to wait: to hold still in expectation, counting on someone or something to come or to act
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
At its heart this verb describes holding still because you are counting on something to happen. The waiting is not idle; it leans forward, expecting a definite outcome. More than in any other setting, the Hebrew Bible uses it for waiting on God: the person who waits for the LORD is trusting that he will act, and is willing to stand and hope until he does.
The same posture stretches across a range of objects:
the LORD himself, or his promised rescue and appointed timing (by far the most common use)
a longed-for relief that has not yet come, such as death for someone in agony
simply the passing of time, when a person holds off from acting for a while
a victim, when the one waiting is an ambusher lying in wait to strike
Two near-synonyms sit close to it. קָוָה is the classic word for hope, straining forward toward what is expected, while יָחַל waits by resting on a promise. This verb leans more on the steady act of standing and waiting itself than on the hope or the trust that fuels it.
Nuances
1ato wait for the LORD: to stand in hopeful trust, expecting God to act, deliver, or make good on his word
the main word for hopeful waiting on the LORD, a tense, leaning-forward expectation rather than mere patiencePsa 27:14Isa 40:31
regularly names a settled posture of the faithful, waiting for God all day long and never being put to shamePsa 25:5Psa 25:3
can describe waiting that ends in disappointment, looking for one thing and getting its oppositeIsa 5:2Jer 8:15
יָחַלwaits by hoping in a promise, resting on God's word to come true; this verb leans more on the steady act of waiting than on the hope that fuels it.
This is the word for hopeful waiting on God. The person who waits is not merely passing time; he is trusting that God will act, and the prophets call such a person blessed.Psa 33:20Isa 8:17Isa 30:18Isa 64:4Dan 12:12Zep 3:8
It looks toward something in particular, and that thing is part of the picture: people wait for death to come, for a turn to speak, for advice they should have asked for.Job 3:21Job 32:4Psa 106:13
It can also be waiting with hostile intent, the way a band of robbers lurks along the road for a traveler.Hos 6:9
Both
The two stand side by side in Habakkuk 2:3, where the vision is slow in coming and the reader is told to keep waiting for it. The same stretch of time gets named twice, once from the side of the thing that has not arrived yet and once from the side of the person expecting it.Hab 2:3
Both can mean nothing more than holding still until a set moment, with no hope and no fault attached: staying put through the night, or staying put at the river crossings until word arrives.2Ki 7:92Sa 15:28
This word is about being slow when speed was needed, and it usually carries blame or danger. Lot drags his feet while the city is about to be destroyed, Israel is pushed out of Egypt with no time to hang back, and the psalmist is proud that he hurried to obey instead of dragging his feet.Gen 19:16Exo 12:39Psa 119:60
It measures time lost. The slowness itself is what the sentence is about, and somebody pays for it: a journey that could have been made twice over, an enemy who gets away while people stand around, an afternoon that runs out.Gen 43:10Jdg 3:26Jdg 19:8
Can mean nothing more than holding back or putting something off, with no hope or trust in view at all: the lepers debate whether to sit tight until daybreak, Jehu's messenger is told to pour the oil and run without lingering, and Elihu keeps quiet until the older men have finished.2Ki 7:92Ki 9:3Job 32:4
Can be hostile: raiders lie in wait for a traveler, and the priests are compared to that gang of ambushers.Hos 6:9
God himself can be the one waiting, holding back so that he may be gracious, before the same verse blesses the people who wait for him.Isa 30:18
Often attaches to a fixed appointment that has not yet arrived, so the waiting is measured against a set time: a vision with its own hour, a count of days, the day the LORD rises to judge.Hab 2:3Dan 12:12Zep 3:8
Both
Both carry the settled waiting of faith, with God as the one waited for, and both belong to the language of prayer.Psa 33:20Isa 8:17Psa 119:166
Both are negated to mark people who do not wait: Israel in the wilderness would not wait for God's counsel, and the dead can no longer look to his faithfulness.Psa 106:13Isa 38:18
The word for creatures looking to a provider for what they cannot get themselves: every living thing turns its eyes to God for food at the right time.Psa 104:27Psa 145:15
Also used for looking hard at something to size it up: Nehemiah goes out at night and inspects the broken walls of Jerusalem.Neh 2:13Neh 2:15
Frequently names an expectation that collapses: the enemies of the Jews counted on mastering them and got the reverse, and Naomi asks whether her daughters-in-law would really hold out for sons not yet born.Est 9:1Rut 1:13
ḥakhah in the other biblical languages
προσδέχομαιGreek“to wait for/welcome”the Greek for waiting expectantly for God's promise, used of those looking for the consolation and the kingdom of God.
