Abarim Publications' online Biblical Hebrew Dictionary
חדש
The verb חדש (hadash), means to repair or renew. This verb covers situations in which an old situation is replaced by a better new one: ancient ruins will be rebuilt (Isaiah 61:4); Saul gathered the people at Gilgal to renew the kingdom (1 Samuel 11:14); and king David famously requested a renewed spirit from God (Psalm 51:10).
This verb's derivatives are:
- The adjective חדש (hadash, masculine) or חדשה (hadasha, feminine), meaning new. This word may denote either something renewed or something completely new, like a song (Psalm 33:3), something God has in store for us (Isaiah 43:19), or his compassions that never come to an end and are new every morning (Lamentations 3:23).
- The masculine noun חדש (hadash), literally meaning newness but in the Bible either denoting the new moon (1 Samuel 20:5) or the month as unit of time (Genesis 38:24).
The adjective חדש (hadash) exists in Aramaic as חדת (hadat), which occurs as such once in the Bible. In Ezra 6:4 we read how king Cyrus of Persia decreed the rough outline of the to-be-built Temple of YHWH in Jerusalem. According to Cyrus, it had to consist of three layers of huge stones and one layer of new timber. And the royal treasury of Persia would pay for the whole project.
The form חדת occurs once more in the Bible, namely as expression of the verb חוד (hud), meaning to propound a riddle (Judges 14:16); see for more details our article on the verb חדד (hadad), meaning to be sharp or keen.