Hate

Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words

A. Verb.

Śânê' (שָׂנֵא, Strong'S #8130), “to hate, set against.” This verb appears in Ugaritic, Moabite, Aramaic, and Arabic. It appears in all periods of Hebrew and about 145 times in the Bible.

Śânê' represents an emotion ranging from intense “hatred” to the much weaker “set against” and is used of persons and things (including ideas, words, inanimate objects).

The strong sense of the word typifies the emotion of jealousy; and therefore, śânê' is the feeling Joseph’s brothers experienced because their father preferred him (Gen. 37:4; cf. v. 11). This “hatred” increased when Joseph reported his dreams (Gen. 37:8). Obviously, the word covers emotion ranging from “bitter disdain” to outright “hatred,” for in Gen. 37:18ff. the brothers plotted Joseph’s death and achieved his removal.

This emphasis can be further heightened by a double use of the root. Delilah’s father told Samson: “I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her [literally, “hating, you hated her”] …” (Judg. 15:2).

One special use of śânê' is ingressive, indicating the initiation of the emotion. So “Amnon hated [literally, “began to hate”] her exceedingly; so that the hatred wherewith he hated [“began to hate”] her was greater than the love wherewith he had loved her” (2 Sam. 13:15). This emphasis appears again in Jer. 12:8: “Mine heritage is unto me as a lion in the forest; it crieth out against me: therefore have I [come to hate] it” (also cf. Hos. 9:15).

In a weaker sense, śânê' signifies “being set against” something. Jethro advised Moses to select men who hated [“were set against”] covetousness to be secondary judges over Israel (Exod. 18:21). A very frequent but special use of the verb means “to be unloved.” For example, śânê' may indicate that someone is “untrustworthy,” therefore an enemy to be ejected from one’s territory. This sense is found in an early biblical occurrence, in which Isaac said to Abimelech and his army: “Wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you?” (Gen. 26:27). The word may mean “unloved” in the sense of deteriorating marital relations: “And the damsel’s father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife, and he hateth [i.e., turned against] her” (Deut. 22:16). This nuance is especially clear in Ezek. 23:28, where the verb is in synonymous parallelism to “alienated”: “Behold, I will deliver thee into the hand of them whom thou hatest, into the hand of them from whom thy mind is alienated.” In the case of two wives in a family, in which one was preferred over the other, it may be said that one was loved and the other “hated” (Deut. 21:15). This emphasis is found in Gen. 29:31: “And when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb; but Rachel was barren.” The word, used as a passive participle, represents a spurned woman: “… An odious [unloved] woman when she is married …” (Prov. 30:23).

B. Noun.

Śin'âh ( שִׂנְאָה , Strong'S #8135), “hatred.” This noun occurs 17 times in the Old Testament. Num. 35:20 is one occurrence: “And if he stabbed him from hatred, or hurled at him, lying in wait …” (RSV).

Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary

This word is so very plain in its simple meaning, and so universally understood, that there would have needed no observation upon it, but for an expression of our Lord's concerning it, which appears to me, according to all the commentators I have seen or read upon it, to have been totally mistaken. The passage in which our Lord hath spoken concerning hatred is  Luke 14:26. Where Jesus hath said, "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." The hatred of father, and mother, and the like, they say, is in contradiction to the divine command, and, therefore, they have conceived, that the expression means no more than by a comparative statement, to say, that none can be the disciple of Jesus who loves his earthly friends equal to this heavenly one. But certainly this is not our Lord's meaning; for here is nothing said in the whole passage by way of comparison. And every one that knows the original word here made use of to express the verb hate, knows that Misei can mean no other than to hate. Neither is the doctrine, when duly considered, contradictory to the whole design of the gospel. All the claims of nature are, for the most part, unfavourable to the pursuits of grace. And the love of our near and dear connections in nature, every one knows that is brought acquainted with the feelings of his own heart, is but too often leading us on the confines of sin and corruption, Hence, to hate whatever opposeth the best and purest desires of the soul, is among the clearest evidences of a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the latter clause in this expression of our Lord serves to explain the whole; "yea, and his own life also." Self-loathing, and self-abhorring, mark the true believer's character. And wherefore doth a child of God loathe his own flesh, but because that flesh is always rising up in rebellion against the Spirit. Hence, therefore, if my own body becomes a rebel, and an enemy to my own soul, so that I cannot do the things I would, certainly I hate it; and if I hate my own flesh, from the opposition it is continually making to a life of grace, in the same sense, and upon the same account, I must, and do hate all the opposers of the divine life, be they who they may, or what they may. Nothing is to come into competition with Christ in our affection. I believe I may venture to affirm, that many of God's dear children look forward to the humiliation of the grave with holy joy on this very account, as knowing that then, and not before, they shall drop this body of sin and death, which now so often makes them groan. It is blessedly said of Levi, that in his zeal and love to JEHOVAH'S Holy One he said, "of his father, and his mother, I have not seen him, neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own children." ( Deuteronomy 33:9) I venture, therefore, upon the whole, to accept the words of the Lord Jesus in this Scripture by the Evangelist. ( Luke 14:26) precisely as the words themselves express this solemn truth. And since every thing in nature is hostile to a life of grace, so that my own corrupt heart is a much greater enemy to my soul's enjoyment in Christ, than either the world, or the powers of darkness, I do hate all, and every tie of nature, yea, and my own life also, in every degree, and by every way in which they are found to oppose, or run counter, to the pursuit of the soul in her desires after the Lord Jesus Christ.

