Properly, to incline to; by implication (literally but rarely) to bend ; figuratively, to be pleased with, desire
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H2654 describes desire, delight, pleasure, or willing inclination, with the object and speaker showing whether the desire is faithful, ordinary, distorted, compassionate, or coercive. The verb can name what God desires, what a ruler pleases to do, what a person enjoys, or what someone wants from another; desire itself is not proof of goodness, consent, or divine approval.
Reader summary
Full entry for חָפֵץ (H2654) · Open the biblical lexicon
H2654 describes desire, delight, pleasure, or willing inclination, with the object and speaker showing whether the desire is faithful, ordinary, distorted, compassionate, or coercive. The verb can name what God desires, what a ruler pleases to do, what a person enjoys, or what someone wants from another; desire itself is not proof of goodness, consent, or.
The BSB source-word alignment has 74 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include delight (6), desire (4), is delighted (4), want (4), delights (3).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 34:19. Its strongest book concentrations include Psalms (17), Isaiah (12), Esther (7), Job (5).
H2654 describes desire, delight, pleasure, or willing inclination, with the object and speaker showing whether the desire is faithful, ordinary, distorted, compassionate, or coercive. The verb can name what God desires, what a ruler pleases to do, what a person enjoys, or what someone wants from another; desire itself is not proof of goodness, consent, or divine approval.
In Hos. 6. 6, the Lord declares a desire for mercy and the knowledge of God rather than sacrificial performance detached from covenant faithfulness. In Ezek. 18. 23, the Lord God denies taking pleasure in the death of the wicked and instead calls for turning from destructive ways and living. H2654 opens teaching on how Scripture evaluates desire by its object, its treatment of neighbors, and its relation to the character and commands of God.
It corrects teaching that treats every strong desire as guidance and teaching that portrays God as taking pleasure in death, ritual display, or human suffering for its own sake. H2654 makes delight morally specific: Hosea declares that the Lord desires mercy rather than sacrifice, Ezekiel denies that God takes pleasure in the death of the wicked and calls for turning and life, and the psalmist receives rescue as an expression of divine delight.
For H2654, responsible teaching keeps lexical meaning, passage context, canonical synthesis, and present application distinguishable. The verb does not sanctify appetite, erase another persons consent, promise that every cherished plan will succeed, or reduce Gods will to whatever a powerful person is pleased to do.
H2654 appears across passages that develop desire, divine compassion, covenant loyalty, worship, human longing, moral discernment, and responsible delight. For H2654, the immediate setting decides which part of the range is active, so the witnesses must remain distinct rather than being merged into one formula.
For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
The Lord declares a desire for mercy and the knowledge of God rather than sacrificial performance detached from covenant faithfulness.
Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Lord God. Wouldn’t I prefer that he turn from his ways and live?
The Lord God denies taking pleasure in the death of the wicked and instead calls for turning from destructive ways and living.
He brought me out into the open; He rescued me because He delighted in me.
The psalmist describes deliverance into an open place as rescue grounded in the LORDs delight in him.
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. Inclination of will toward pleasure: God's delight in covenant obedience; human desire as moral alignment.
Inclination of will toward pleasure: God's delight in covenant obedience; human desire as moral alignment.
properly, to incline to; by implication (literally but rarely) to bend; figuratively, to be pleased with, desire BDB: delight in Usage: × any at all, (have, take) delight, desire, favour, like, move, be (well) pleased, have pleasure, will, would.
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 75 lexical occurrence verses.
חָפֵץ is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H2654 makes delight morally specific: Hosea declares that the Lord desires mercy rather than sacrifice, Ezekiel denies that God takes pleasure in the death of the wicked and calls for turning and life, and the psalmist receives rescue as an expression of divine delight. H2654 describes desire, delight, pleasure, or willing inclination, with the object and speaker showing whether the desire is faithful, ordinary, distorted, compassionate, or coercive.
The selected witnesses keep the teaching concrete: Hos. 6. 6 shows that the Lord declares a desire for mercy and the knowledge of God rather than sacrificial performance detached from covenant faithfulness. , while Ezek. 18. 23 shows that the Lord God denies taking pleasure in the death of the wicked and instead calls for turning from destructive ways and living..
Ps. 18. 19 adds that the psalmist describes deliverance into an open place as rescue grounded in the LORDs delight in him.. H2654 opens teaching on how Scripture evaluates desire by its object, its treatment of neighbors, and its relation to the character and commands of God. It corrects teaching that treats every strong desire as guidance and teaching that portrays God as taking pleasure in death, ritual display, or human suffering for its own sake.
A church teaching H2654 faithfully will name both the promise and the boundary carried by these contexts, attend to vulnerable hearers, and refuse to make the lexical item prove more than its passages support. The verb does not sanctify appetite, erase another persons consent, promise that every cherished plan will succeed, or reduce Gods will to whatever a powerful person is pleased to do.
Hos.6.6
H2654 is a Hebrew verb for inclining toward, delighting in, desiring, favoring, or being pleased with someone or something; subject, object, and clause context identify the active sense.
The Old Testament tests delight through mercy, justice, wisdom, covenant obedience, and the life-giving character of God. The New Testament continues to speak of holy desire and divine pleasure while locating faithful human longing under love of God and neighbor rather than making later Greek vocabulary identical to H2654.