Hebrew word · H2322
חֲדָשָׁה
vachadashah
Hadashah
The feminine form of the adjective ḥadash, "new, fresh." The same root gives ḥodesh, "new moon / month." As a place name it means "New (town)," probably a settlement founded later than its neighbours or rebuilt.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
§ Hadashah = "new"
one of the towns in the low country of Judah
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 Joshua 15:37
- Range of meaning
The feminine form of the adjective ḥadash, "new, fresh." The same root gives ḥodesh, "new moon / month." As a place name it means "New (town)," probably a settlement founded later than its neighbours or rebuilt.
- Against the English
English versions transliterate it as "Hadashah," so the meaning "New" is hidden from the English reader.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Only here in the Bible. Rabbinic tradition (Mishnah, Eruvin 5:6) mentions a very small "Hadashah in Judah" with about fifty inhabitants, used as a standard example of a tiny town. Whether this is the same place is uncertain. Compare similar names elsewhere, such as Kiriath-hadattah / Hazor-hadattah (Josh 15:25), "New City," and Phoenician Qart-ḥadasht, the name behind Carthage.
Where it appears
Joshua · 1
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Joshua 15:37 וַחֲדָשָׁ֖ה and Hadashah
Zenan, Hadashah, Migdal-gad,
Here: "And Hadashah." The name is the ordinary Hebrew word for "new" in its feminine form, so it means "New (town)." Hebrew words for "city" are feminine, which explains the form. Its location is unknown.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.