Haste

Not Being Hasty

Pro_25:8-10; Ecc_5:2; Ecc_7:9; 1Ti_5:22.

Those That Are Hasty

Pro_14:29; Pro_18:13; Pro_19:2; Pro_21:5; Pro_28:20; Pro_28:22; Pro_29:20.

hāst (חפז, ḥāphaz, חוּשׁ, ḥūsh, מהר, māhar; σπεύδω, speúdō): “Haste” (from a root meaning “to pursue”) implies “celerity of motion.”

(1) The noun occurs as translation of māhar, “to hasten,” etc. (Exo 10:16; Exo 12:33, “in haste”); of ḥāphaz, “to make haste” (2Ki 7:15; Psa 31:22; Psa 116:11, “I said in my haste (the Revised Version margin “alarm”), All men are liars”); of ḥippāzōn, a “hasty flight” (Exo 12:11; Deu 16:3; Isa 52:12); of nāḥac, “to be urgent” (1Sa 21:8, “The king’s business required haste”).

(2) “Haste” as a verb is transitive and intrans; instances of the transitive use are, ’ūc, “to hasten,” “press” (Exo 5:13, “And the taskmasters hasted them,” the Revised Version (British and American) “were urgent”); ḥūsh, “to make haste” (Isa 5:19); māhar (2Ch 24:5 twice); shāḳadh, “to watch,” “to fix one’s attention” on anything (Jer 1:12 the King James Version, “I will hasten my word”); māhı̄r, “hasting” (Isa 16:5, “hasting righteousness,” the Revised Version (British and American) “swift to do”). The intransitive use is more frequent and represents many different words.

Hasty also occurs in several instances (Pro 21:5; Pro 29:20, ’ūc, etc.); in Isa 28:4, bikkūr, “first-fruit,” is translated “hasty fruit,” the Revised Version (British and American) “first-ripe fig.”

The Revised Version (British and American) has “Haste ye” for “assemble yourselves” (Joe 3:11 margin, as the King James Version); “make haste” for “speedily” (Psa 143:7); “and hasted to catch whether it were his mind” (for 1Ki 20:33 the King James Version); “and it hasteth toward the end,” margin (Hebrew) “panteth,” for “but at the end it shall speak” (Hab 2:3); “hastily” for “suddenly” (1Ti 5:22); for “and for this I make haste” (Job 20:2), “even by reason of my haste that is in me,” margin “and by reason of this my haste is within me”; for “hasten after another god” (Psa 16:4), the American Standard Revised Version has “that give gifts for another god,” the English Revised Version “exchange the Lord for”; for “hasten hereunto” (Ecc 2:25), “have enjoyment”; for “hasten hither” (1Ki 22:9), “fetch quickly”; for “and gather” (Exo 9:19), “hasten in”; for “hasteneth that he may” (Isa 51:14), “shall speedily”; for “hasteth to” (Job 9:26), “swoopeth on”; for “and hasteth” (Job 40:23), “he trembleth”; for “hasty” (Dan 2:15), “urgent.”