a riddle: a deliberately enigmatic saying whose meaning is hidden and has to be worked out or interpreted
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At its heart this word names a saying built to be hard to understand: the meaning is folded up inside it, and the listener has to unfold it. The most famous case is the wedding riddle Samson sets his companions in Judges 14, a word-puzzle with a prize riding on the answer. The queen of Sheba uses the same word for the hard questions she brings to test Solomon's wisdom.
From that everyday puzzle the word reaches into weightier speech. Poets and teachers use it for a veiled saying set beside a proverb (מָשָׁל): a dark poem, an allegory, or a piece of hidden wisdom whose point is deliberately concealed, so that working it out becomes part of learning it. Ezekiel is even told to pose one as a prophetic allegory, and Habakkuk turns it into a taunt flung at a tyrant.
It can also describe a whole manner of speaking. When God says he speaks with Moses plainly and "not in" this kind of speech (Numbers 12:8), the word means obscure, indirect communication, the opposite of clear words spoken face to face.
Nuances
1aa riddle or hard question posed to be solved: a puzzle whose hidden answer another is challenged to guess or work out
The Hebrew word reaches well beyond a puzzle to solve, covering veiled wisdom-sayings and even prophetic allegory.Ezk 17:2Psa 78:2
Both
Both name a saying whose sense is deliberately concealed and has to be worked out before it can be understood.Jdg 14:141Ki 10:1
Only riddle
In everyday English "riddle" suggests a playful brain-teaser or party game, a lightness the weighty prophetic and wisdom uses do not carry.
“dark saying”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“hard question”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How ḥidah differs from similar Hebrew words
מָשָׁלA proverb or parable states a truth in memorable, comparative form; a riddle is the harder relative, a saying whose meaning is deliberately hidden and must be solved. The two stand side by side again and again.
Names a proverb or wise saying, a short comparison offered as a truth to live by rather than a puzzle to be solved.Pro 1:1Pro 10:11Sa 24:13
Stretches to the formal oracle or extended discourse, as with the poems Balaam pronounces.Num 23:7Num 24:3
Turns bitter as a byword or taunt, what people say mockingly when someone becomes an object of scorn.Deu 28:37Jer 24:9Ezk 14:8
מְלִיצָהA satirical or figurative composition, a mocking poem; a riddle is specifically the puzzle-saying whose answer is concealed. The two are paired in Proverbs 1:6 and Habakkuk 2:6.
A puzzle set as a challenge to be solved, the centerpiece of a contest of wits where a prize or a reputation is on the line.Jdg 14:121Ki 10:1
The word for deliberately obscure divine or prophetic speech, the dark saying set against plain face-to-face words, which a hearer is given to unfold.Num 12:8Ezk 17:2Dan 8:23
Both
Both name speech that is deliberately veiled and must be worked out rather than heard plainly, so wisdom teaching lists them together as skills a learner must master.Pro 1:6
Both can be aimed at a proud oppressor as pointed, figurative verse, so a prophet can stack a riddle and a taunting figure in one mocking song.Hab 2:6
αἴνιγμαGreek“obscure thing”The Greek word for an obscure, indistinct image or riddle; Paul uses it for seeing "in a riddle" now, as opposed to face to face later.
names the dim, indirect way something is perceived rather than a puzzle set before a hearer: present knowledge of God is like a blurred reflection in a metal mirror, obscure by its very nature.1Co 13:12
What scholars say about ḥidah
The standard lexica (HALOT, BDB, DCH) treat חִידָה as a single noun for an enigmatic, puzzle-like saying, derived from the root חוד "to propound a riddle." Its range runs from the entertaining riddle-contest (Samson's wager, Judg 14) and the testing hard question (the queen of Sheba, 1 Kgs 10:1) to the veiled wisdom-saying set in parallel with מָשָׁל (Ps 49:5; 78:2; Prov 1:6), the prophetic allegory (Ezek 17:2), and the taunting mashal against a tyrant (Hab 2:6). In Num 12:8 it denotes the obscure, indirect mode of divine speech explicitly contrasted with God speaking to Moses "mouth to mouth." Dan 8:23 (חִידוֹת מֵבִין) is disputed at the level of rendering rather than sense: many read it as skill in ambiguous or intriguing speech ("skilled in intrigue"), others as understanding riddles, but both remain within the word's established range.