3:9 appar. trans. וַתֶּחֱנַף את הארץ, Gf del. את, Gie cites Ges§ 121, 1, but read rather Hiph. וַתַּחֲנֵף with Codd. 𝔊 Ew al. (v. also Gf Gie). e.g. Jeremiah 23:11
Hiphil
- Impf. יַחֲנִיף Nu 35:33; Dn 11:32; 2 fs. וַתַּחֲנִ֫יפִי Je 3:2; 2 mpl. תַּחֲנִ֫יפוּ;— e.g. Numbers 35:33
- 1. pollute: the land Nu 35:33(×2) (by blood; P), Je 3:2 (by idolatry, etc.) + Je 3:9 (v. supr.) e.g. Numbers 35:33
- 2. make profane, godless Dn 11:32 c. acc. pers. e.g. Daniel 11:32
חנף II ofane, irreligious (Syriac ܚܰܢܦܳܐ profane, hence often heathen, apostate
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
I. vb. be polluted, profane (Arabic حَنَفَ incline, decline, hence حَنِيفٌ inclining to a right state, but in Heb. of inclining away from right, irreligion, profaneness, cf. حَنِفَ have a حَنَفٌ i.e. distortion of foot; Syriac in deriv. be profane, etc.; NH Hiph., Aramaic Aph. act falsely toward, flatter, חֲנוּכָּה hypocrisy; Assyrian ḫanpu, ruthlessness; ḫanâpu, exercise ruthlessness toward, Tel Amarna ZimZA vi. 1891, 256)—
II. adj. profane, irreligious (Syriac ܚܰܢܦܳܐ profane, hence often heathen, apostate; Arabic حَنِيفٌ inclining to a right state, especially the true religion, a Muslim)—abs. ח׳ Jb 8:13 + 10 times; pl. חֲנֵפִים Is 33:14; חַנְפֵי Jb 36:13 ψ 35:16;—profane, godless: of persons, אָדָם ח׳ Jb 34:30; גּוֹי ח׳ Is 10:6; as subst. godless man Is 9:16 (‖ מרע) Jb 8:13; 13:16; 17:8; 20:5; 27:8; Pr 11:9; coll. עֲדַת ח׳ Jb 15:34; pl. Is 33:14; חַנְפֵי־לֵב Jb 36:13; בְּחַנְפֵי לַעֲגֵי מָעוֹג ψ 35:16 as profane men, mockers for cake (i.e. table-jesters; on cstr. v. Ges§ 130, 5), but text dub. (v. Checrit. n. Bae).
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Origin: a primitive root
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
חָנַף
- (b. h.) [to bend, decline from the right path,] to be insincere, to flatter; to show favor in court; to deceive. Der. Er. Zuta ch. II אֶחְנוֹף לזה וכ׳ I will flatter (lower myself before) this one that he may give me to eat &c.
- same. Sot. 41ᵇ הִחְנִיפוּ לו וכ׳ thy flattered Agrippa (saying to him, ‘Thou art our brother’). Ib. מותר להַחְנִיף וכ׳ it is permissible to flatter (submit to the power of) the wicked &c. Y. Ber. VII, 11ᶜ. Pesik. R. s. 25 (ref. to Is. XXIV, 5) הבריות מַהֲנִיפִים זה לזה men deal insincerely with one another; והוא מַחֲנִיפוֹ וכ׳ and he puts him (the priest or Levite) off with deceptive intent, and says &c.; a. fr. e.g. Isaiah 24:5
חֲנֵף
- , Pa. חַנֵּיף ch. same. M. Kat. 17ᵃ דאפי׳ … לא חַנִּיפִי ליה not even a man like thee did I flatter. Shebu. 30ᵃ לחַנּוּפֵי ליה that I should favor him in court?—Keth. 84ᵇ מְחַנְּפִיתוּ להו would you favor them?; ib. 63ᵇ מַחְנִיפִיתוּ ליה (Af.) would you favor him?—Pesik. Asser, p. 98ᵃ (ref. to Is. XXIV, 5) את סבר מְחַנְּפָא לה והיא מְחַנְּפָה לך thou meanest to deceive it (the land by withholding the tithes, v. preced.), but it will disappoint thee; Tanḥ. R’eeh 14 את כבר מחנף וכ׳ (corr. acc.). e.g. Isaiah 24:5
- same, v. supra.
חָנֵף
- preced. wds.) hypocrite, flatterer; faithless, arbitrary, fickle. Esth. R. to I, 1 (ref. to Job XXXIV, 30) בשעה שהמלך ח׳ וכ׳ when a king is arbitrary and rules tyrannically &c. Ib. שהיה ח׳ וכ׳ for he (Ahasverus) was arbitrary, for he put to death &c.—Pl. חֲנֵפִים, חֲנֵפִין, חֲנֵי׳. Tosef. Yoma V (IV), 12; Yoma 86ᵇ מפרסמין את החנ׳ וכ׳ you may expose the hypocrites to prevent defamation of the divine Name. Koh. R. to IV, 1 חֲנֵיפֵי תורה pretenders of scholarship. Sot. 42ᵃ; Treat. Der. Er. ch. II. Ib. חֲנֵפוֹת (masc., v. מָסוֹר); a. e. e.g. Job 34:30
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 10 distinct written forms H2610 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that stem’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| יַחֲנִ֖יף | Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Daniel 11:32 | 2 |
| וַ/תֶּחֱנַ֖ף | Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular | Jeremiah 3:9 | 1 |
| וַ/תֶּחֱנַ֥ף | Verb, Qal, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular | Psalms 106:38 | 1 |
| וַ/תַּחֲנִ֣יפִי | Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 2nd Person, Feminine, Singular | Jeremiah 3:2 | 1 |
| חָנ֥וֹף | Verb, Qal, Infinitive Absolute | Jeremiah 3:1 | 1 |
| חָנְפָ֖ה | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular | Isaiah 24:5 | 1 |
| חָנֵ֑פוּ | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Common, Plural | Jeremiah 23:11 | 1 |
| תַחֲנִ֣יפוּ | Verb, Hiphil, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural | Numbers 35:33 | 1 |
| תֶּחֱנַ֖ף | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular | Jeremiah 3:1 | 1 |
| תֶּחֱנָ֔ף | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular | Micah 4:11 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H2610, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derived from this word
Compare all same-root words → They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 9 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 9 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
