StrongerBible

ḥashaq

חָשַׁק

HebrewH2836“love, desire, ...”

Appears 11 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 34:8Exo 27:17Exo 38:17Exo 38:28Deu 7:7Deu 10:15Deu 21:111Ki 9:192Ch 8:6Psa 91:14Isa 38:17
Root family
Word studyResearch-gradekhah-SHAHKverb

What ḥashaq means

1

to set one's heart on someone or something: to be bound to in a strong, chosen attachment, whether love, desire, or longing.

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

The word pictures the heart fastening onto something and holding on. Its oldest and most concrete use is physical joining, the silver bands that fasten the courtyard pillars of the tabernacle together (the second meaning below), and the sense of being attached to a person grows straight out of that image: to love someone this way is to be bound to them.

The attachment is strong and deliberate, not a passing feeling. It reaches from a man's consuming desire for a woman, to a builder's heart set on a great project, to God's own decision to fasten his love onto Israel for no reason except love itself.

This is why Deuteronomy's choice of the word is so striking. The same verb that describes raw human desire is turned toward God's choosing of his people, making that choice warm and personal rather than merely official. It sits close to the broad word for love (אָהַב) and to the clinging (דָּבַק) that Israel is told to show God in return, but it is more pointed than either: a chosen, exclusive fastening of the heart onto one object.

Nuances

1ato be attached to a person; to desire or long for someone.
Gen 34:8Deu 21:11
1bto set one's love on: a committed, chosen attachment between God and his people, running in either direction.
Deu 7:7Deu 10:15Psa 91:14Isa 38:17
Deu 7:7

How to read the verb where it describes God's choice of Israel (Deuteronomy 7:7 and 10:15): as the loyalty language of ancient political treaties, or as a deliberately affectionate, personally chosen attachment.

  • minorityIt belongs to the loyalty vocabulary of ancient Near Eastern treaties, in which a ruler and his people bind themselves to one another in a relationship shown through service and obedience, so here it approaches a formal covenant commitment.; William L. Moran, "The Ancient Near Eastern Background of the Love of God in Deuteronomy," CBQ 25 (1963): 77-87; Moshe Weinfeld, Deuteronomy 1-11, Anchor Bible (1991)
  • majorityIt is a deliberately affectionate, even erotic, and personally chosen attachment: the same verb used of Shechem's desire for Dinah and a soldier's desire for a captive woman is applied to God's love for Israel, giving the choice real emotional warmth rather than only legal loyalty. Wallis frames it as a committed attachment that is at once reasoned and passionate.; Gerhard Wallis, "chashaq," in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT) 5:261-266; Jon D. Levenson, The Love of God (Princeton University Press, 2016); Jacqueline E. Lapsley, "Feeling Our Way: Love for God in Deuteronomy," CBQ 65 (2003): 350-369; Deena Grant, "How to Love God," Journal of Interreligious Studies 26 (2019): 58-74
Isa 38:17

Whether the received Hebrew text of Isaiah 38:17 reads the verb meaning "loved" (chashaq) or should be corrected by one letter to a verb meaning "held back, spared" (chasak).

  • minorityKeep the received text: Hezekiah says God clung to or loved his life so as to rescue it from the pit, a delivering love like that of Psalm 91:14.; Brevard S. Childs, Isaiah, OTL (2001)
  • majorityCorrect it to the verb meaning "hold back, spare," a change of a single letter that yields a smoother sense: God held Hezekiah's life back from the pit of destruction.; J. J. M. Roberts, First Isaiah, Hermeneia (2015); Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 1-39, Anchor Bible (2000); Hans Wildberger, Isaiah 28-39, Continental Commentary (2002)
1cto have one's heart set on doing something; to be bent on a plan or project.
1Ki 9:192Ch 8:6
2

to fasten or furnish with bands: to join the tabernacle pillars with silver connecting bands.

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

This is the concrete, physical side of the word, and it is the picture the rest of the word grows out of. In the tabernacle the tops of the courtyard pillars were joined by silver bands or connecting rods, from which the linen hangings were hung, and this verb describes fitting the pillars with those bands.

It is the same word as the sense of loving or desiring, not a different one that happens to be spelled alike. To be attached to a person and to fasten pillars together are the one action, seen first in a literal, hands-on way and then as a picture of the heart.

