StrongerBible

ḥadash

חָדָשׁ

HebrewH2319new, fresh

Appears 53 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Exo 1:8Lev 23:16Lev 26:10Num 28:26Deu 20:5Deu 22:8Deu 24:5Deu 32:17Jos 9:13Jdg 5:8Jdg 15:13Jdg 16:11Jdg 16:121Sa 6:72Sa 6:3 (2×)2Sa 21:161Ki 11:291Ki 11:302Ki 2:201Ch 13:72Ch 20:5Job 29:20Job 32:19Psa 33:3Psa 40:3(4)Psa 96:1Psa 98:1Psa 144:9Psa 149:1Ecc 1:9Sng 7:13(14)Isa 42:9Isa 48:6Isa 65:17Isa 66:22Lam 3:23
Root family
Names & words formed with this
Word studykha-DASHadjective

What ḥadash means

new: recently made or come into being, or fresh and never seen before

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

This is the ordinary Hebrew word for new, and it covers the same ground the English word does. It can simply mean recently produced: a cart that has never been used, a house just built, a garment off the loom, ropes that have not yet frayed. It can also mean fresh in a deeper sense, something that has never existed or been experienced before, which is why the Bible reaches for it to describe a new song, a new heart, a new covenant, and a new heaven and a new earth.

The two shades are not different words but two ends of one idea. At the plain end, new marks an object as recent and unused, often because that matters for the story (a brand new cart and a brand new bowl are fit for sacred use; new ropes should have held a strong man). At the fuller end, new carries the weight of the unprecedented, what God is about to do that has no parallel in what came before.

The same word lies behind the famous line that there is nothing new under the sun. There the point is the opposite of the promises: human life keeps repeating itself, and no genuinely fresh thing appears. The contrast only works because the word can mean truly unprecedented, which is exactly what the prophets claim God will bring.

Nuances

1arecently made or recently come into being; unused, not old
Exo 1:8Lev 23:16Lev 26:10Num 28:26Deu 20:5Deu 22:8Deu 24:5Deu 32:17Jos 9:13Jdg 5:8Jdg 15:13Jdg 16:11
1bfresh and unprecedented; never seen or experienced before
Job 29:20Psa 33:3Psa 40:3(4)Psa 96:1Psa 98:1Psa 144:9Psa 149:1Ecc 1:9Ecc 1:10Isa 42:9Isa 42:10Isa 43:19

What scholars say about ḥadash

The lexica (BDB, HALOT, DCH) treat chadash as a single adjective, new or fresh, derived from the verb chadash, to renew. The semantic range runs from the concrete (recently manufactured objects, persons recently in a state) to the qualitative and eschatological (the new song of the Psalms, the new things of Deutero-Isaiah, the new covenant of Jeremiah, the new heart of Ezekiel, the new heavens and earth). TDOT (s.v.) and TWOT note that the word does not in itself distinguish new in time from new in kind, a distinction Greek marks with neos versus kainos; context alone carries it in Hebrew.

Sources

  • BDB, s.v. חָדָשׁlexicon
  • HALOT, s.v. חָדָשׁlexicon
  • DCH, s.v. חָדָשׁlexicon
  • North, R., "חָדָשׁ chadhash," TDOT 4:225-244theological-dictionary
  • TWOT, no. 613a (חָדָשׁ)theological-dictionary

All attested forms of חָדָשׁ

f s absolute

חֲדָשָׁה

Lev 23:16, Num 28:26, Deu 24:5, 1Sa 6:7, 2Sa 6:3, 2Sa 6:3, 2Sa 21:16, 1Ki 11:29

m s absolute

חָדָשׁ

Exo 1:8, Lev 26:10, Deu 20:5, Deu 22:8, Job 29:20, Psa 33:3, Psa 40:3, Psa 96:1

m p absolute

חֲדָשִׁים, חֳדָשִׁים

Deu 32:17, Jos 9:13, Jdg 5:8, Jdg 15:13, Jdg 16:11, Jdg 16:12, Job 32:19, Sng 7:13

f p absolute

חֲדָשׁוֹת

Isa 42:9, Isa 48:6