Webster's Dictionary

(1): ( n.) To love less, relatively.

(2): ( v.) Strong aversion coupled with desire that evil should befall the person toward whom the feeling is directed; as exercised toward things, intense dislike; hatred; detestation; - opposed to love.

(3): ( n.) To be very unwilling; followed by an infinitive, or a substantive clause with that; as, to hate to get into debt; to hate that anything should be wasted.

(4): ( n.) To have a great aversion to, with a strong desire that evil should befall the person toward whom the feeling is directed; to dislike intensely; to detest; as, to hate one's enemies; to hate hypocrisy.

King James Dictionary

Hate, L odi, for hodi.

1. To dislike greatly to have a great aversion to. It expresses less than abhor, detest, and abominate, unless pronounced with a peculiar emphasis.

How long will fools hate knowledge?  Proverbs 1

Blessed are ye when men shall hate you.  Luke 6 .

The Roman tyrant was contented to be hated, if he was but feared.

2. In Scripture, it signifies to love less.

If any man come to me, and hate not father and mother, &c.  Luke 14 .

He that spareth the rod, hateth his son.  Proverbs 13 .

HATE, n. Great dislike or aversion hatred.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

Often denotes in Scripture only a less degree of love,  Genesis 29:30,31   Deuteronomy 21:15   Proverbs 13:24   Malachi 1:2,3   Luke 14:26   Romans 9:13 . God has a just and perfect abhorrence of sin and sinners,  Psalm 5:5 . But hatred in general is a malevolent passion,  Galatians 5:20 , and no one who is not perfect in love, can hate without sin.

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

To hate is not always to be understood rigorously, but frequently signifies merely a less degree of love. "If a man have two wives, one beloved and another hated,"  Deuteronomy 21:15; that is, less beloved. Our Saviour says that he who would follow him must hate father and mother; that is, he must love them less than Christ, less than his own salvation, and not prefer them to God. "Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated;" that is, have deprived of the privileges of his primogeniture, through his own profanity; and visited him with severe judgment on account of his sins.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(properly שָׂנֵא , Μισέω ), to regard with a passion contrary to love ( Jeremiah 44:4). God's hatred is towards all sinful thoughts and ways. It is a feeling of which all holy beings are conscious in view of sin, and is wholly unlike the hatred which is mentioned in the Scriptures among the works of the flesh ( Galatians 5:20). (See Anger). When the Hebrews compared a stronger affection with a weaker one, they called the first love, and the other hatred, meaning to love in a less degree — "Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated" ( Romans 9:13); i.e. on Jacob have I bestowed privileges and blessings such as are the proofs of affection; I have treated him as one treats a friend whom he loves; but from Esau have I withheld these privileges and blessings, and therefore treated him as one is wont to treat those whom he dislikes. That this refers to the bestowment of temporal blessings, and the withholding of them, is clear, not only from this passage, but from comparing  Malachi 1:2-3;  Genesis 25:23;  Genesis 27:27-29;  Genesis 27:37-40. Indeed, as to hated, its meaning here is rather privative than positive. So, "If a man have two wives, — one beloved and another hated" ( Deuteronomy 21:15); i.e. less beloved. When our Savior says that he who would follow him must Hate father and mother, he means that even these dearest earthly friends must be loved in a subordinate degree; so, in the same sense, the follower of Christ is to hate his own life, or be willing to sacrifice it for the love and service of the Redeemer ( Genesis 29:30;  Deuteronomy 21:16;  Proverbs 13:24;  Matthew 6:24;  Matthew 10:37;  Luke 14:26;  Luke 16:13;  John 12:25). (See Love).