An enactment ; hence, an appointment (of time, space, quantity, labor or usage)
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חֹק (choq) is the Hebrew word for statute, fixed limit, and appointed portion — the divine enactment that establishes the boundaries of covenant life and of creation itself. It comes from the root חָקַק (chaqaq, to engrave, to inscribe), carrying the image of something cut into stone, permanent and non-negotiable.
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Full entry for חֹק (H2706) · Open the biblical lexicon
חֹק (choq) is the Hebrew word for statute, fixed limit, and appointed portion — the divine enactment that establishes the boundaries of covenant life and of creation itself. It comes from the root חָקַק (chaqaq, to engrave, to inscribe), carrying the image of something cut into stone, permanent and non-negotiable.
The BSB source-word alignment has 128 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Your statutes (16), statutes (13), and statutes (11), the statutes (11), His statutes (7).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 47:22. Its strongest book concentrations include Psalms (31), Deuteronomy (21), Leviticus (11), Exodus (8).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
חֹק (choq) is the Hebrew word for statute, fixed limit, and appointed portion — the divine enactment that establishes the boundaries of covenant life and of creation itself. It comes from the root חָקַק (chaqaq, to engrave, to inscribe), carrying the image of something cut into stone, permanent and non-negotiable. The choq is what YHWH has decreed — for the calendar of worship (Exod 12:14), for the limits of the sea (Prov 8:29), for the covenant community's life (Deut 4:1). The chuqqim (plural of choq) represent the fixed, enacted will of YHWH for the creation and the covenant.
Psalm 119 is the OT's great meditation on YHWH's chuqqim — the longest chapter in the Bible, 176 verses structured around eight-verse stanzas, each saturated with the vocabulary of divine instruction including choq/chukkim. Verse 8 sets the tone: 'I will keep your statutes (chuqqeka); do not utterly forsake me!' The psalmist's keeping of the chuqqim is not a matter of external compliance but of heart-love: 'I delight (shasha, H8173) in your statutes' (v. 16). The chuqqim are not burdensome impositions but the beloved's words, the path of life.
Proverbs 8:29 gives choq its creation-theology use: Wisdom speaking — 'when he assigned to the sea its limit (choq), so that the waters might not transgress his command (piv), when he marked out the foundations of the earth.' The choq of YHWH governs the creation's structures: the sea has a choq that it cannot cross, the foundation of the earth is marked by a choq. The same word that describes the Passover statute (a choq forever) describes the boundary that holds the sea in place. The choq of YHWH is more than legal — it is ontological: it holds the world together.
Exodus 15:25-26 gives choq its covenantal-test context: 'There YHWH made for them a choq and a mishpat, and there he tested them, saying, "If you will diligently listen to the voice of YHWH your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes (chuqqav), I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am YHWH, your healer."' The choq is the test of the covenant relationship — the willingness to live by YHWH's enactments is the evidence of trust in YHWH's character as healer.
Proverbs 30:8 gives choq its provision-sufficiency use: 'Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is my choq (lechem chuqqi, my appointed portion of bread).' The choq here is the daily sufficiency — the divinely appointed portion that is exactly enough. This echoes the manna's choq (Exod 16, the daily portion, not too much not too little) and anticipates the Lord's Prayer's 'give us this day our daily bread.'
For the preacher, חֹק (choq) teaches that YHWH's decrees are not arbitrary impositions but the engraved boundaries within which creation and covenant life flourish.
חֹק (choq) and its feminine form חֻקָּה (chuqqah) appear across Torah, wisdom, Psalms, and prophetic texts. Exodus uses it for the permanent feast statutes (Passover, Unleavened Bread) and for the creation-covenant choq at Marah. Leviticus and Numbers use chuqqat repeatedly for the permanent ritual statutes. Deuteronomy pairs choq with mishpat as the summary of covenantal instruction.
Proverbs uses it for Wisdom's creation-governance role (setting the sea's choq) and for the daily-bread provision. Psalm 119 meditates extensively on the chuqqim as the path of life. Job 28:26 and Jeremiah 5:22 and 31:35 use choq for the orders of creation. The word spans the legal, the liturgical, the sapiential, and the cosmological.
I will keep Your statutes; do not utterly forsake me.
The psalmist's covenant commitment and prayer: 'I will keep your chuqqeka — do not utterly forsake me.' The keeping of chuqqim is paired with the petition for divine faithfulness — the psalmist who will keep the statutes asks YHWH not to abandon him. This is the covenant mutuality: the community keeps the chuqqim and YHWH keeps the community. Verse 16 adds the heart dimension: 'I will delight in your statutes (chuqqeka); I will not forget your word.'
The chuqqim are not kept grudgingly but delighted in — the law-keeper of Psalm 119 is not a legalist but a lover of the divine word.
When He set a boundary for the sea, so that the waters would not surpass His command, when He marked out the foundations of the earth.
Wisdom assigning the sea its choq: 'he assigned to the sea its choq so that the waters might not transgress his command.' The choq of creation is Wisdom's work, carried out in the divine creation-act. The sea remains within its choq boundary — not because the water lacks physical power but because the divine enactment holds it. The same Wisdom who set the sea's choq offers the choq of covenant life: the one who keeps the chuqqim of YHWH lives within the structures of creation's wisdom.
Breaking the covenant chuqqim is portrayed as analogous to the sea crossing its boundaries — a violation of the creational order.
And this day will be a memorial for you, and you are to celebrate it as a feast to the Lord, as a permanent statute for the generations to come.
