Hebrew word · H2287

חָגַג

tachogu

to celebrate

To keep a ḥag: a pilgrimage feast held at the sanctuary. Possibly from a root meaning to go round in a circle or dance. Used for the great annual feasts (Exod 23:14; Deut 16:15). Also of reeling or staggering (Ps 107:27).

Appears 16 times in 14 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) to hold a feast, hold a festival, make pilgrimage, keep a pilgrim-feast, celebrate, dance, stagger

1a) (Qal)

1a1) to keep a pilgrim-feast

1a2) to reel

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Psalm 42:4

Range of meaning

To keep a ḥag: a pilgrimage feast held at the sanctuary. Possibly from a root meaning to go round in a circle or dance. Used for the great annual feasts (Exod 23:14; Deut 16:15). Also of reeling or staggering (Ps 107:27).

Against the English

KJV 'kept holyday' and WEB 'keeping a holy day' are accurate in older English ('holy day'). Modern 'holiday' suggests a vacation or time off work. BSB 'festive procession' keeps the movement.

How it drifted

English 'holy day' became 'holiday', meaning leisure or a break from work.

Used elsewhere in the period

Deut 16:16 (three yearly pilgrimages: Unleavened Bread, Weeks, Booths). Isa 30:29: 'a song as in the night when a ḥag is kept… as one goes with the flute to the mountain of the LORD'. Ps 118:27 (festal procession, possibly involving branches).

From the study of 1 Samuel 30:16

Range of meaning

Hebrew lexicons such as BDB and HALOT give the core meaning as "to keep a ḥag": a festival or pilgrimage feast. Festivals were marked by processions, circle-dances and feasting. The noun ḥag is the word for Israel's three pilgrimage festivals (Exod 23:14–17). One passage seems to keep a physical sense, 'to reel, stagger': in Ps 107:27, sailors in a storm 'reel (yaḥoggu) and stagger like a drunk.' The Arabic cognate ḥajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca with its circling of the Kaaba, points to an old link between the root and circling movement.

Against the English

KJV, WEB, ESV and NASB have 'dancing'. BSB has 'celebrating', YLT 'feasting', NIV 'reveling'. 'Dancing' catches the physical movement. 'Celebrating' and 'feasting' catch the festal idea. No single English word holds both.

How it drifted

'Dancing' is not wrong. But a modern reader hears entertainment or choreography. The Hebrew word belongs to festival vocabulary, the language of holding a feast. Here it is used for a drunken victory party.

Used elsewhere in the period

Exod 5:1 and 23:14 use it for keeping a feast to the LORD. Exod 32:5–6 uses ḥag for the golden-calf feast, where the people 'sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.' Ps 42:4 has 'a multitude keeping festival (ḥogeg).' Ps 107:27 has 'they reel.' In 1 Sam 30:16 the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation) has heortazontes, 'keeping a feast.' The Vulgate (the Latin) has quasi festum celebrantes diem, 'as if celebrating a feast-day.'

From the study of Deuteronomy 16:15

Range of meaning

To keep a chag, a pilgrim festival: to travel to a sanctuary and celebrate there. The verb seems to have physical connotations of going round, processional dancing and festive reeling. HALOT and BDB both record a sense like 'make a pilgrimage, keep a festival', and the related noun chag means the festival itself. In biblical law chag is used mainly for the three pilgrimage feasts (Unleavened Bread, Weeks, Booths), not for every holy day.

Against the English

BSB and WEB 'celebrate/keep a feast' is accurate but loses the idea of pilgrimage. KJV 'keep a solemn feast' adds 'solemn', which in 1611 meant 'ceremonial, held at its fixed season' but now sounds grave and sombre, close to the opposite of the verse's point.

How it drifted

The KJV's 'solemn' goes back to Latin sollemnis, 'annual, customary, ceremonial'. In modern English 'solemn' has narrowed to 'serious, sober, without levity', so the old rendering now points readers the wrong way.

Used elsewhere in the period

Exod 5:1: 'that they may hold a festival (veyachoggu) to me in the wilderness'. Exod 23:14: 'three times a year you shall keep festival (tachog) to me'. 1 Sam 30:16: Amalekite raiders 'eating, drinking and chogegim', revelling or dancing, over their plunder. Ps 42:4 (Heb. 5): 'a festive throng (hamon chogeg)' going up to the house of God. Ps 107:27 uses a closely related verb for sailors who 'reel' like drunkards. The Arabic cognate ḥajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, preserves the pilgrimage sense.

Where it appears

Exodus · 4

  1. Exodus 5:1 וְיָחֹ֥גּוּ so they may celebrate a festival

    After that, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let My people go, so that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.’”

