Profane (chol, chalal) Study

By Yochanan Zaqantov

In the Tanakh, when we see the word profane what comes to our minds. Is it ruin, desecrate, or making something not holy. Today we will be looking at how this is used in the Tanakh and whether it matches what we might believe. To start we must realize that to gain the meaning of this word we must understand what is the Hebrew this word comes from.

Lets look at the Hebrew word chol (Chet – Lamed), which for those who want to look it up in the BDB is reference number 2455 and it is found on page 320. It is a masculine noun.

1. Contrasting Profane and Sacred

Let look at Vayiqra (Levitcus) 10 starting in verse 8.

⁸And Yehovah spoke to Aaron, saying: ⁹Drink no wine or other intoxicant, you or your sons, when you enter the Tent of Meeting, that you may not die. This is a law for all time throughout the ages, ¹⁰for you must distinguish between the sacred and the profane (ulehav’dil Beyn hadodesh ubeyn hachol וּלֲהַבְדִּיל בֵּין הַקֹּדֶשׁ וּבֵין הַחֹל), and between the unclean and the clean; ¹¹and you must teach the Israelites all the laws which Yehovah has imparted to them through Moses

In verse 10 the priest are commanded to distinguish between the Profane and the Sacred. The words used here are:

Chol = Profane

Kodesh = Sacred

Lets take a minute to discuss kodesh (Kof-dalet-shin). When you see holy or sacred what do you think of? Is it something untouchable? Something more righteous or greater than we are? Would you be surprise that as it is used in the Tanakh it simply refers to something as being set apart. Made not ordinary. Kodesh is reference number 6944.

Lets look at some examples of this.

Shemot (Exodus) 3:5

5     And He said, “Do not come closer. Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy (qodesh קֹדֶשׁ) ground.

Shemot (Exodus) 16:23

23     he said to them, “This is what Yehovah meant: Tomorrow is a day of rest, a holy sabbath (shabbat qodesh שַׁבַּת־קֹדֶשׁ) of Yehovah. Bake what you would bake and boil what you would boil; and all that is left put aside to be kept until morning.”

Shemot (Exodus) 28:36-38

36     You shall make a frontlet of pure gold and engrave on it the seal inscription: “Holy to Yehovah (qodesh layehovah קֹדֶשׁ לַיהוָה).” 37     Suspend it on a cord of blue, so that it may remain on the headdress; it shall remain on the front of the headdress. 38     It shall be on Aaron’s forehead, that Aaron may take away any sin arising from the holy things (haqadeshim הַקֳּדָשִׁים) that the Israelites consecrate (yiq’dishu יַקְדִּישׁוּ), from any of their sacred (qad’sheyhem קָדְשֵׁיהֶם) donations; it shall be on his forehead at all times, to win acceptance for them before Yehovah,

From these we can see that without going really deep that qodesh is set-apart. It is Vayiqra 10: 8-10 that these two words appear to be the opposite of each other. But we should not rely on one reference so lets look at another place where this is found.

Let us look in Yehezqel (Ezekiel) 22 verses 23 - 31 (focusing on verse 26).

²³The word of Yehovah came to me: ²⁴O mortal, say to her: You are an uncleansed land, not to be washed with rain on the day of indignation. ²⁵ Her gang of prophets are like roaring lions in her midst, rending prey. They devour human beings; they seize treasure and wealth; they have widowed many women in her midst. ²⁶Her priests have violated My Teaching: they have profaned (vaychalelu וַיְחַלְּלוּ) what is sacred to Me, they have not distinguished between the sacred and the profane (beyn qodesh lechol lo hav’dilu בֵּין־קֹדֶשׁ לְחֹל לֹא הִבְדִּילוּ), they have not taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have closed their eyes to My sabbaths. I am profaned (vaechol וָאֵחַל) in their midst. ²⁷Her officials are like wolves rending prey in her midst; they shed blood and destroy lives to win ill-gotten gain. ²⁸Her prophets, too, daub the wall for them with plaster: They prophesy falsely and divine deceitfully for them; they say, “Thus said Adoni Yehovah,” when Yehovah has not spoken. ²⁹And the people of the land have practiced fraud and committed robbery; they have wronged the poor and needy, have defrauded the stranger without redress. ³⁰And I sought a man among them to repair the wall or to stand in the breach before Me in behalf of this land, that I might not destroy it; but I found none. ³¹I have therefore poured out My indignation upon them; I will consume them with the fire of My fury. I will repay them for their conduct—declares Adoni Yehovah.

