StrongerBible

ḥasid

חָסִיד

HebrewH2623“saint, godly, ...”

Appears 33 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Deu 33:81Sa 2:92Sa 22:262Ch 6:41Psa 4:3(4)Psa 12:1(2)Psa 16:10Psa 18:25(26)Psa 30:4(5)Psa 31:23(24)Psa 32:6Psa 37:28Psa 43:1Psa 50:5Psa 52:9(11)Psa 79:2Psa 85:8(9)Psa 86:2Psa 89:19(20)Psa 97:10Psa 116:15Psa 132:9Psa 132:16Psa 145:10Psa 145:13Psa 145:17Psa 148:14Psa 149:1Psa 149:5Psa 149:9Pro 2:8Jer 3:12Mic 7:2
Root family
Word studykhaw-SEEDadjective

What ḥasid means

1

the faithful, godly person: someone bound to God in loyal love and known for living it out

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

This is the person shaped by the great Hebrew word for loyal love (chesed), so closely that the two words look almost identical. Older Bibles call such a person a saint; newer ones say the godly, the faithful, the loyal, or the devoted. All of them are reaching for one idea: a person who both receives God's steadfast love and gives it back in a life of faithfulness.

The word lives almost entirely in the Psalms, where it names those who belong to God and stay true to him. They are the ones he protects and never abandons, whose lives are precious to him, and whom he calls to praise and to gather around him. Their faithfulness is not mere feeling but a settled loyalty that shows in how they live, so the word can be praised as the mark of a good and rare kind of person.

Scholars debate which direction the loyalty runs: whether the word stresses the person who shows loyal love or the person who is loved and kept by God. In practice the two run together, because in the Psalms the godly are defined by both at once, receiving God's covenant love and answering it with a life of devotion.

Nuances

1athe godly, faithful person: one devoted to God, whom he protects, treasures, and gathers to himself
1Sa 2:9Psa 4:3(4)Psa 16:10Psa 30:4(5)Psa 31:23(24)Psa 37:28Psa 52:9(11)Psa 79:2Psa 85:8(9)Psa 86:2Psa 97:10Psa 116:15
1bGod's covenant people, called his faithful ones because they are bound to him by a sworn bond
Psa 50:5Psa 89:19(20)
1cthe loyal person, in the saying that God shows himself loyal to the loyal
2Sa 22:26Psa 18:25(26)

Disputed

Whether the word primarily describes the person who actively shows loyal love or the person who is the object of God's loyal love and so is devoted to him.

  • contestedIt is primarily active: the pious person is one who practices chesed, showing faithful kindness to God and to others.; Nelson Glueck, Hesed in the Bible, trans. A. Gottschalk (Hebrew Union College Press, 1967)
  • contestedIt is primarily passive or relational: the pious person is the one bound up in and cared for by God's chesed, hence loyal and devoted.; H.-J. Zobel, 'חֶסֶד ḥesed,' in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (Eerdmans, 1986), 5:44-64
2

faithful, kind: said of God himself as one who keeps his loyal love

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintySettled

Twice the word is turned back on God. In these places it praises him as the one who is faithful and kind through and through, the very source of the loyal love that shapes his people. This is not a different word but the same quality seen at its origin: God is faithful in everything he does, and he will not stay angry forever.

The overlap is deliberate. The people are called faithful because God is faithful first, so the word can name both the fountain and the stream. When it describes God it carries the full weight of his covenant love: steady, merciful, and sure.

Psa 145:13Psa 145:17Jer 3:12

What scholars say about ḥasid

חָסִיד is the adjective built on חֶסֶד, denoting one characterized by loyal love. The lexica agree it describes the pious or devoted person, overwhelmingly in the Psalter, but divide on whether the sense is active (one who shows chesed) or passive/relational (one who is the object of God's chesed and so is loyal to him): BDB and Glueck lean active, while TDOT (Zobel) and much recent work stress the relational tie, with the two poles converging in practice. Twice (Jer 3:12; Ps 145:17) the term is predicated of God himself. The word is also a technical designation for the Hasidim of the Second Temple period, though that is a later development beyond the biblical usage. Standard treatments: BDB s.v. חָסִיד; HALOT s.v.; and H.-J. Zobel, TDOT 5:44-64 (under חֶסֶד).

Sources

  • Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and C. A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Clarendon, 1907), s.v. חָסִידlexicon
  • Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Brill, 1994-2000), s.v. חָסִידlexicon
  • H.-J. Zobel, 'חֶסֶד ḥesed,' in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (Eerdmans, 1986), 5:44-64theological-dictionary
  • Nelson Glueck, Hesed in the Bible, trans. A. Gottschalk (Hebrew Union College Press, 1967)monograph

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of חָסִיד

m p construct

חֲסִידָיו

1Sa 2:9, Psa 30:4, Psa 31:23, Psa 37:28, Psa 85:8, Psa 97:10, Psa 116:15, Psa 148:14

m s absolute

חָסִיד

2Sa 22:26, Psa 4:3, Psa 12:1, Psa 18:25, Psa 32:6, Psa 43:1, Psa 86:2, Psa 145:17

m p construct

חֲסִידֶיךָ

2Ch 6:41, Psa 52:9, Psa 79:2, Psa 89:19, Psa 132:9, Psa 145:10

m p absolute

חֲסִידִים

Psa 149:1, Psa 149:5

m s construct

חֲסִידְךָ, חֲסִידֶךָ

Psa 16:10, Deu 33:8

c s absolute

חָסִיד

Psa 145:13

m p construct

חֲסִידָי

Psa 50:5

m p construct

חֲסִידֶיהָ

Psa 132:16