mercy

אַתָּה חַסְתָּ עַל־הַקִּיקָיוֹן (Yonah 4:10), you had pity on the kikayon, לֹֽא־חָסָה עָלַיִךְ עַיִן (Yechezkel 16:5), no eye pitied you, and יָחֹס עַל־דַּל וְאֶבְיוֹן (Tehillim 72:13), he shall have pity on the poor and the needy.

וַתָּחָס עֵינִי עֲלֵיהֶם מִשַּֽׁחֲתָם (Yechezkel 20:17), my eye had pity on them, from destroying them; and where the pasuk says only וַתָּחָס עָלֶיךָ (Shmuel I 24:11), and it had pity on you, he reads ותחס עיני או נפשי, my eye or my soul had pity.

These forms all come with cholam, as לֹא תָחוֹס עֵינֶֽךָ (Devarim 25:12), your eye shall not pity, and וְלֹא־תָחוֹס עֵינִי (Yechezkel 5:11), and my eye shall not pity. One alone comes with shuruk, לֹֽא־תָחוּס עֵינָֽם (Yeshayahu 13:18), their eye shall not pity, and so does every אָחוּס (Yirmiyahu 13:14; Yechezkel 24:14; Yonah 4:11), I will pity.

וְעַל אֲשֶׁר לֹֽא־חָמָֽל (Shmuel II 12:6), and because he had no pity; מִֽי־יַחְמֹל עָלַיִךְ יְרוּשָׁלַם (Yirmiyahu 15:5), who will pity you, Yerushalayim; וְלֹֽא־תַחְמֹל וְלֹֽא־תְכַסֶּה עָלָֽיו (Devarim 13:9), you shall not pity him nor cover for him. The noun is בְּחֶמְלַת י"י עָלָיו (Bereishis 19:16), in Hashem's pity on him, and in another measure וּמַחְמַל נַפְשְׁכֶם (Yechezkel 24:21), that on which your soul has pity.

Some explain וַיַּחְמֹל הַמֶּלֶךְ עַל־מְפִיבֹשֶׁת (Shmuel II 21:7), and the king had pity on Mefiboshes, as וישמח, he rejoiced, and they take וְחָֽמַלְתִּי עֲלֵיהֶם כַּֽאֲשֶׁר יַחְמֹל אִישׁ עַל־בְּנוֹ (Malachi 3:17), and I will pity them as a man pities his son, the same way. Radak says there is no need to take them out of the sense of pity. The meaning of וַיַּחְמֹל is that he did not take him with the others; or it is as Chazal explained (Yevamos 79a), that he asked mercy for him, that the aron should not take him in. So too וְחָֽמַלְתִּי, and I will pity, and כאשר יחמול, as he pities, are plainly in the sense of pity.

לְחֻמְלָה עָלָיִךְ (Yechezkel 16:5), to have pity on you, is an infinitive whose first root letter carries shuruk, and another infinitive comes in that same measure, מִלּוּשׁ בָּצֵק עַד־חֻמְצָתֽוֹ (Hoshea 7:4), from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.

וְחַנֹּתִי אֶת־אֲשֶׁר אָחֹן (Shemos 33:19), which he explains אתן חִנִּי, I will give My favour to whom I will favour; likewise כִּֽי־חַנַּנִי אֱלֹהִים (Bereishis 33:11), for Hashem has favoured me. וְחַנֹּתִי לִבְנֵי בִטְנִי (Iyov 19:17) he explains within its pasuk: my breath is strange to my wife and to those I favoured and loved, that is, to the children of my body.

וְחִין עֶרְכּוֹ (Iyov 41:4) is of this root and this sense, חִין with a chirik standing as חֵן with a tzeirei. He reads the pasuk: I will not keep silent about the mighty deeds of one who can fight him, nor about the חִין, the favour, of his battle array; that is, if one should set battle against him, I would acknowledge his mighty deeds, and he would find favour before me in the ordering of his battle.

אֲשֶׁר־חָנַן אֱלֹהִים אֶת־עַבְדֶּֽךָ (Bereishis 33:5) he explains of the children: with them, the children, Hashem has favoured your servant. חָנּוּנוּ אוֹתָם (Shoftim 21:22) he explains חנו אותנו מהם, favour us with them. These, he says, are close to the sense of מתנה, a gift.

וָֽאֶתְחַנַּן (Devarim 3:23), I pleaded, he explains בקשתי מלפניו שיחנני, I asked before Him that He favour me; and כִּֽי־יְחַנֵּן קוֹלוֹ (Mishlei 26:25), when he raises his voice in the manner of supplication, as he explains it, ישא קולו בדרך תחינה. These he calls close to the sense of תפלה ובקשה, prayer and request, and with them go תְּחִנָּה, a plea, as מַפִּיל־אֲנִי תְחִנָּתִי לִפְנֵי הַמֶּלֶךְ (Yirmiyahu 38:26), I lay my plea before the king.

