חפץ
to delight in
also: take pleasure in, desire, be pleased with fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
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: ‘of men’
Form
- Perfect
- A completed action or state — Hebrew marks aspect (completeness) more than strict tense (“he wrote”).
- 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.
Person
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
- 1st Person
- The speaker (“I / we”).
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
- Common
- Either gender — not distinguished for this form.
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H2654 appears in the Book of Deuteronomy — 3 distinct verses. 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.
Deuteronomy
- Deuteronomy 21:14 חָפַ֣צְתָּ Qal pf 2ms It shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall let her go where she will; but you shall not sell her at all for money, you shall not deal with her as a slave, because you have humbled her.
- Deuteronomy 25:7 יַחְפֹּץ֙ Qal impf 3ms If the man doesn't want to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders, and say, My husband's brother refuses to raise up to his brother a name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband's brother to me.
- Deuteronomy 25:8 חָפַ֖צְתִּי Qal pf 1cs Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak to him: and if he stand, and say, I don't want to take her;
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.
The Hebrew verb חפץ centers on the idea of “to delight in.” Debuting at Genesis 34:19, it then recurs through the corpus. It appears 71 verses across 22 books of the Hebrew Bible, among its moderately common vocabulary. Alongside “to delight in” the lexicon also lists “take pleasure in”, “desire”, and “be pleased with” — part of its full sense range. It shares a root with חפץ and חפץ. For the data behind this summary, explore the sense tree and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H2654 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 →
- 71
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 71 distinct verses.
- 22 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 22 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #532
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 532 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 71 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 71 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 35 verses · 49%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 31 verses · 44%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 5 verses · 7%
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 3 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†: Delighteth 8×, Delight 5×, Delighted 4×
- American Standard Version†: Delighteth 8×, Delight 5×, He delighteth 4×
- Berean Standard Bible†: Delight 9×, Desire 4×, Is delighted 4×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: Delight 13×, Delights 10×, I desire 6×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H2654 across 75† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 37 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H2654 across 73† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 36 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 H2654 across 73† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 27 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H2654 across 90† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 30 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
12 senses and sub-senses in the full BDB
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 12 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.
