Hebrew word · H2610

חָנֵף

yachanif

to pollute

Verb: to be polluted, profaned, made godless (qal); to pollute, profane, lead into godlessness (hiphil). The related adjective chanef means 'godless, profane' and the noun chonef 'godlessness'. The verb's main use is a land polluted by human guilt: bloodshed, idolatry, sexual unfaithfulness.

Appears 11 times in 9 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) to be profaned, be defiled, be polluted, be corrupt

1a) (Qal)

1a1) to be polluted

1a2) to be profane, be godless

1b) (Hiphil)

1b1) to pollute

1b2) to make profane, make godless, cause to be defiled

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 Isaiah 24:5

Range of meaning

Verb: to be polluted, profaned, made godless (qal); to pollute, profane, lead into godlessness (hiphil). The related adjective chanef means 'godless, profane' and the noun chonef 'godlessness'. The verb's main use is a land polluted by human guilt: bloodshed, idolatry, sexual unfaithfulness. A polluted land is unfit to hold God's presence and comes under curse.

Against the English

'Defiled' (KJV, BSB, ESV, NIV) is close. 'Polluted' (WEB, NASB) is also accurate, but in modern English the word suggests environmental contamination. Neither English word makes plain that this is guilt-pollution with a religious meaning. In Job and Isaiah the KJV turns the related adjective into 'hypocrite'.

How it drifted

Later Hebrew and Aramaic used the root for 'flattery' and 'hypocrisy'. The Greek translators sometimes rendered the adjective hypokritēs, and the KJV followed with 'hypocrite'. In modern English 'pollution' has become mainly environmental.

Used elsewhere in the period

Num 35:33: 'You shall not pollute the land in which you live, for blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood shed in it except by the blood of the one who shed it.' Ps 106:38: the land 'was polluted with blood' through child sacrifice. Jer 3:1, 2, 9: the land polluted by Israel's 'harlotry', meaning idolatry. Mic 4:11: the nations want Zion 'profaned'. The adjective appears at Isa 9:17; 10:6; 33:14 and Job 8:13. The Greek Old Testament (Septuagint) here translates freely with ēnomēsen, 'the earth acted lawlessly'.

From the study of Jeremiah 3:1

Range of meaning

To be polluted, profaned, made unclean, of land; to be godless or profane, of people. The adjective ḥānēp means 'godless, profane person'. In biblical Hebrew it is about pollution from serious wrongdoing, especially bloodshed, broken covenant, and illicit worship.

Against the English

'Defiled' (BSB) and 'polluted' (KJV, WEB) are both fair. 'Polluted' can make a modern reader think of environmental contamination. The Hebrew means a land made religiously and morally unfit to be God's dwelling and the people's inheritance.

How it drifted

In later Hebrew and Aramaic the root came to mean 'flatter' or 'be a hypocrite', and older English versions sometimes render the related adjective as 'hypocrite' (e.g. KJV in Job). That later sense does not belong in Jeremiah 3:1.

Used elsewhere in the period

Numbers 35:33: 'You shall not pollute (taḥănîpû) the land… for blood pollutes the land.' Psalm 106:38: the land 'was polluted with blood' by child sacrifice. Isaiah 24:5: 'the earth is polluted under its inhabitants, because they have… broken the everlasting covenant.' Jeremiah 3:2 and 3:9 repeat it: 'you polluted the land with your whoring.'

From the study of Jeremiah 23:11

Range of meaning

As a verb: to be polluted or defiled, or to pollute. It is used above all of land fouled by bloodshed, adultery or idolatry (Num 35:33; Ps 106:38; Isa 24:5; Jer 3:1, 2, 9). The related adjective (H2611) describes a person who is 'godless': cut off from God and corrupt inside, often with a suggestion of falseness (Job 8:13; 13:16; Prov 11:9; Isa 9:17; 33:14). The root joins two ideas. One is an objective uncleanness, like a stain on the land. The other is the moral state of a person who has turned from God while still in religious company.

Against the English

KJV and WEB have 'profane'. BSB has 'ungodly' and NIV 'godless'. NASB's 'polluted' keeps the physical picture of defilement. 'Ungodly' and 'godless' catch the moral side but lose the defilement idea that Jeremiah's own use of the word stresses.