He holds כלם ענין חֵן, that all of them are the sense of favour, adding that one who understands can tell a little between each of them according to its place; and he closes that for one who understands all of them come into one sense.

מַה־נֵּחַנְתְּ בְּבֹא־לָךְ חֲבָלִים (Yirmiyahu 22:23), what נֵחַנְתְּ when pangs come upon you, he explains: what favour is left to you of all you built and acquired in cedars, when pangs come upon you. Its full form is נחננת.

וְיָֽצְאָה חִנָּם (Shemos 21:11), she shall go out free: the mem is an addition, like the mem of רֵיקָם, empty, and the sense is ותצא בחן מאין כסף, she goes out in favour, without money; that is, since she leaves without money, it is as though she goes out by the favour she found in her master's eyes. Every חנם in Scripture, he says, is to be explained as favour.

רַחֵם אֲרַחֲמֶנּוּ (Yirmiyahu 31:19), I will surely have mercy on him, and וְרִחַמְךָ וְהִרְבֶּךָ (Devarim 13:18), and He will have mercy on you and multiply you. In the passive, אֲשֶׁר־בְּךָ יְרֻחַם יָתוֹם (Hoshea 14:4), in You the orphan is shown mercy, and וּמוֹדֶה וְעֹזֵב יְרֻחָם (Mishlei 28:13), one who confesses and forsakes is shown mercy. The adjective is רַחוּם וְחַנּוּן (Tehillim 86:15), merciful and gracious, and with a yud of relation, יְדֵי נָשִׁים רַחֲמָנִיּוֹת (Eichah 4:10), the hands of compassionate women. The sense of all of them, he says, is compassion, and it is known. In בְּרֹגֶז רַחֵם תִּזְכּוֹר (Chavakuk 3:2), in wrath remember mercy, רַחֵם may be an infinitive, but it is more correct as a noun.

Another sense: אֶרְחָמְךָ (Tehillim 18:2), where the ches carries a kamatz chatuf, means like אוהבך, I love You, from the Targum of וַיֶּאֱהַב (Bereishis 25:28), and he loved, which is וּרְחֵם. Some take רחם תזכור from this sense, which would mean: in the time of wrath You will remember the love of the fathers. Ibn Ezra explains אֶרְחָמְךָ from the first sense, meaning I will seek mercy from You.

כָל־פֶּטֶר־רֶחֶם (Shemos 13:12), every first issue of the womb, and אֲשֶׁר בְּצֵאתוֹ מֵרֶחֶם אִמּוֹ (Bamidbar 12:12), who when he comes out of his mother's womb. It comes with a patach, רַחַם רַחֲמָתַיִם (Shoftim 5:30), a maiden and two maidens, and in pause the resh takes a kamatz, כָּל־פֶּטֶר רָחַם (Yechezkel 20:26), every first issue of the womb. In וְרַחְמָה הֲרַת עוֹלָם (Yirmiyahu 20:17), and her womb pregnant for ever, the heh is quiescent where it ought to carry a mappik.

By way of borrowing, בְּגִיחוֹ מֵרֶחֶם יֵצֵא (Iyov 38:8), when it burst out, it came forth from the womb, is said of the sea: when He brought it forth it was as one coming out of a womb; that is, when the waters went out and were gathered He hedged it about, so that it should not pass the limit He set for it, which is the sand.

מֵרֶחֶם מִשְׁחָר (Tehillim 110:3), from the womb, from the dawn, Radak explains of the day you were born and came out of the womb: that dawn was the dew of your youth, the dew that came down that dawn being yours; that is, it was good for you, as a man says that a dew of blessing came down on the day he was born. In Ibn Ezra's view it is borrowed like the sea's womb, מִשְׁחָר being from the time the dawn rises, as though it went out of its place like one coming out of a womb; and Ibn Ezra explains the pasuk: if you must make war, they will come to you on that day as a willing rain, from the time the dawn rises, like the dew you were used to seeing in your youth when you were a shepherd.

The word is applied to the woman herself: רַחַם רַחֲמָתַיִם לְרֹאשׁ גֶּבֶר (Shoftim 5:30), which Radak explains as a maiden and two maidens for every man's head; they were called so by way of contempt. וְאֶת־הָרָחָמָה (Devarim 14:17), and the rachamah: it is said to be a bird that pities its young greatly.