חפץ I
Qal
- Pf. ח׳ Gn 34:19 + 28 times; f. חָפֵ֑צָה Is 66:3; 2 m. חָפַצְתָּ Dt 21:14 + 4 times; חָפָ֫צְנוּ Jb 21:14, etc., + 14 times Pf.; Impf. יַחְפֹּץ Dt 25:7 + 7 times; יֶחְפָּ֑ץ ψ 37:23; 147:10; pl. יַחְפְּצוּ Is 13:17; Je 6:10; יֶחְפָּ֑צוּ ψ 68:31; יֶחְפָּצוּ֑ן Is 58:2(×2) etc. + 9 times Impf.; Inf. abs. חָפֹץ Ez 18:23; on Pt. חָפֵץ = adj. verb., v. infr.;— e.g. Genesis 34:19
- 1. of men:
- a. take pleasure in, delight in, c. בְּ, a woman Gn 34:19 (J), Dt 21:14; Est 2:14; a man 1 S 18:22; 19:1 2 S 20:11; in matters and things 2 S 24:3; Is 13:17; 66:3; Je 6:10 ψ 109:17; 112:1; 119:35; Pr 18:2; Est 6:6, 7, 9(×2), 11; c. acc. ψ 68:31 Is 58:2; Ec 8:3; implic. obj. ψ 73:25. e.g. Genesis 34:19
- b. delight, desire, be pleased to do a thing, would do it Dt 25:7, 8 1 K 9:1; Est 6:6 Ru 3:13 ψ 40:9; Jb 9:3; 13:3; 21:14; 33:32; Is 58:2; Je 42:22. e.g. Deuteronomy 25:7
- c. abs. עַד שֶׁתֶּחְפָּ֑ץ until it please (of love) Ct 2:7; 3:5; 8:4. e.g. Song of Solomon 2:7
- 2. of God:
- a. delight in, have pleasure in, c. בְּ, persons Nu 14:8 (J), 2 S 15:26; 22:20 = ψ 18:20, 1 K 10:9 = 2 Ch 9:8, ψ 22:9; 41:12; Is 62:4; not in the strength of a horse ψ 147:10; in doing evil Mal 2:17; in the death of the sinner Ez 18:32; 33:11; but in mercy, justice, and righteousness Je 9:23; בחר באשׁר (לא) חפצתי Is 56:4; 65:12; 66:4; not with (acc.) the blood of bullocks Is 1:11; זבח(ים) ψ 40:7; 51:18, 21, or the death of the sinner Ex 18:23(×2); but with חסד Ho 6:6 Mi 7:18, אמת ψ 51:8; with the way of a man ψ 37:23; כל אשׁר חפץ ψ 115:3; 135:6 Pr 21:1; אשׁר חפץ Is 55:11; Jon 1:14. e.g. Numbers 14:8
- b. pleased to do a thing c. inf. Ju 13:23 1 S 2:25; Is 53:10. e.g. Judges 13:23
- c. with impf. subj. (Ges§ 142(3)c) י׳ חָפֵץ יגדיל תּורה Yahweh was pleased to magnify teaching Is 42:21.—On Jb 40:17 v. חָפַץ. e.g. Isaiah 42:21
חפץ II verb. delighting in, having pleasure in
- 1. of man, c. acc. ψ 34:13; 35:27 Mal 3:1; c. inf. Ne 1:11; abs. הֶחָפֵץ whosoever would 1 K 13:33; אם חפץ אתה if thou pleasest 1 K 21:6; נֶפֶשׁ חֲפֵצָה willing soul 1 Ch 28:9; pl. cstr. before nouns abs. ψ 35:22; 40:15 = 70:3; דְּרוּשִׁים לְכָל־חֶפְצֵיהֶם studied of all who take pleasure in them ψ 111:2. e.g. Psalms 34:13
- 2. of God, לֹא אֵל־חָפֵץ רֶשַׁע אַתָּה thou art not a God taking pleasure in wickedness ψ 5:5. e.g. Psalms 5:5
חפץ III bend down (Arabic خَفَضَ lower, depress, as wings Qor 15
Qal
- Impf. יַחְפֹּץ זְנָכוֹ כְמוֹ־אֶרֶז Jb 40:17; he bendeth down (extendeth down stiffly) his tail like a cedar, v. Wetzst in De Job 526 Hi Hiob 299. e.g. Job 40:17
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. delight in (cf. Arabic حَفِظَ be mindful of, attentive to, keep, protect, Aramaic ܚܦܛ whence ܚܦܺܝܛ eager, zealous, Arabic حَفِيظَةٌ anger (excitement), أَحْفَظَ enrage (Aramaic and Arabic of excited attention, Heb. of delighted attention), Dl Pr 168 Nö ZMG 1886, 742; NH חֵפֶץ weakened to thing, v. De Ec. Gloss., Ph. in n.pr. חפצבעל);—
II. adj. verb. delighting in, having pleasure in;—ח׳ ψ 5:5 + 4 times; pl. חֲפֵצִים Mal 3:1 Ne 1:11; cstr. חֲפֵצֵי ψ 35:27 + 2 times; sf. חֶפְצֵיהֶם ψ 111:2; f. חֲפֵצָ֑ה 1 Ch 28:9;—
I. vb. bend down (Arabic خَفَضَ lower, depress, as wings Qor 15:88)—only
— 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.
חָפַץ
- 1. to bend (v. Job XL, 17); חָפֵץ to be busy with, to be anxious, desire.—Pesik. Haḥod. p. 47ᵇ הוא ח׳ לגאול אתכם He is anxious to redeem you; ib. ח׳ בגאולתכם; Pesik. R. s. 15 ה׳ לגאולתכם; Cant. R. to II, 8; a. e.—[ e.g. Job 40:17
- 2. to hold in one’s hand, cmp. חָפַן; v. next w.]
חֵפֶץ
- preced.)
- 1. thing (held in hand), object. B. Mets. IV, 10 בכמה ח׳ זה how much is this worth? Cant. R. to I, 4 כל ח׳ טוב any good thing; a. fr.