Here we see that the Priest did not distinguish between the Profane (Chol) and Sacred (Kodesh).

Let us look at one more place where these word appear to be opposite of each other. Again in Yehezkel (Ezekiel) 44: starting in verse 15 and ending in verse 24.

¹⁵ But the levitical priests descended from Zadok, who maintained the service of My Sanctuary when the people of Israel went astray from Me—they shall approach Me to minister to Me; they shall stand before Me to offer Me fat and blood—declares Adoni Yehovah. ¹⁶They alone may enter My Sanctuary and they alone shall approach My table to minister to Me; and they shall keep My charge. ¹⁷And when they enter the gates of the inner court, they shall wear linen vestments: they shall have nothing woolen upon them when they minister inside the gates of the inner court. ¹⁸They shall have linen turbans on their heads and linen breeches on their loins; they shall not gird themselves with anything that causes sweat. ¹⁹When they go out to the outer court—the outer court where the people are—they shall remove the vestments in which they minister and shall deposit them in the sacred chambers; they shall put on other garments, lest they make the people consecrated by [contact with] their vestments. ²⁰They shall neither shave their heads nor let their hair go untrimmed; they shall keep their hair trimmed. ²¹No priest shall drink wine when he enters into the inner court. ²²They shall not marry widows or divorced women; they may marry only virgins of the stock of the House of Israel, or widows who are widows of priests.

²³They shall declare to My people what is sacred and what is profane (v’et ami yoru beyn qodesh lechol וְאֶת־עַמִּי יוֹרוּ בֵּין קֹדֶשׁ לְחֹל), and inform them what is clean and what is unclean. ²⁴In lawsuits, too, it is they who shall act as judges; they shall decide them in accordance with My rules. They shall preserve My teachings and My laws regarding all My fixed occasions; and they shall maintain the sanctity of My sabbaths.

Notice now that this is a future time where the priest will teach the people to distinguish between profane and sacred.

We see that indeed Chol and Kodesh are opposite to each other. Now lets look at verb form of the same word, which is Chalal. (Chet-Lamed-Lamed) It is reference number 2490 and found on page 320 in the BDB.

2. Is Chalal similar to Chol in the meaning of Profane as an opposite of Kodesh.

Lets look at some everyday usages for Chalal.

Tehillim (Psalms) 89:39-40

³⁹Yet You have rejected, spurned, and become enraged at Your anointed. ⁴⁰You have repudiated the covenant with Your servant; You have dragged his dignity (Chillal’ta חִלַּלְתָּ) in the dust.

Eykhah (Lamentations) 2:2

²Yehovah has laid waste without pity All the habitations of Jacob; He has razed in His anger Fair Judah’s strongholds. He has brought low in dishonor (Chilel חִלֵּל) The kingdom and its leaders.

Vayiqra (Leviticus) 21:2-4

None shall defile himself for any [dead] person among his kin, ²except for the relatives that are closest to him: his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, and his brother; ³also for a virgin sister, close to him because she has not married, for her he may defile himself. ⁴But he shall not defile himself as a kinsman by marriage, and so profane (lehechallo לְהֵחַלּוֹ) himself.

Bereshit (Genesis) 49:4

³Reuben, you are my first-born, My might and first fruit of my vigor, Exceeding in rank And exceeding in honor. ⁴Unstable as water, you shall excel no longer; For when you mounted your father’s bed, You brought disgrace (chillel’ta חִלַּלְתָּ)—my couch he mounted!

