Hebrew word · H2837
חֵ֫שֶׁק
cheshek
desire
Desire, longing, the thing someone is set on. The related verb ḥashaq means to be attached to, to love or cling to (of God's choice of Israel, Deuteronomy 7:7; of a man's desire for a woman, Deuteronomy 21:11).
Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
desire, thing desired
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
- Range of meaning
Desire, longing, the thing someone is set on. The related verb ḥashaq means to be attached to, to love or cling to (of God's choice of Israel, Deuteronomy 7:7; of a man's desire for a woman, Deuteronomy 21:11).
- Against the English
KJV 'pleasure' leans toward enjoyment. BSB 'desired' and NIV/ESV/NASB 'longed for' are accurate. Nothing in the word itself is sexual or sinful here. It is simply the evening he looked forward to.
- Used elsewhere in the period
1 Kings 9:1, 19 (Solomon's 'desire' to build). The noun appears only rarely, but the verb is well attested.
Similar words
Where it appears
1 Kings · 2
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1 Kings 9:1 חֵ֣שֶׁק [the] desire of
Now when Solomon had finished building the house of the LORD and the royal palace, and had achieved all that he had desired to do,
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1 Kings 9:19 חֵ֣שֶׁק [the] desire of
as well as all the store cities that Solomon had for his chariots and horses—whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and throughout the land of his dominion.
2 Chronicles · 1
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2 Chronicles 8:6 חֵ֣שֶׁק [the] desire of
as well as Baalath, all the store cities that belonged to Solomon, and all the cities for his chariots and horses—whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, and throughout the land of his dominion.
Isaiah · 1
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Isaiah 21:4 חִשְׁקִ֔י desire my
My heart falters; fear makes me tremble. The twilight I desired has turned to horror.
Here: What a person is set on and longs for (it is used of what Solomon set his heart on building, 1 Kings 9:1, 19). 'The twilight of my longing' is the evening he had looked forward to.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.