StrongerBible

ḥaphaz

חָפַז

HebrewH2648“hurry, make haste, ...”

Appears 9 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Deu 20:31Sa 23:262Sa 4:42Ki 7:15Job 40:23Psa 31:22(23)Psa 48:5(6)Psa 104:7Psa 116:11
Word studyResearch-gradekhah-FAHZverb

What ḥaphaz means

to panic: to be jolted by sudden fear, and usually to bolt because of it

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

This is not a neutral word for speed. Hebrew already has plain words for moving fast, מָהַר and חוּשׁ, and they carry no emotion at all. This word names the speed that fear produces. Wherever it turns up, something frightening has just happened and a body is reacting to it.

In most of its nine verses the fear shows up as running:

  • a nurse grabs a child and bolts at the news of a royal death (2 Samuel 4:4)
  • a besieging army throws away its clothes and gear as it runs (2 Kings 7:15)
  • foreign kings look at Jerusalem, see something, and scatter (Psalm 48:5)
  • even the waters of creation recoil at God's shout (Psalm 104:7)

In each of those the word stands beside a word for fleeing (נוּס) or for being overwhelmed with dread.

But four verses have no running in them at all, and those are the ones that settle what the word is really about. Soldiers are told not to feel this as they line up for battle (Deuteronomy 20:3). The huge creature of Job 40:23 does not feel it even when a river surges up to his mouth, and he is not moving anywhere; the other half of that line credits him with confidence. And twice a psalmist looks back on a moment of collapse and reports what he said "in my alarm" (Psalm 31:22; Psalm 116:11). So the fear is the heart of the word and the running is simply what fear usually does.

The noun built on the same root (חִפָּזוֹן) shows how much dread the word carries. It is the word for the way Israel ate the first Passover, sandals on and staff in hand on the night Egypt was wailing, and it is the word Isaiah picks up to promise that the journey home from exile will be nothing like that.

Nuances

1ato bolt in terror: to run away, or be routed, because of sudden fear
1Sa 23:262Sa 4:42Ki 7:15Psa 48:5(6)Psa 104:7
1bto be seized by alarm inwardly, with no flight in view
TranslatabilityApproximate
Deu 20:3Job 40:23Psa 31:22(23)Psa 116:11

What scholars say about ḥaphaz

The verb חפז occurs nine times (Qal and Niphal) and its derived noun חִפָּזוֹן three. The lexicons converge on a fused sense rather than two separable meanings: BDB gives "be in trepidation, hurry, alarm"; HALOT glosses the Qal "be in a hurry, be in fear, panic" and the Niphal "hurry away in fear"; DCH lists "be in a hurry, be in a panic, flee in alarm." Ringgren's TDOT article treats haste and fear as one semantic complex and organizes the data around three axes: the divine rebuke that routs enemies (Psalms 48:5; 104:7), the refusal of panic as an act of faith (Deuteronomy 20:3; Isaiah 52:12), and the exodus motif of hurried departure (Exodus 12:11; Deuteronomy 16:3). Job 40:23 is the decisive test case, since Behemoth is stationary and the verb stands opposite בטח "to trust"; Clines, Pope, and Habel all reject the King James Version's "hasteth not" and gloss "he is not frightened." The Septuagint spreads the root across at least eight Greek lexemes, choosing σπουδή for the noun in the Pentateuch but θαμβέομαι at 2 Kings 7:15, ἔκστασις at Psalms 30:23 and 115:2 LXX, δειλιάω at Psalm 103:7 LXX, σαλεύω at Psalm 47:6 LXX, and θραύω at Deuteronomy 20:3, while LXX-Isaiah declines to harmonize with LXX-Exodus and renders 52:12 μετὰ ταραχῆς. The one secure cognate is Arabic ḥafaza "to urge on, spur, impel"; Jewish Aramaic and Syriac ḥpz mean "to hasten," with derived nouns for "haste," while Akkadian and Ugaritic supply no match, so the etymological center is impelled motion and the fear connotation is a Hebrew development. No lexicographer posits two homonymous roots.

Where scholars disagree about ḥaphaz

Whether the fear component belongs to the word itself or is only supplied by its contexts, so that the word means neutral haste and the terror comes from the surrounding scene.

  • majorityFear and hurried movement form one inseparable sense: the word means panicked haste, and Job 40:23, where a stationary creature is said not to feel it, shows the emotional side is primary.; HALOT 1:339, s.v. חפז; BDB, 342, s.v. חָפַז; Helmer Ringgren, "חָפַז ḥāphaz," in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, vol. 5 (Eerdmans, 1986), 91-95; David J. A. Clines, Job 38-42, WBC 18B (Nelson, 2011), 1189-90
  • minorityThe word denotes urgent haste or eager readiness, with fear present only where the scene supplies it, as in the Passover meal eaten in poised expectation of imminent departure.; Umberto Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Exodus, trans. Israel Abrahams (Magnes, 1967), 141-42; Nahum M. Sarna, Exodus, JPS Torah Commentary (JPS, 1991), 56
In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • BDB, 342, s.v. חָפַזlexicon
  • HALOT 1:339, s.v. חפז / חִפָּזוֹןlexicon
  • David J. A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, vol. 3 (Sheffield Academic Press, 1996), 297-98, s.v. חפזlexicon
  • Helmer Ringgren, "חָפַז ḥāphaz," in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, vol. 5 (Eerdmans, 1986), 91-95theological-dictionary
  • Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (Moody Press, 1980), entry #708theological-dictionary
  • New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis (Zondervan, 1997), 2:225-26, s.v. חפזtheological-dictionary
  • David J. A. Clines, Job 38-42, WBC 18B (Nelson, 2011), 1189-90commentary
  • Marvin H. Pope, Job, 3rd ed., Anchor Bible 15 (Doubleday, 1973), 324commentary
  • Norman C. Habel, The Book of Job, OTL (Westminster, 1985), 566commentary
  • Jeffrey H. Tigay, Deuteronomy, JPS Torah Commentary (JPS, 1996), 153-54, 187commentary
  • Mordechai Cogan and Hayim Tadmor, II Kings, Anchor Bible 11 (Doubleday, 1988), 83-84commentary
  • Frank-Lothar Hossfeld and Erich Zenger, Psalms 3: A Commentary on Psalms 101-150, Hermeneia (Fortress, 2011), 220-24commentary
  • Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 40-55, Anchor Bible 19A (Doubleday, 2002), 112commentary
  • John Goldingay and David Payne, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Isaiah 40-55, ICC (T&T Clark, 2006), 2:271commentary
  • Hans Wehr, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, ed. J. M. Cowan, 4th ed. (Harrassowitz, 1979), 224, s.v. حفزdictionary

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

All attested forms of חָפַז

qal infinitive-construct construct

חָפְזִ, חָפְזָ

Psa 31:22, Psa 116:11, 2Sa 4:4, 2Ki 7:15

niphal imperfect 3mp

יֵחָפֵזוּ

Psa 104:7

niphal participle m s absolute

נֶחְפָּז

1Sa 23:26

niphal perfect 3cp

נֶחְפָּזוּ

Psa 48:5

qal imperfect 3ms

יַחְפּוֹז

Job 40:23

qal jussive 2mp

תַּחְפְּזוּ

Deu 20:3