    Here: 'So that they may make a festival-pilgrimage': going to a holy place for a sacred feast with sacrifice and celebration. It is not simply a meal.

  2. Exodus 12:14 וְחַגֹּתֶ֥ם תְּחָגֻּֽהוּ׃ and you will celebrate a festival, you will celebrate as a festival it

    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.

    Here: 'And you shall keep a festival.' The verb comes from the same root as the noun that follows. It means holding a sacred celebration, an event marked by gathering, sacrifice, eating and rejoicing.

  3. Exodus 23:14 תָּחֹ֥ג you will celebrate a festival

    Three times a year you are to celebrate a feast to Me.

    Here: "You shall hold a ḥag," meaning go to the sanctuary and keep a festival there with procession, celebration, sacrifice and shared meals. The Hebrew verb form looks like a future ("you will") but works as a standing command. The "you" is singular: Israel addressed as one people. Verse 17 says it is binding on every male.

Leviticus · 3

  1. Leviticus 23:39 תָּחֹ֥גּוּ you will celebrate a festival

    On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered the produce of the land, you are to celebrate a feast to the LORD for seven days. There shall be complete rest on the first day and also on the eighth day.

  2. Leviticus 23:41 וְחַגֹּתֶ֤ם תָּחֹ֥גּוּ and you will celebrate a festival, you will celebrate as a festival

    You are to celebrate this as a feast to the LORD for seven days each year. This is a permanent statute for the generations to come; you are to celebrate it in the seventh month.

Numbers · 1

  1. Numbers 29:12 וְחַגֹּתֶ֥ם and you will celebrate a festival

    On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, you are to hold a sacred assembly; you must not do any regular work, and you shall observe a feast to the LORD for seven days.

    Here: A verb made from the same root as the noun that follows: 'you shall festival a festival'. It means to celebrate a pilgrimage feast. The root may first have meant going round in a circle or dancing in procession.

Deuteronomy · 1

  1. Deuteronomy 16:15 תָּחֹג֙ you will celebrate a festival

    For seven days you shall celebrate a feast to the LORD your God in the place He will choose, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that your joy will be complete.

    Here: 'You shall make festival': travel to the sanctuary and celebrate there with sacrifice, feasting and probably procession and dance. The verb comes from the same root as the noun chag, 'pilgrim feast', used of this festival in v.13.

1 Samuel · 1

  1. 1 Samuel 30:16 וְחֹ֣גְגִ֔ים and celebrating

    So he led David down, and there were the Amalekites spread out over all the land, eating, drinking, and celebrating the great amount of plunder they had taken from the land of the Philistines and the land of Judah.

    Here: "And holding a feast." This is the verb behind ḥag, the word for Israel's great festivals. Here it describes a rowdy victory party, probably with circle-dancing and staggering about.

Psalms · 2

  1. Psalm 42:4 חוֹגֵֽג׃ celebrating a festival

    These things come to mind as I pour out my soul: how I walked with the multitude, leading the festive procession to the house of God with shouts of joy and praise.

    Here: 'Keeping festival': celebrating a ḥag, one of the pilgrimage feasts at the sanctuary. The verb may also suggest circling or dancing.

  2. Psalm 107:27 יָח֣וֹגּוּ they staggered

    They reeled and staggered like drunkards, and all their skill was useless.

    Here: They reeled, spinning round. The verb usually means to keep a pilgrim festival, probably from circling or round-dancing. Here it pictures men turned round and round by the heaving deck. The tense describes the scene as it happens.

Nahum · 1

  1. Nahum 1:15 חָגִּ֧י celebrate a festival

    Look to the mountains—the feet of one who brings good news, who proclaims peace! Celebrate your feasts, O Judah; fulfill your vows. For the wicked will never again march through you; they will be utterly cut off.

    Here: A command addressed to Judah as a woman: 'Hold festival!' The verb means going up to the sanctuary in a joyful procession.

Zechariah · 3

  1. Zechariah 14:16 וְלָחֹ֖ג and to celebrate a festival

    Then all the survivors from the nations that came against Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of Hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.

    Here: 'And to hold the festival.' The verb means to make a festival pilgrimage, with its procession, celebration and feasting. It is related to the Arabic word hajj. This is the second purpose of the journey.

  2. Zechariah 14:18 לָחֹ֖ג to celebrate a festival

    And if the people of Egypt will not go up and enter in, then the rain will not fall on them; this will be the plague with which the LORD strikes the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.

  3. Zechariah 14:19 לָחֹ֖ג to celebrate a festival

    This will be the punishment of Egypt and of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.