An enactment ; hence, an appointment (of time, space, quantity, labor or usage)
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חֹק denotes a prescribed statute, fixed limit, appointed portion, or enactment. It is related to חָקַק (H2710), to inscribe or decree, but the relationship does not mean every חֹק should be pictured as permanently cut into stone.
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Full entry for חֹק (H2706) · Open the biblical lexicon
חֹק denotes a prescribed statute, fixed limit, appointed portion, or enactment. It is related to חָקַק (H2710), to inscribe or decree, but the relationship does not mean every חֹק should be pictured as permanently cut into stone.
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 denotes a prescribed statute, fixed limit, appointed portion, or enactment. It is related to חָקַק (H2710), to inscribe or decree, but the relationship does not mean every חֹק should be pictured as permanently cut into stone. The noun’s sense ranges across covenant requirements, recurring observances, boundaries in creation imagery, allotted portions, and established orders. Context determines what is fixed, who appoints it, and how long it applies.
Exodus 12:14 calls the Passover memorial a statute for Israel’s generations. Psalm 119 delights in the Lord’s statutes within the psalm’s larger vocabulary for divine instruction. Proverbs 8:29 uses חֹק for the boundary assigned to the sea, while Proverbs 30:8 uses it for an allotted portion of food. These uses share the idea of an appointed determination but should not be collapsed into a claim that one lexeme “holds the world together.”
The related feminine noun חֻקָּה (H2708) is a distinct lexical entry frequently used for prescribed observances. It may belong to the same word family, but it should not be called an interchangeable form of H2706 or have all its occurrences counted as though they were this identity. Likewise, Psalm 119’s plural statutes must be handled according to the actual Hebrew forms in each verse.
For teaching, חֹק can help readers see that God orders covenant worship, communal life, creation, and daily provision according to his wisdom. Applications to Christians must distinguish enduring moral instruction, fulfilled covenant ceremonies, and poetic creation language by tracing the New Testament’s explicit interpretation rather than assuming every statute transfers unchanged.
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.
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.
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 names something appointed or prescribed: a statute, limit, portion, or established order. Passover, the sea’s boundary in Proverbs 8, and the allotted bread of Proverbs 30 show different contexts joined by appointment, not by an invisible substance engraved into reality. Teachers should allow the appointing authority and literary setting to determine the force.
Psalm 119 models delight in the Lord’s instruction, but Christian application requires more than replacing “rule” with “life-giving structure.” Some Mosaic statutes belong to Israel’s covenant ceremonies, and the New Testament explains how the law and promises relate to Christ. The Passover provides essential background for the Lord’s Supper and Christ’s death, yet Exodus 12:14 does not by itself institute the Christian meal.
Jeremiah 31:31-34 promises a new covenant with God’s law written on the heart, and Hebrews 8 cites that promise. Verses 35-36 then appeal to the Lord’s established ordering of sun, moon, and stars to assure Israel’s continuity. These adjacent images support covenant confidence, but they should not be compressed into a claim that one חֹק is transferred from stone into believers or that the New Covenant is lexically identical with creation’s fixed order.
Ps.119.8
חֹק is related to חָקַק (H2710), to inscribe, prescribe, or decree, and can denote a statute, appointed limit, due portion, or established order. The etymological connection does not require a literal image of stone or guarantee permanence in every occurrence. חֻקָּה (H2708) is a related feminine noun and separate lexical identity, not merely an interchangeable form to be merged with H2706.
חֹק may occur alongside words such as מִשְׁפָּט and מִצְוָה, but their distinctions must be established in context rather than assigned as a rigid legal taxonomy. The New Testament’s νόμος vocabulary is broader than this single Hebrew noun.
Matthew 5:17 declares that Jesus came not to abolish the Law or the Prophets but to fulfill them, a claim about the whole scriptural witness rather than a direct declaration about H2706. First Corinthians 11:23-26 places the Lord’s Supper within Passover and New Covenant memory, providing an explicit Christian development of Israel’s memorial pattern. Hebrews 8 cites Jeremiah 31:31-34 to explain the better covenant mediated by Christ and the law written on hearts.
These passages show fulfillment, continuity, and transformation, but they do not say that every חֹק remains unchanged, that the Passover statute simply becomes the Lord’s Supper, or that an H2706 decree written on stone is moved intact into the believer.