Divrei Ha Yamim Aleph (1 Chronicles) 5:1

The sons of Reuben the first-born of Israel. (He was the first-born; but when he defiled (ubchilelo וּבְחַלְּלוֹ) his father’s bed, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph son of Israel, so he is not reckoned as first-born in the genealogy;

Think about the relationship of a man and woman. If a woman is bedded by another man then she ceases to be set apart for the husband. In this case, Reuben caused her to be profaned/common to men.

Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 23:9

⁹Yehovah of Hosts planned it—To defile (lechilel לְחַלֵּל) all glorious beauty, To shame all the honored of the world.

To make beauty plain.

Devarim (Deuteronomy) 28:30

³⁰If you pay the bride-price for a wife, another man shall enjoy her. If you build a house, you shall not live in it. If you plant a vineyard, you shall not harvest (v’lot t’chaleleynu וְלֹא תְחַלְּלֶנּוּ) it.

In this verse the word chalal is shown as something, which is used commonly. It is shown as to harvest or to use.

Devarim (Deuteronomy) 20:6

⁶Is there anyone who has planted a vineyard but has never harvested it? Let him go back to his home, lest he die in battle and another harvest (v’lo chchilelo וְלֹא חִלְּלוֹ) it.

It is the same usage here. Lets look at the rule for harvesting from a tree.

Vayiqra (Leviticus) 19:23-25

²³When you enter the land and plant any tree for food, you shall regard its fruit as forbidden. Three years it shall be forbidden for you, not to be eaten. ²⁴In the fourth year all its fruit shall be set aside (qodesh) for jubilation before Yehovah; ²⁵and only in the fifth year may you use (harvest) its fruit—that its yield to you may be increased: I Yehovah am Eloheykha.

While the use of chalal is not here we see the pattern of how a tree is used. Thus while qodesh in the 4^th year in the fifth year it becomes common to use.

Yermiyahu (Jeremiah) 31:5

⁴I will build you firmly again, O Maiden Israel! Again you shall take up your timbrels And go forth to the rhythm of the dancers. ⁵Again you shall plant vineyards On the hills of Samaria; Men shall plant and live to enjoy them (v’chilelu וְחִלֵּלוּ).

We can see that Chalal has a positive aspect to it in that it is used to describe our ability to enjoy the use of something like the harvest of the tree or vineyard.

3. Chalal as used to show where something Kodesh could be profaned.

Vayiqra (leviticus) 21:13-15

¹³He may marry only a woman who is a virgin. ¹⁴A widow, or a divorced woman, or one who is degraded by harlotry—such he may not marry. Only a virgin of his own kin may he take to wife—¹⁵that he may not profane his offspring among his kin, for I Yehovah have sanctified him.

Shemot (exodus) 20:22

²²And if you make for Me an altar of stones, do not build it of hewn stones; for by wielding your tool upon them you have profaned them.

Vayiqra (leviticus) 21:10-12, 21-23

¹⁰The priest who is exalted above his fellows, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured and who has been ordained to wear the vestments, shall not bare his head or rend his vestments. ¹¹He shall not go in where there is any dead body; he shall not defile himself even for his father or mother. ¹²He shall not go outside the sanctuary and profane the sanctuary of Elohay, for upon him is the distinction of the anointing oil of Elohay, Mine Yehovah’s.

²¹No man among the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a defect shall be qualified to offer Yehovah’s offering by fire; having a defect, he shall not be qualified to offer the food of Elohay. ²²He may eat of the food of Elohay, of the most holy as well as of the holy; ²³but he shall not enter behind the curtain or come near the altar, for he has a defect. He shall not profane these places sacred to Me, for I Yehovah have sanctified them.

Yehezqel (Ezekiel) 7:1-2, 21-22

The word of Yehovah came to me: ²You, O mortal, [say:] Thus said adoni Yehovah to the land of Israel: Doom! Doom is coming upon the four corners of the land. ³Now doom is upon you! I will let loose My anger against you and judge you according to your ways; I will requite you for all your abominations. ⁴I will show you no pity and no compassion; but I will requite you for your ways and for the abominations in your midst. And you shall know that I am Yehovah.