The Passover as a choq forever: the feast that commemorates YHWH's redemptive act is engraved as a permanent choq — a chuqq'at olam (a choq of eternity). The choq is the act of YHWH's memory encoded in Israel's calendar: 'you shall keep it as a feast... forever.' The permanent feast-choq is YHWH's way of inscribing his redemptive act into the rhythm of the community's life.
Every Passover enacts the choq; the NT's 'as often as you drink it, do this in remembrance of me' (1 Cor 11:25) is the choq-memorial of the new covenant.
Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day, who sets in order the moon and stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the Lord of Hosts is His name:
The cosmological chuqqim as the ground of covenant faithfulness: the same verse that introduces the new covenant (Jer 31:31-34) is followed by the choq-oath: 'if these fixed orders (chuqqim) depart from before me, declares YHWH, then the offspring of Israel shall cease being a nation before me forever' (v. 36). The stability of the covenant with Israel is as firm as the choq of the sun, moon, and stars.
The chuqqim of creation are the guarantee of the covenant's permanence: creation itself would have to dissolve before YHWH's covenant commitment would fail.
Keep falsehood and deceitful words far from me. Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the bread that is my portion.
The choq as daily-provision sufficiency: 'feed me with the food of my choq (lechem chuqqi).' The daily appointed portion — not too much (lest I be full and deny YHWH, v. 9) and not too little (lest I steal and profane the name of God) — is the choq of provision. The manna-choq of the wilderness (Exod 16, omer per person, daily) is the background: YHWH's choq of provision is exactly calibrated, daily, and sufficient.
This is the OT's prayer for the daily bread — the choq-sufficiency that trusts YHWH to enact the right portion.
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Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Hebrew word. Divine decree that establishes fixed boundaries—temporal, spatial, or behavioral—defining creation's order and covenant obligation.
Divine decree that establishes fixed boundaries—temporal, spatial, or behavioral—defining creation's order and covenant obligation.
an enactment; hence, an appointment (of time, space, quantity, labor or usage) BDB: something prescribed Usage: appointed, bound, commandment, convenient, custom, decree(-d), due, law, measure, × necessary, ordinance(-nary), portion, set time, statute, task.
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 3 selected witnesses from 128 lexical occurrence verses.
Its extension reflects renewed vitality and influence under divine favor. Micah 7:11-13
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
חֹק (choq) teaches the congregation that YHWH's decrees are not arbitrary impositions but the engraved structures within which creation and covenant life flourish. The same God who set the sea's choq (Prov 8:29) gave the Passover choq (Exod 12:14) and the chuqqim of covenant life (Deut 4:1). The choq is the inscribed will of the one who made everything and knows how everything works best.
Psalm 119's delight in the chuqqim is the seasoned saint's testimony: these are not burdens but the beloved's words, the path of life, the inscribed care of the one who loves me. The preacher who teaches choq can help the congregation move from 'I have to obey the rules' to 'I get to live within the wisdom of the Creator who inscribed reality itself with the structures of life.'
The Passover choq (Exod 12:14, a choq forever) gives the congregation the theology of the Lord's Supper: a covenantal memorial-enactment, inscribed in the calendar of the community, permanently commemorating the redemptive act. And Proverbs 30:8's daily-bread choq gives the congregation the prayer: 'give me the choq of provision, not too much and not too little, enough to trust you for today.'
Jeremiah 31:35 gives the choq its deepest pastoral use: the new covenant is as permanent as the choq of the sun and moon. If the sun fails to rise, then the covenant fails — not before.
Ps.119.8
חֹק (choq) comes from the root חָקַק (chaqaq, H2710, to engrave, inscribe, decree) — the image of something cut permanently into stone or clay. The feminine form חֻקָּה (chuqqah) is used interchangeably, often for the priestly and ritual statutes. The word is commonly paired with מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat, H4941, ordinance/judgment — the case-law form of commandment) and with מִצְוָה (mitsvah, H4687, commandment — the specific directive).
Psalm 119 uses six main words for divine instruction: torah (teaching), edot (testimonies), chuqqim (statutes), mitsvot (commandments), mishpatim (ordinances), and imrot/devarim (words/sayings). Choq/chuqqim are the enacted, permanent decrees — most associated with the fixed liturgical calendar and the unchangeable creational orders. The NT equivalent is the concept of the 'law' (nomos, G3551) but with the emphasis that Christ is the fulfillment and goal of the choq (Rom 10:4, 'Christ is the telos/end of the law').
The NT's choq-theology runs through the Law's fulfillment in Christ and the new-covenant internalization of the divine decrees. Matthew 5:17 — 'I have not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets but to fulfill them' — is the NT's choq-declaration: the chuqqim are not dissolved but completed in Christ. The Passover choq finds its fulfillment in the Lord's Supper (1 Cor 11:23-26, 'as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes' — the new covenant memorial-enactment).
Jeremiah 31:31-34's new covenant, grounded in the cosmological chuqqim (Jer 31:35-36), is cited in Hebrews 8:8-12 as the basis for the new covenant mediated by Christ: the old chuqqim written externally are now written on hearts and minds (Heb 8:10, 'I will put my laws/nomous into their minds and write them on their hearts'). The choq written in stone (Exod 31:18) becomes the law written on the heart (Jer 31:33, 2 Cor 3:3) by the Spirit — the same permanent enactment, now internal.
Romans 8:4 — 'in order that the righteous requirement (dikaioma) of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit' — is the Spirit's work of inscribing the choq's intention into the believer's life.
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