Bible Dictionary

DELIGHT

Christian Life • Both

To delight is to take pleasure in or to incline one’s heart toward something. Scripture especially commends delight in God, His law, righteousness, and His will.

Definition

To delight is to take pleasure in, incline toward, or desire something. The term may describe God’s pleasure, human enjoyment, fondness, or a willing attachment to a person, law, purpose, or object. Biblical usage includes both good and lesser objects of delight.

Biblical Usage

Scripture speaks of God delighting in His people and in righteousness, and of people delighting in God, His will, His law, and His statutes. Paul likewise describes delight in God’s law after the inward person. Delight may also be directed toward other objects.

Historical Background

The principal Hebrew term originally conveys the idea of bending or inclining toward something. Other terms express pleasure, fondness, caressing, or acceptance. The New Testament occurrence in Romans 7:22 is the only use of its particular Greek word.

Historical Bible Dictionaries

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)

de-lit' (verb, chaphets, ratsah, sha`a`; sunedomai): "To delight" is most frequently expressed by chaphets, which means originally "to bend" (compare Job 40:17, "He moveth his tail"), hence, "to incline to," "take pleasure in." It is used of God's pleasure in His people (Nu 14:8; 2Sa 22:20; Ps 18:19, etc.), and in righteousness, etc. (Isa 66:4; Jer 9:24; Mic 7:18, etc.), also of man's delight in God and His will (Ps 40:8; 73:25; the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American), "There is none upon earth that I desire besides thee"), and in other objects (Ge 34:19; 1Sa 18:22; Es 2:14; Isa 66:3); sha`a`, "to stroke," "caress," "be fond of," occurs in Ps 94:19, "Thy comforts delight my soul"; Ps 119:16,47,70, "I will delight myself in thy statutes." Similarly, Paul says (Ro 7:22), "I delight (sunedomai) in (margin, the Revised Version (British and American) "Greek with") the law of God after the inward man." This is the only occurrence of the word in the New Testament."To delight one's self" (in the Lord) is represented chiefly by `anagh (Job 22:26; 27:10; Ps 37:4,11; Isa 58:14).Delight (noun), chiefly chephets (1Sa 15:22; Ps 1:2; 16:3), ratson (Pr 11:1,20; 12,22; 15:8), sha`ashu`im (Ps 119:24,77,92,143,174; Pr 8:30,31). the Revised Version (British and American) has "delight" for "desire" (Ne 1:11; Ps 22:8; 51:16), for "observe," different reading (Pr 23:26), "no delight in" for "smell in" (Am 5:21), "delightest in me" for "favorest me" (Ps 41:11), "his delight shall be in" (m "Hebrew `scent' ") for "of quick understanding" (Isa 11:3).The element of joy, of delight in God and His law and will, in the Hebrew religion is noteworthy as being something which we are apt to fall beneath even in the clearer light of Christianity.W. L. Walker

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