ὑπομένωGreek“to remain/endure”the Greek for waiting that endures under strain: staying put and holding out, rather than the forward-leaning expectation.
It covers plain, everyday waiting with nothing religious about it, such as holding off until daybreak before carrying news, keeping quiet until older men have finished speaking, or being told not to linger at all.2Ki 7:9Job 32:42Ki 9:3
It can turn sinister, describing men who lie in wait to ambush a traveler on the road.Hos 6:9
The waiting can be bitter or refused: people who long for a death that will not come, or a nation charged with not waiting for God to say what he intended.Job 3:21Psa 106:13
The waiting is sometimes given a measured span, a stated stretch of time to hold out through until the promised moment arrives.Dan 12:12Hab 2:3
Both
Both name a confident waiting on God rather than the simple passing of time, an attitude of trust that keeps looking for him to act even when nothing has happened yet.Isa 8:17Psa 33:20Rom 8:25Gal 5:5
Both attach a promise to the people who wait: God works on their behalf, and he appears to save them.Isa 64:4Heb 9:28
In both, God himself can be the one waiting, holding back in patience before he moves.Isa 30:181Pe 3:20
Both are the words their own testaments reach for when hope is stretched out and delayed, so that waiting itself becomes the shape faith takes.Hab 2:3Zep 3:8Rom 8:19
Almost every use looks toward one thing: the return of Christ and the rescue that arrives with him, so the word carries the whole future hope of the church rather than waiting in general.Rom 8:231Co 1:7Php 3:20Gal 5:5
The waiting can be bigger than any person or group, with the created world itself pictured as straining forward for the day God sets things right.Rom 8:19
It is tied directly to endurance, naming a settled patience held over a long stretch rather than a moment of expectancy.Rom 8:25
Turned toward God himself and spoken as trust or as a vow, so that the waiting is a way of relating to him and not just a pause before an event.Psa 33:20Isa 8:17Zep 3:8Isa 64:4
Becomes a name for the faithful person, with a blessing pronounced on the one who keeps waiting.Isa 30:18Dan 12:12
Stretches to waiting that hurts or goes wrong: aching for a death that will not come, refusing to wait for what God says, and men crouching along a road to attack whoever passes.Job 3:21Psa 106:13Hos 6:9
Both
Both cover plain everyday waiting, the kind a person can be told to do or told to skip: holding off until daylight, holding back while an older man finishes speaking, being ordered not to linger at the door, and holding back until the rest of the company arrives.2Ki 7:9Job 32:42Ki 9:31Co 11:33
Both are used for staying put through a long delay for what God has promised, and the Greek word is the New Testament's nearest counterpart when writers describe that prophetic kind of waiting.Hab 2:3Isa 8:17Heb 10:13Heb 11:10
Used of waiting for a person who is already on the road and expected to show up, so the wait ends when the traveler arrives.Act 17:161Co 16:11
The waiting can be a rule for how a group behaves: hold back and start together rather than each person going ahead alone.1Co 11:33
Leans on the certainty that the thing waited for will come, because it has already been built, decided, or planted. The waiting fills the gap until it appears rather than pleading for it to happen.Heb 11:10Heb 10:13Jas 5:7
Can describe people simply stationed at a spot for the next chance to be helped, with no faith or promise in view.Jhn 5:3
What scholars say about ḥakhah
The standard lexica (BDB, HALOT, DCH) treat חכה as a single root meaning "wait, await," attested almost entirely in the Piel, with a Qal participle at Isaiah 30:18. They distinguish contextual nuances rather than separate roots: waiting for God (the dominant usage, e.g. Isa 8:17; 30:18; Zeph 3:8;Ps 33:20), simple tarrying (2 Kgs 7:9; 9:3), longing for a desired object (Job 3:21, "long for" death), and a hostile "lie in wait" at Hosea 6:9. The word stands within the Hebrew semantic field of expectant waiting alongside קוה and יחל. Hosea 6:9 (כחכי איש) is textually and syntactically difficult; commentators debate the construction and some propose emendation, but the ambush sense is the majority reading of the received text.