How it drifted

In 1611, 'profane' meant 'not holy, desecrated' (from Latin pro fano, 'outside the temple'). Today it mostly suggests bad language. 'Ungodly' has gone vague and general. In later Aramaic and Rabbinic Hebrew the root came to mean flattery and hypocrisy, and the Greek of Job sometimes renders it 'hypocrite'. That later sense should not be read straight back into Jeremiah.

Used elsewhere in the period

Jeremiah uses the verb three times in chapter 3 for the land polluted by Israel's 'whoring' with other gods. Numbers 35:33 says bloodshed pollutes the land. The Greek translators render this verse with emolynthēsan, 'they were defiled', and the Latin Vulgate has polluti sunt, 'they are polluted'. Both read it as defilement. In Job and Proverbs the adjective is often rendered 'ungodly' or 'hypocrite' (asebēs / hypokritēs).

Where it appears

Numbers · 2

  1. Numbers 35:33 תַחֲנִ֣יפוּ יַחֲנִ֖יף you will pollute, it pollutes

    Do not pollute the land where you live, for bloodshed pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land on which the blood is shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.

    Here: A causative form addressed to all of 'you' (plural). Israel as a community would bring pollution on the land by tolerating murder, above all by taking money in place of the killer's life (v. 31).

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 106:38 וַתֶּחֱנַ֥ף and it was polluted

    They shed innocent blood—the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood.

    Here: The land itself became profane: stained in a moral and religious sense and unfit for God's presence. The verb echoes Numbers 35:33, 'blood pollutes the land', and implies that the land can no longer hold its people.

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 24:5 חָנְפָ֖ה it has been polluted

    The earth is defiled by its people; they have transgressed the laws; they have overstepped the decrees and broken the everlasting covenant.

    Here: The land 'has become polluted', a finished act that leaves a lasting state. In the Bible this is the pollution that bloodshed, idolatry and sexual betrayal bring on a land, defiling it before God. It is not dirt or physical contamination.

Jeremiah · 5

  1. Jeremiah 3:1 חָנ֥וֹף תֶּחֱנַ֖ף certainly <to be polluted>, will it be polluted

    “If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him to marry another, can he ever return to her? Would not such a land be completely defiled? But you have played the harlot with many lovers—and you would return to Me?” declares the LORD.

    Here: The verb repeated in a special form that adds emphasis, so the phrase means 'utterly polluted'. It strengthens the verb after it.

  2. Jeremiah 3:2 וַתַּחֲנִ֣יפִי and you have polluted

    “Lift up your eyes to the barren heights and see. Is there any place where you have not been violated? You sat beside the highways waiting for your lovers, like a nomad in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution and wickedness.

    Here: 'And you polluted.' A causative form: she *made* the land polluted. It picks up 3:1, 'would not that land be utterly polluted (chanof techenaf)?' The guilt is not only hers. It soaks into the soil.

  3. Jeremiah 3:9 וַתֶּחֱנַ֖ף and it was polluted

    Indifferent to her own infidelity, Israel had defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.

  4. Jeremiah 23:11 חָנֵ֑פוּ they are polluted

    “For both prophet and priest are ungodly; even in My house I have found their wickedness,” declares the LORD.

    Here: A completed state: 'they have become polluted' and so now are. In Jeremiah this verb describes the land being fouled by Israel's unfaithfulness (3:1, 2, 9). The religious leaders themselves are now part of that pollution.

Daniel · 1

  1. Daniel 11:32 יַחֲנִ֖יף he will pollute

    With flattery he will corrupt those who violate the covenant, but the people who know their God will firmly resist him.

    Here: Causative: 'he will make them profane,' that is, draw them fully into apostasy (abandoning their God). The subject is the king (Antiochus IV). He does not create their disloyalty. He feeds it and finishes it.

Micah · 1

  1. Micah 4:11 תֶּחֱנָ֔ף let her be polluted

    But now many nations have assembled against you, saying, “Let her be defiled, and let us feast our eyes on Zion.”

    Here: 'Let her be profaned.' This is the nations' wish that the holy city be stripped of its sacred standing and polluted, the way land is polluted by bloodshed and violation. It is not a word for ordinary ritual uncleanness.

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