A festival , or a victim therefor
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H2282 is a Hebrew noun for a festival or pilgrimage feast and, in some settings, the sacrifice associated with it. Deuteronomy 16:14 commands rejoicing at the Feast of Tabernacles and expressly includes sons, daughters, servants, Levites, foreigners, fatherless children, and widows.
Reader summary
Full entry for חַג (H2282) · Open the biblical lexicon
H2282 is a Hebrew noun for a festival or pilgrimage feast and, in some settings, the sacrifice associated with it. Deuteronomy 16:14 commands rejoicing at the Feast of Tabernacles and expressly includes sons, daughters, servants, Levites, foreigners, fatherless children, and widows.
The BSB source-word alignment has 62 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include the Feast (20), a feast (5), and the Feast (4), at the Feast (3), Feast (3).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Exodus 10:9. Its strongest book concentrations include Exodus (12), 2 Chronicles (9), Deuteronomy (7), 1 Kings (5).
H2282 is a Hebrew noun for a festival or pilgrimage feast and, in some settings, the sacrifice associated with it. Deuteronomy 16:14 commands rejoicing at the Feast of Tabernacles and expressly includes sons, daughters, servants, Levites, foreigners, fatherless children, and widows. Ezra 3:4 reports that returned exiles celebrated that feast according to what was written, offering the prescribed daily sacrifices amid an unfinished restoration.
Amos 5:21 announces the Lord's hatred of Israel's feasts because their worship was severed from the justice demanded in the surrounding oracle. The term can name faithful covenant celebration, an invented feast serving idolatry, or festivals turned to mourning under judgment. H2282 opens teaching on embodied joy, shared memory, worship, provision, and inclusion.
It corrects both joyless religion and celebration that uses sacred language while excluding vulnerable neighbors, concealing injustice, or replacing God's instruction with a leader's preferred spectacle.
H2282 denotes a recurring feast, especially Israel's covenant festivals, and occasionally the festive sacrifice. Torah orders dates, participants, offerings, and remembrance; narratives show obedience or distortion; prophets test celebration by covenant faithfulness and justice.
And you shall rejoice in your feast—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite, as well as the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widows among you.
The Feast of Tabernacles calls the whole household and vulnerable residents of the community into shared rejoicing before the Lord.
They also celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles in accordance with what is written, and they offered burnt offerings daily based on the number prescribed for each day.
The returned community observes the written requirements of the feast while rebuilding worship after exile.
“I hate, I despise your feasts! I cannot stand the stench of your solemn assemblies.
The Lord rejects feasts and assemblies offered by a people whose life contradicts His demand for justice and righteousness.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. A sacred gathering marked by pilgrimage, sacrifice, and communal worship—covenantal renewal through solemn assembly
A sacred gathering marked by pilgrimage, sacrifice, and communal worship—covenantal renewal through solemn assembly
a festival, or a victim therefor BDB: festival-gathering Usage: (solemn) feast (day), sacrifice, solemnity.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 62 lexical occurrence verses.
The restored observance of the chag reflects covenant obedience grounded in God’s prior acts of redemption.Nehemiah 8:13-18
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H2282 portrays celebration as a disciplined form of covenant memory. Deuteronomy's feast is joyful, but its guest list keeps joy from becoming private privilege. Household members, servants, Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows are named because communal abundance must make room for those without equal land, status, or protection. Ezra shows a vulnerable returned community celebrating according to the written command before every aspect of national life is repaired.
Faithful joy can begin amid unfinished work because it rests on God's past faithfulness and present instruction. Amos supplies the necessary warning. God can despise a religious feast when songs and assemblies coexist with injustice. The calendar, crowd, sacrifice, and emotional intensity do not make worship acceptable by themselves. Jeroboam's self-chosen festival similarly shows how leaders can imitate holy forms to consolidate rival power.
H2282 therefore calls communities to celebrations that tell the truth, honor God's commands, welcome the vulnerable, compensate labor justly, and refuse idolatrous display. It should not be used to demand cheerfulness from people in grief or to silence lament during festive seasons. Biblical feasting makes space for grateful joy, but joy remains accountable to covenant fidelity, justice, and the actual good of those gathered.
Deut.16.14
H2282 commonly names a pilgrimage festival or feast and can extend to the festal sacrifice. It often appears with verbs of keeping, celebrating, going up, or rejoicing and with calendar expressions that locate an annual covenant observance.
New Testament festival scenes, shared meals, generosity, and the church's hope of final celebration continue canonical themes of remembrance and joy. Christ's fulfillment of Israel's story must be traced passage by passage rather than turning every H2282 feast into the same direct prediction.