chodesh · month, new moon

What it means

chodesh (חֹדֶשׁ) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “month, new moon”.

Month. The Hebrew month begins with the new moon; so the same word also means "new moon".

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. When the moon reappears and the month begins, with its feast.
2. A period of about thirty days, from one new moon to the next.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Month. BDB defines it as the new moon and, from there, the month, because the Hebrew month begins with the new moon. It comes from חָדַשׁ, “renew”.

• The month: “This month shall be for you the beginning of months” Exodus 12:2Genesis 7:11
• The day of the new moon 1 Samuel 20:52 Kings 4:23
• “The beginnings of your months”, with their sacrifices Numbers 28:11
• “From new moon to new moon” Isaiah 66:23
• The months with names Esther 3:7

Historical and cultural background

Numbers 28:11-15 commands special sacrifices “At the beginnings of your months”, and 2 Kings 4:23 names the new moon together with the Sabbath as days on which people went to see the prophet.

How we translate it

“Month” 221 times, “months” 37, “new moon” 15, “new moons” 10. It is translated “month” when it counts time and “new moon” when it is the feast day (1 Samuel 20:5, with a note).

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• month ×221
• months ×37
• new moon ×15
• new moons ×10

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Genesis×11
• Exodus×18
• Leviticus×15
• Numbers×38
• Deuteronomy×4
• Joshua×2
• Judges×5
• 1 Samuel×7
• 2 Samuel×5
• 1 Kings×14
• 2 Kings×12
• 1 Chronicles×21
• 2 Chronicles×19
• Ezra×13
• Nehemiah×7
• Esther×24
• Job×2
• Psalms×1
• Isaiah×5
• Jeremiah×18
• Ezekiel×27
• Daniel×1
• Hosea×2
• Amos×2
• Haggai×5
• Zechariah×5

• Genesis 7:11

  In the six hundredth year of the life of Noah, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the springs of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.

• Genesis 8:4

  And in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

• Genesis 8:5

  And the waters kept on decreasing until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared.

• Genesis 8:13

  And it happened in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, that the waters dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and look, the face of the ground had dried.

• Genesis 8:14

  And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.

• Genesis 29:14

  Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh.” And he stayed with him a month.

• Genesis 38:24

  About three months later Judah was told, saying, “Tamar your daughter-in-law has prostituted herself, and moreover, look, she is pregnant by prostitution.” And Judah said, “Bring her out and let her be burned!”

• Exodus 12:2

  “This month shall be for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first for you of the months of the year.

• Exodus 12:3

  Speak to all the community of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth day of this month they shall take for themselves, each man, a lamb for each father’s house, a lamb for each household.

• Exodus 12:6

  You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, and the whole assembly of the community of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight.

• Exodus 12:18

  In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month, in the evening.

• Exodus 13:4

  Today you are going out, in the month of Abib.

• Exodus 13:5

  When YHWH brings you to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you shall perform this service in this month.

• Exodus 16:1

  They set out from Elim, and all the community of the sons of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt.

• Exodus 19:1

  In the third month after the going out of the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt, on that day they came to the wilderness of Sinai.

• Exodus 23:15

  The feast of Unleavened Bread you shall keep: seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time of the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. And none shall appear before me empty-handed.

• Exodus 34:18

  The Feast of Unleavened Bread you shall keep: seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time of the month of Abib, for in the month of Abib you came out from Egypt.

• Exodus 40:2

  “On the day of the first month, on the first day of the month, you shall set up the dwelling, the tent of meeting.

• Exodus 40:17

  And it happened in the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, that the dwelling was set up.

• Leviticus 16:29

  And this shall be for you a statute forever: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls and do no work the native or the resident alien who resides among you.

• Leviticus 23:5

  In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, is the Passover of YHWH.

• Leviticus 23:6

  And on the fifteenth day of this month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to YHWH; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread.

• Leviticus 23:24

  “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying: In the seventh month, on the first of the month, you shall have a solemn rest, a memorial with a blast of acclamation, a holy convocation.

• Leviticus 23:27

  “But on the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Expiation; you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall afflict your souls and present a fire offering to YHWH.

• Leviticus 23:32

  It is a Sabbath of solemn rest for you, and you shall afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month in the evening, from evening to evening, you shall cease in your Sabbath.”

• Leviticus 23:34

  “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying: On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the Feast of Booths, seven days to YHWH.

• Leviticus 23:39

  But on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered the produce of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of YHWH seven days; on the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest.

• Leviticus 23:41

  And you shall celebrate it as a feast to YHWH seven days in the year; it is a statute forever throughout your generations; in the seventh month you shall celebrate it.

• Leviticus 25:9

  Then you shall sound the horn of acclamation in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month; on the Day of Expiation you shall sound the horn throughout all your land.

• Leviticus 27:6

  And if from a month old up to five years old, the valuation of the male shall be five shekels of silver, and for the female the valuation shall be three shekels of silver.

• Numbers 1:1

  And YHWH spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they came out of the land of Egypt, saying,

• Numbers 1:18

  and they assembled the whole community on the first day of the second month, and they declared their descent by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, from twenty years old and upward, head by head,

• Numbers 3:15

  “Count the sons of Levi by their fathers’ houses, by their families; every male from a month old and upward you shall count.”

• Numbers 3:22

  Those of them counted, according to the number of every male from a month old and upward, those of them counted were seven thousand five hundred.

• Numbers 3:28

  According to the number of every male from a month old and upward, there were eight thousand six hundred, keeping the charge of the Holy Place.

• Numbers 3:34

  And those of them counted, according to the number of every male from a month old and upward, were six thousand two hundred.

• Numbers 3:39

  All those counted of the Levites, whom Moses and Aaron counted according to the command of YHWH, by their families, every male from a month old and upward, were twenty-two thousand.

• Numbers 3:40

  And YHWH said to Moses, “Count every firstborn male of the sons of Israel from a month old and upward, and take the number of their names.

• Numbers 3:43

  And all the firstborn males, according to the number of names, from a month old and upward, of those of them counted, were twenty-two thousand two hundred seventy-three.

• Numbers 9:1

  And YHWH spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the second year after they came out of the land of Egypt, in the first month, saying,

And 243 more times.