Bible Lexicons

Girdlestone's Synonyms of the Old TestamentGirdlestone's OT Synonyms

Pity

Racham expresses a deep and tender feeling of compassion, suc has is aro used by the sight of weakness or suffering in those that are dear to us or need our help. It is rendered pity [The English word pity is really piety.] or pitiful in a few passages. Thus Psalms 103:13, 'Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him;' Psalms 106:46, 'He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives;' Lamentations 4:10, 'The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children.' It is curious that the word 'pitiful' should have had its meaning so altered in modern times as to be hardly understood in the passage last cited.

Racham is rendered 'mercy' several times, and is the orig in of the word Ruhamah, which occurs in Hosea 2:1. Jacob used it to express his strong feeling on sending Benjam in with his brothers into Egypt, 'God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your other brother, and Benjamin' (Genesis 43:14). It is an element in the character of God, who shows mercy on whom He will show mercy (Exodus 33:19), and is merciful as well as gracious (Exodus 34:6, Deuteronomy 4:31). Accordingly David says, 'Let us fall now into the hands of God, for his mercies are abounding' (2 Samuel 24:14). Mercy (misericordia) is really the same thing as pity, though the words have gradually assumed rather different senses.

Racham also represents the beautiful expression 'tender mercy' wherever it occurs; thus the Psalmist prays, 'According to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions' (Psalms 51:1). It is the only word rendered 'mercy,' with two exceptions (Jeremiah 3:12, and Daniel 4:27), in the prophetical books of the O.T., being specially used in them to mark the tenderness with which God regards his people in their downcast condition. It is rendered 'compassion' and 'bowels of compassion' in all passages where these expressions are found in the A. V., with the exception of Exodus 2:6, 1 Samuel 23:21, 2 Chronicles 36:15; 2 Chronicles 36:17, and Ezekiel 16:5, where a less forcible word (חטל ) is used. Racham has twice been rendered 'love,' viz in Psalms 18:1 and Daniel 1:9. With regard to the first of these passages, 'I will love thee, O Lord, my strength,' the word seems at first sight out of place, because there can be no element of pity in man's love to God; but it expresses here the depth and tenderness of the Psalmist's feeling; and it may be observed that in this passage the word is used not in the Piel or intensive voice (as in all other passages), but in the Kal, or simple active voice.

The most prominent rendering for Racham in the LXX is οἰκτιρμός. this word occurs five times in the N.T., twice as the attribute of God (Romans 12:1, and 2 Corinthians 1:3), and three times as a quality to be manifested in our dealings with one another (Philippians 2:1; Colossians 3:12; see also Hebrews 10:28)