Exo 27:17Exo 38:17Exo 38:28

What scholars say about ḥashaq

The standard lexicons (BDB, HALOT, DCH, Gesenius) gloss the verb as "be attached to, love, desire, long for," commonly construed with the preposition meaning "to." The dominant view holds that the concrete sense "bind, join, fasten," preserved in the tabernacle noun for the silver connecting bands, is the root's base, and that the affective sense is a metaphorical extension of physical clinging. DCH unifies the material under one entry, while BDB and HALOT print a primary affective verb (I) and a second verb (II) derived from that noun as an editorial convention rather than a claim of two unrelated words. Comparative Semitic study identifies Aramaic chashaq "bind, saddle," with the noun for a hoop or band, as the genuine cognate; the similar-looking Arabic ishq "passionate love" is excluded by the regular sound correspondences, and Akkadian hashahu "need, desire" has the wrong final consonant. The most active debate concerns Deuteronomy's use of the verb for divine election in 7:7 and 10:15. Building on Moran's treaty-love thesis, which was argued from the more common verb for love, Weinfeld folded this verb into a covenant-loyalty frame; more recent work by Wallis (TDOT), Levenson, Lapsley, and Grant emphasizes its affective, even erotic force, since the same verb describes Shechem's desire for Dinah (Genesis 34:8) and a soldier's desire for a captive (Deuteronomy 21:11). Wallis frames it as a committed attachment that is at once reasoned and passionate. Isaiah 38:17 is a recognized textual crux, where many prefer an emendation to the verb "hold back, spare" (chasak) against the received "love" (chashaq).

Where scholars disagree about ḥashaq

Whether the "fasten with bands" sense and the "be attached to, love, desire" sense are one word or two unrelated words that only share the same spelling.

  • majorityOne word. The concrete "bind, join, fasten" is the base sense, and "cling to, love, desire" is a natural extension of that physical fastening; the split some dictionaries print between a primary verb and a derived one is an editorial convention, not a claim of two separate words.; DCH (Clines, ed.), s.v. chashaq; Wilhelm Gesenius, Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon (Tregelles ET), s.v. chashaq; Ernest Klein, A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language (1987), s.v. chashaq
  • minorityTwo separate words that only look alike.; Avraham Even-Shoshan, A New Dictionary of the Hebrew Language, s.v. chashaq
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 (Brown-Driver-Briggs), s.v. chashaqlexicon
  • HALOT (Koehler-Baumgartner), s.v. chashaqlexicon
  • DCH (Clines, ed.), s.v. chashaqlexicon
  • Wilhelm Gesenius, Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon (Tregelles ET), s.v. chashaqlexicon
  • Ernest Klein, A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language (1987), s.v. chashaqdictionary
  • Gerhard Wallis, "chashaq," in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT) 5:261-266dictionary
  • Robin Wakely, "chashaq," in New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis (NIDOTTE) 2:312-315dictionary
  • William L. Moran, "The Ancient Near Eastern Background of the Love of God in Deuteronomy," CBQ 25 (1963): 77-87article
  • Moshe Weinfeld, Deuteronomy 1-11, Anchor Bible (1991)commentary
  • Jon D. Levenson, The Love of God (Princeton University Press, 2016)monograph
  • Jacqueline E. Lapsley, "Feeling Our Way: Love for God in Deuteronomy," CBQ 65 (2003): 350-369article
  • Deena Grant, "How to Love God," Journal of Interreligious Studies 26 (2019): 58-74article
  • Jeffrey H. Tigay, Deuteronomy, JPS Torah Commentary (1996)commentary
  • J. J. M. Roberts, First Isaiah, Hermeneia (2015)commentary
  • Leonid Kogan, The Genealogical Classification of Semitic (2015)monograph

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

All attested forms of חָשַׁק

qal perfect 3ms

חָשַׁק

Deu 7:7, Deu 10:15, 1Ki 9:19, 2Ch 8:6, Psa 91:14

pual passive-participle m p absolute

מְחֻשָּׁקִים

Exo 27:17, Exo 38:17

piel consecutive-perfect 3ms

וְחִשַּׁק

Exo 38:28

qal consecutive-perfect 2ms

וְחָשַׁקְתָּ

Deu 21:11

qal perfect 2ms

חָשַׁקְתָּ

Isa 38:17

qal perfect 3fs

חָשְׁקָה

Gen 34:8