חָפֵץ
cha.phets
to delight in
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# Analysis of חָפֵץ (chaphets): "to delight in" The Hebrew verb חָפֵץ carries the fundamental meaning of "to delight in" or "to find pleasure in," appearing 73 times throughout the biblical text. This frequency suggests it was a common and important term for expressing preference and emotional satisfaction. The word functions to describe a subject's positive inclination toward something—whether toward an object, action, or person—indicating not mere tolerance but genuine pleasure or satisfaction. The range of this term extends across various contexts within biblical literature. Its 73 occurrences indicate it was used across multiple biblical books and genres to capture the nuanced idea of what brings someone joy or satisfaction. The verb describes emotional and volitional responses, making it useful for depicting both divine and human preferences. Whether referring to what God delights in or what individuals choose to pursue, the word maintains its essential semantic core: the experience of finding something pleasing or desirable. This term carries significance as a window into biblical concepts of preference, value, and satisfaction. By using חָפֵץ rather than more neutral verbs, biblical writers emphasized the affective dimension of choice—that certain things brought genuine delight rather than mere compliance or obligation. The word's frequency and distribution across the biblical corpus underscores how central the concept of delighting in something was to expressing both theological and human experience
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
73 total occurrences across the text — showing 50
Let the clothing and the horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes, that they may array the man whom the king delights to honor with them, and have him ride on horseback through the city square, and proclaim before him, ‘Thus it shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!’ ”
Esther 6:9Let the clothing and the horse be delivered to the hand of one of the king’s most noble princes, that they may array the man whom the king delights to honor with them, and have him ride on horseback through the city square, and proclaim before him, ‘Thus it shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!’ ”
Esther 2:14In the evening she went, and on the next day she returned into the second women’s house, to the custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch, who kept the concubines. She came in to the king no more, unless the king delighted in her, and she was called by name.
Esther 6:6So Haman came in. The king said to him, “What shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor?” Now Haman said in his heart, “Who would the king delight to honor more than myself?”
Esther 6:6So Haman came in. The king said to him, “What shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor?” Now Haman said in his heart, “Who would the king delight to honor more than myself?”
Esther 6:7Haman said to the king, “For the man whom the king delights to honor,
Esther 6:11Then Haman took the clothing and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and had him ride through the city square, and proclaimed before him, “Thus it shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor!”
Job 9:3If he is pleased to contend with him, he can’t answer him one time in a thousand.
Job 13:3“Surely I would speak to the Almighty. I desire to reason with God.
Job 21:14They tell God, ‘Depart from us, for we don’t want to know about your ways.
Job 33:32If you have anything to say, answer me. Speak, for I desire to justify you.
Psalms 18:19He brought me out also into a large place. He delivered me, because he delighted in me.
Psalms 22:8“He trusts in Yahweh. Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him, since he delights in him.”
Psalms 37:23A man’s steps are established by Yahweh. He delights in his way.
Psalms 40:6Sacrifice and offering you didn’t desire. You have opened my ears. You have not required burnt offering and sin offering.
Psalms 40:8I delight to do your will, my God. Yes, your law is within my heart.”
Psalms 41:11By this I know that you delight in me, because my enemy doesn’t triumph over me.
Psalms 51:6Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
Psalms 51:16For you don’t delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it. You have no pleasure in burnt offering.
Psalms 51:19Then you will delight in the sacrifices of righteousness, in burnt offerings and in whole burnt offerings. Then they will offer bulls on your altar.
Psalms 68:30Rebuke the wild animal of the reeds, the multitude of the bulls, with the calves of the peoples. Being humbled, may it bring bars of silver. Scatter the nations that delight in war.
Psalms 73:25Whom do I have in heaven? There is no one on earth whom I desire besides you.
Psalms 109:17Yes, he loved cursing, and it came to him. He didn’t delight in blessing, and it was far from him.
Psalms 112:1Praise Yah! Blessed is the man who fears Yahweh, who delights greatly in his commandments.
Psalms 115:3But our God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases.
Psalms 119:35Direct me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in them.
Psalms 135:6Whatever Yahweh pleased, that he has done, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps.
Psalms 147:10He doesn’t delight in the strength of the horse. He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man.
Proverbs 18:2A fool has no delight in understanding, but only in revealing his own opinion.
Proverbs 21:1The king’s heart is in Yahweh’s hand like the watercourses. He turns it wherever he desires.
Ecclesiastes 8:3Don’t be hasty to go out of his presence. Don’t persist in an evil thing, for he does whatever pleases him,
Song of Solomon 2:7I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, or by the hinds of the field, that you not stir up, nor awaken love, until it so desires.
Song of Solomon 3:5I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, or by the hinds of the field, that you not stir up nor awaken love, until it so desires.
Song of Solomon 8:4I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, that you not stir up, nor awaken love, until it so desires.
Isaiah 1:11“What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?”, says Yahweh. “I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed animals. I don’t delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of male goats.
Isaiah 13:17Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who will not value silver, and as for gold, they will not delight in it.
Isaiah 42:21It pleased Yahweh, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify the law and make it honorable.
Isaiah 53:10Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring. He will prolong his days and Yahweh’s pleasure will prosper in his hand.
Isaiah 55:11so is my word that goes out of my mouth: it will not return to me void, but it will accomplish that which I please, and it will prosper in the thing I sent it to do.
Isaiah 56:4For Yahweh says, “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, choose the things that please me, and hold fast to my covenant,
Isaiah 58:2Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways. As a nation that did righteousness, and didn’t forsake the ordinance of their God, they ask of me righteous judgments. They delight to draw near to God.
Isaiah 58:2Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways. As a nation that did righteousness, and didn’t forsake the ordinance of their God, they ask of me righteous judgments. They delight to draw near to God.
Isaiah 65:12I will destine you to the sword, and you will all bow down to the slaughter; because when I called, you didn’t answer. When I spoke, you didn’t listen; but you did that which was evil in my eyes, and chose that in which I didn’t delight.”
Isaiah 66:3He who kills an ox is as he who kills a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, as he who breaks a dog’s neck; he who offers an offering, as he who offers pig’s blood; he who burns frankincense, as he who blesses an idol. Yes, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations:
Isaiah 66:4I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears on them; because when I called, no one answered; when I spoke, they didn’t listen; but they did that which was evil in my eyes, and chose that in which I didn’t delight.”
Jeremiah 6:10To whom should I speak and testify, that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they can’t listen. Behold, Yahweh’s word has become a reproach to them. They have no delight in it.
Jeremiah 9:24But let him who glories glory in this, that he has understanding, and knows me, that I am Yahweh who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for I delight in these things,” says Yahweh.
Jeremiah 42:22Now therefore know certainly that you will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence in the place where you desire to go to live there.”
1 Samuel 2:25If one man sins against another, God will judge him; but if a man sins against Yahweh, who will intercede for him?” Notwithstanding, they didn’t listen to the voice of their father, because Yahweh intended to kill them.
Ezekiel 18:23Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked?” says the Lord Yahweh; “and not rather that he should return from his way, and live?