raḥămîm

Semantic range

1. 1compassion, deep pity
2. 2the womb (reḥem) is the singular of the same root
3. 3the visceral love of a parent for a child

The plural of a noun meaning womb. Hebrew locates compassion in the body, and specifically in the maternal body — a fact that has drawn increasing attention as readers notice how often God's mercy is described in these terms. Isaiah 49:15 makes the comparison explicit and then surpasses it: a mother might forget her nursing child, "yet will I not forget thee."

The KJV's "tender mercies" for this word supplies the phrase Nephi uses in 1 Nephi 1:20, which Elder David A. Bednar took as the text of his April 2005 conference address on the Lord's tender mercies.

See also

• חֶסֶדḥesed
• σπλαγχνίζομαιsplanchnizomai