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Bible Dictionaries
Gracious
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or GRACIOUS . This Eng. adj. is now used only in an active sense = ‘bestowing grace,’ ‘showing favour.’ And this is its most frequent use in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] , as Exodus 33:19 ‘And [I] will be gracious to whom I will be gracious.’ But it was formerly used passively also = ‘favoured,’ ‘accepted,’ as 1Es 8:20 ‘Yea, when we were in bondage, we were not forsaken of our Lord; but he made us gracious before the kings of Persia, so that they gave us food.’ And from this it came to signify ‘attractive,’ as Proverbs 11:16 ‘a gracious woman retaineth honour,’ lit. ‘a woman of grace,’ that is, of attractive appearance and manner; Luke 4:22 ‘the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth,’ lit., as RV [Note: Revised Version.] , ‘words of grace,’ that is, says Plummer, ‘winning words’; he adds, ‘the very first meaning of charis is comeliness, winsomeness.’
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Gracious'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/g/gracious.html. 1909.