- 2. concern, business; desire, desirable object. Ib.; Pesik. Sos, p. 147ᵃ אין לי ח׳ טוב ממך I have nothing more desirable than thyself. Koh. R. to V, 7 נעשה חֶפְצוֹ his desire was fulfilled. Num. R. s. 19 אל תחזירני מן חֶפְצִי וכ׳ do not turn me off from (refuse) my desire which &c.; a. fr.—Pl. חֲפָצִים. M. Kat. 9ᵇ (ref. to Prov. III, 15, a. VIII, 11) הא חֶפְצֵי שמים but heavenly affairs (religious deeds) are equal to it (the study of the Law). Y. Peah I, 15ᵈ bot. (ref. to Prov. l. c.) חפצים וכ׳ ‘desirable things’, that means jewels and pearls, ‘thy desirable things’, that means &c. Ib. חֲפָצֶיךָ וחֲפָצַי וכ׳ thy treasures and my treasures cannot compare to what I sent you; Gen. R. s. 35, end.—Sabb. 113ᵃ (ref. to Is. LVIII, 13) חֲפָצֶיךָ אסורין ח׳ שמים וכ׳ thy pursuits are forbidden (on the Sabbath), but heavenly affairs (consultation about public welfare, education &c.) are permitted; ib. 150ᵃ; a. fr. e.g. Proverbs 3:15
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 37 distinct written forms H2654 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| חָפֵ֥ץ | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Esther 2:14 | 11 |
| חָפַ֖צְתִּי | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Deuteronomy 25:8 | 6 |
| חָפֵ֣ץ | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Esther 6:6 | 5 |
| חָפֵ֖ץ | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Genesis 34:19 | 4 |
| אֶחְפֹּץ֙ | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Ezekiel 18:23 | 3 |
| חָ֥פֵֽץ | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | 2 Samuel 22:20 | 3 |
| חָפֵ֤ץ | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | 1 Samuel 18:22 | 3 |
| חָפַ֣צְתָּ | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular | Deuteronomy 21:14 | 3 |
| יַחְפֹּ֣ץ | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Job 40:17 | 3 |
| שֶׁ/תֶּחְפָּֽץ | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular | Song of Solomon 2:7 | 3 |
| חָפַ֥צְתִּי | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Job 33:32 | 2 |
| חָפָ֑צְתִּי | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Isaiah 56:4 | 2 |
| חָפָֽצְתִּי | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Isaiah 1:11 | 2 |
| יַחְפְּצוּ | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural | Isaiah 13:17 | 2 |
| אֶחְפָּֽץ | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Job 13:3 | 1 |
| הֶ/חָפֹ֤ץ | Verb, Qal, Infinitive Absolute | Ezekiel 18:23 | 1 |
| חֲפַצְתֶּ֔ם | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Plural | Jeremiah 42:22 | 1 |
| חָפֵ֔ץ | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Malachi 2:17 | 1 |
| חָפֵ֧ץ | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | 2 Samuel 20:11 | 1 |
| חָפֵ֨ץ | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Judges 13:23 | 1 |
| חָפֵֽצָה | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 3rd Person, Feminine, Singular | Isaiah 66:3 | 1 |
| חָפַ֔צְתִּי | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Singular | Isaiah 55:11 | 1 |
| חָפַ֖צְתָּ | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular | Jonah 1:14 | 1 |
| חָפַ֗צְתָּ | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular | Psalms 40:6 | 1 |
| חָפָֽצְנוּ | Verb, Qal, Perfect, 1st Person, Common, Plural | Job 21:14 | 1 |
| יֶחְפָּ֑ץ | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Psalms 147:10 | 1 |
| יֶחְפָּֽץ | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Psalms 37:23 | 1 |
| יֶחְפָּֽצוּ | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural | Psalms 68:30 | 1 |
| יֶחְפָּצ֑וּ/ן | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural | Isaiah 58:2 | 1 |
| יֶחְפָּצֽוּ/ן | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Plural | Isaiah 58:2 | 1 |
| יַ֭חְפֹּץ | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Job 9:3 | 1 |
| יַחְפֹּ֖ץ | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Ecclesiastes 8:3 | 1 |
| יַחְפֹּ֥ץ | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Esther 6:6 | 1 |
| יַחְפֹּ֧ץ | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Ruth 3:13 | 1 |
| יַחְפֹּץ֙ | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Deuteronomy 25:7 | 1 |
| תַחְפֹּ֣ץ | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular | Psalms 51:16 | 1 |
| תַּחְפֹּ֣ץ | Verb, Qal, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular | Psalms 51:19 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H2654, 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 61 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 71 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
- Genesis 34:19
- Numbers 14:8
- Deuteronomy 21:14
- Judges 13:23
- Ruth 3:13
- 1 Samuel 2:25
- 2 Samuel 15:26
- 1 Kings 9:1
- 2 Chronicles 9:8
- Esther 2:14
- Job 9:3
- Psalms 37:23
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.
