StrongerBible

ḥophshi

חׇפְשִׁי

HebrewH2670“free, at liberty”

Appears 17 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Exo 21:2Exo 21:5Exo 21:26Exo 21:27Deu 15:12Deu 15:13Deu 15:181Sa 17:25Job 3:19Job 39:5Psa 88:5(6)Isa 58:6Jer 34:9Jer 34:10Jer 34:11Jer 34:14Jer 34:16
Root family
Word studykhof-SHEEadjective

What ḥophshi means

free: released from slavery, obligation, or bondage, and so no longer owned or bound

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong

The word describes a person or creature that is free: no longer owned, bound, or in service. Most of its uses come from the laws about servants, where a Hebrew servant who has worked six years, or who has been injured by his master, is sent out "free."

From that legal core the word stretches naturally. A soldier can be made "free in Israel," meaning released from the king's service and dues. The wild donkey is "free," running loose where no one has harnessed it. And in death even a servant is "free" from his master, released from every burden of life at once.

The act of freeing has its own separate word, the "liberty" (דְּרוֹר) that is proclaimed; this word names the resulting status, the freed person. In Job and especially in Psalm 88 the word is used of the dead, where the freedom is less relief than being cut off from the land of the living.

Nuances

1afreed from slavery: a servant or captive released from a master and sent away free
Exo 21:2Exo 21:5Exo 21:26Exo 21:27Deu 15:12Deu 15:13Deu 15:18Jer 34:9Jer 34:10Jer 34:11Jer 34:14Jer 34:16
1bexempt: released from the service and dues owed to the crown
1Sa 17:25
1cfree in death: released by death from a master and from the burdens of life
Job 3:19Psa 88:5(6)
Psa 88:5

What "free" means in the phrase "free among the dead" in Psalm 88:5.

  • majorityIt means "free" in a bitter sense: the speaker lies among the slain like a dead man, released from life but for that very reason cut off from God's care and no longer remembered.; BDB, s.v. חׇפְשִׁי
  • minorityThe word here reflects an older sense tied to the realm of the dead, attested in a term for the underworld in Ugaritic texts, giving something closer to "set apart among the dead" than "free."; HALOT, s.v. חׇפְשִׁי
1droaming free: set loose to run wild and untamed
Job 39:5

What scholars say about ḥophshi

BDB and HALOT treat חׇפְשִׁי as an adjective "free," attested above all in the manumission legislation of Exodus 21 and Deuteronomy 15 and in the broken covenant of release in Jeremiah 34. Many lexicographers connect the root to the West Semitic social term ḫupšu, a class of freedmen or dependent peasants known from the Amarna letters and other second-millennium sources, which would tie the biblical "free man" to an old category of persons released from full servitude. The most contested occurrence is Psalm 88:5, where "free among the dead" has prompted proposals linking the word to a Ugaritic designation for the underworld (bt ḫptt); HALOT records this option, while BDB retains the plain "free (from life)." TDOT and DCH survey the same range without departing from the core sense "free, released."

Sources

  • BDB, s.v. חׇפְשִׁיlexicon
  • HALOT, s.v. חׇפְשִׁיlexicon
  • DCH, s.v. חׇפְשִׁיlexicon
  • Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT), s.v. חפשׁreference

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

All attested forms of חׇפְשִׁי

m s absolute

חָפְשִׁי

Exo 21:2, Exo 21:5, Exo 21:26, Exo 21:27, Deu 15:12, Deu 15:13, Deu 15:18, 1Sa 17:25

m p absolute

חָפְשִׁים

Isa 58:6, Jer 34:9, Jer 34:10, Jer 34:11, Jer 34:16