²¹I will give them as spoil to strangers, and as plunder to the wicked of the earth; and they shall defile them. ²²I will turn My face from them, and My treasures shall be defiled; ruffians shall invade it and defile it.

Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 48:11

¹¹For My sake, My own sake, do I act— Lest [My name] be dishonored! I will not give My glory to another.

Yehezqel (Ezekiel) 22:14-16

¹⁴Will your courage endure, will your hands remain firm in the days when I deal with you? I Yehovah have spoken and I will act. ¹⁵I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you through the lands; I will consume the uncleanness out of you. ¹⁶You shall be dishonored in the sight of nations, and you shall know that I am Yehovah.

Malakhi (Malachi) 2:11

¹¹Judah has broken faith; abhorrent things have been done in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned what is holy to Yehovah—what He desires—and espoused daughters of alien gods

Bereshit (Exodus) 31:12-15

¹²And Yehovah said to Moses: ¹³Speak to the Israelite people and say: Nevertheless, you must keep My sabbaths, for this is a sign between Me and you throughout the ages, that you may know that I Yehovah have consecrated you. ¹⁴You shall keep the sabbath, for it is holy for you. He who profanes it shall be put to death: whoever does work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his kin. ¹⁵Six days may work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be a sabbath of complete rest, holy to Yehovah; whoever does work on the sabbath day shall be put to death.

Amos 2:7

⁷[Ah,] you who trample the heads of the poor Into the dust of the ground, And make the humble walk a twisted course! Father and son go to the same girl, And thereby profane My holy name.

Yermiyahu (Jeremiah) 34:16

¹⁶But now you have turned back and have profaned My name; each of you has brought back the men and women whom you had given their freedom, and forced them to be your slaves again.

Yehezqel (Ezekiel) 36:16-23

¹⁶The word of Yehovah came to me: ¹⁷O mortal, when the House of Israel dwelt on their own soil, they defiled it with their ways and their deeds; their ways were in My sight like the uncleanness of a menstruous woman. ¹⁸So I poured out My wrath on them for the blood which they shed upon their land, and for the fetishes with which they defiled it. ¹⁹I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries: I punished them in accordance with their ways and their deeds. ²⁰But when they came to those nations, they caused My holy name to be profaned, in that it was said of them, “These are the people of Yehovah, yet they had to leave His land.” ²¹Therefore I am concerned for My holy name, which the House of Israel have caused to be profaned among the nations to which they have come.

²²Say to the House of Israel: Thus said adoni Yehovah: Not for your sake will I act, O House of Israel, but for My holy name, which you have caused to be profaned among the nations to which you have come. ²³I will sanctify My great name which has been profaned among the nations—among whom you have caused it to be profaned. And the nations shall know that I am Yehovah—declares Adoni Yehovah—when I manifest My holiness before their eyes through you.

Tehillim 89:35

³⁵I will not violate My covenant, or change what I have uttered.

4. What do we do to profane something in a Tanach sense?

Vayiqra 18 –19

Some examples:

Vayiqra 18:21

²¹Do not allow any of your offspring to be offered up to Molech, and do not profane the name of Elohaykha: I am Yehovah.

Vayiqra 19:5-8

⁵When you sacrifice an offering of well-being to Yehovah, sacrifice it so that it may be accepted on your behalf. ⁶It shall be eaten on the day you sacrifice it, or on the day following; but what is left by the third day must be consumed in fire. ⁷If it should be eaten on the third day, it is an offensive thing, it will not be acceptable. ⁸And he who eats of it shall bear his guilt, for he has profaned what is sacred to Yehovah; that person shall be cut off from his kin.

Vayiqra 19:12

¹²You shall not swear falsely by My name, profaning the name of Eloheykha: I am Yehovah.

Vayiqra 19:23-25

²³When you enter the land and plant any tree for food, you shall regard its fruit as forbidden. Three years it shall be forbidden for you, not to be eaten. ²⁴In the fourth year all its fruit shall be set aside for jubilation before Yehovah; ²⁵and only in the fifth year may you use its fruit—that its yield to you may be increased: I Yehovah am Eloheykha.