StrongerBible

ḥaliphah

חֲלִיפָה

HebrewH2487change, relief, ...

Appears 12 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 45:22 (2×)Jdg 14:12Jdg 14:13Jdg 14:191Ki 5:14(28)2Ki 5:52Ki 5:222Ki 5:23Job 10:17Job 14:14Psa 55:19(20)
Root family
Word studykhah-lee-FAHnoun

What ḥaliphah means

a change: something fresh that takes the place of what was there before, whether clothing, a work shift, or a turn in someone's situation

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

The picture behind this word is a turn taken. Something steps into the place the last thing held, so the place stays filled while what fills it is swapped out. That single picture is what lets one word cover a fresh set of clothes, a crew of workmen rotating home, and a man waiting for his circumstances to turn.

Clothing is the everyday case, and it explains why the word almost always shows up in gifts and prizes. To hand someone a change of clothes is to give a whole outfit to put on instead of what is being worn, so the gift is counted in sets: thirty of them for Samson's riddle, ten from the king of Aram, two pressed on Gehazi. The word names the swap rather than the cloth, which is why a separate word for garments stands next to it every time.

In poetry the same picture goes abstract, and the shift is small. Solomon's laborers went to Lebanon in rotations, a month away and two months home. Job, counting his days like a soldier's term of service, waits for the turn that will end it. On the usual reading, the comfortable people of Psalm 55 have never had such a turn come at all: nothing in their lives has ever been swapped out for something worse, and so they have never had reason to fear God.

It is not the word for a trade. An exchange, where one thing is given up in order to get something else in return (תְּמוּרָה), turns on what each side ends up holding. A change in this word's sense turns on the place being refilled: the same body, the same job, the same person's situation, with something new in it.

Nuances

1aa fresh set of clothes, handed over as a gift or a prize
TranslatabilityDirect
Gen 45:22 (2×)Jdg 14:12Jdg 14:13Jdg 14:192Ki 5:52Ki 5:222Ki 5:23
1brelief taken in turns: one shift, wave, or stint giving way to the next
TranslatabilityPartial
1Ki 5:14(28)Job 10:17Job 14:14
1ca turn in someone's situation or conduct: a reversal of fortune, or a change of ways
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyContested
Psa 55:19(20)

What scholars say about ḥaliphah

The noun is built on the root חלף, "to pass on, pass by, replace," and the lexicons converge on a single semantic core of substitution: HALOT and BDB both give "change (of garments)" for the eight prose attestations (Gen 45:22 bis; Judg 14:12, 13, 19; 2 Kgs 5:5, 22, 23), where חֲלִיפוֹת governs שְׂמָלֹת or בְּגָדִים and denotes the replacement suit rather than the fabric, and both give "relief, relay" for 1 Kgs 5:28 (English 5:14), where the corvée rotates monthly. DCH treats the same range under one entry. The three poetic instances carry the debate. In Job 10:17 the pairing חֲלִיפוֹת וְצָבָא is read either as successive relays of attacking troops or as repeated onslaughts and reversals, a distinction lexica and commentators (Clines) weigh differently without disputing the underlying sense of succession. Job 14:14 חֲלִיפָתִי stands in a line governed by צְבָאִי, "my term of service," which favors the military sense of relief from a tour of duty; renderings that give "renewal" or "release" generalize it to a change of condition, and the eschatological weight often loaded onto the verse is contextual rather than lexical. In Ps 55:20 (English 55:19) אֵין חֲלִיפוֹת לָמוֹ is most often taken of untroubled fortune, no reversals having befallen the wicked, hence their lack of fear of God (so BDB's "vicissitudes"; discussed by Tate); a minority construes it of moral non-change, people who do not amend their ways, a reading reflected in some modern versions. None of these positions requires positing a second homonym.

Sources

  • HALOT, s.v. חֲלִיפָהlexicon
  • BDB, s.v. חֲלִיפָהlexicon
  • David J. A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, vol. 3 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1996), s.v. חֲלִיפָהlexicon
  • David J. A. Clines, Job 1-20, Word Biblical Commentary 17 (Dallas: Word, 1989)commentary
  • Marvin E. Tate, Psalms 51-100, Word Biblical Commentary 20 (Dallas: Word, 1990)commentary

All attested forms of חֲלִיפָה

f p construct

חֲלִפוֹת, חֲלִיפוֹת, חֲלִפֹת

Gen 45:22, 2Ki 5:22, 2Ki 5:23, Jdg 14:13, 2Ki 5:5, Gen 45:22, Jdg 14:12

f p absolute

חֲלִיפוֹת

Jdg 14:19, 1Ki 5:14, Job 10:17, Psa 55:19

f s construct

חֲלִיפָתִי

Job 14:14