To pity
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G4697 is the Synoptic verb for being moved with deep compassion. The governed BSB table has twelve forms: eight directly describe Jesus' compassion, three describe figures in parables, and one is the father's appeal to Jesus in Mark 9:22.
Reader summary
Full entry for σπλαγχνίζομαι (G4697) · Open the biblical lexicon
G4697 is the Synoptic verb for being moved with deep compassion. The governed BSB table has twelve forms: eight directly describe Jesus' compassion, three describe figures in parables, and one is the father's appeal to Jesus in Mark 9:22.
The BSB source-word alignment has 12 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include He had compassion (4), I have compassion (2), Moved with compassion (2), had compassion [on him] (1), have compassion (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 9:36. Its strongest book concentrations include Matthew (5), Mark (4), Luke (3).
G4697 is the Synoptic verb for being moved with deep compassion. The governed BSB table has twelve forms: eight directly describe Jesus' compassion, three describe figures in parables, and one is the father's appeal to Jesus in Mark 9:22. The subjects, needs, and resulting actions differ. Compassion leads to teaching, healing, food, debt release within a parable, neighbor care, welcome, and restoration, while Mark 9:22 records a suffering parent's plea rather than a statement that Jesus has already felt the verb.
Matthew 9:36 and Mark 6:34 connect Jesus' compassion with crowds like sheep without a shepherd and lead into teaching or mission. Matthew 14:14 and 20:34 connect it with healing, Matthew 15:32 and Mark 8:2 with hunger, and Luke 7:13 with a bereaved widow. These scenes reveal attentive mercy without promising that every illness, disability, bereavement, food need, or crisis will receive the same immediate outcome. They do not permit ableist language, medical neglect, pressure for a miracle, intrusive touch, or the silencing of grief.
The parable uses must retain their own aims. Matthew 18:27 describes a master's compassion and debt release before exposing the servant's refusal of mercy. Luke 10:33 makes a Samaritan the compassionate neighbor who provides practical care. Luke 15:20 portrays a father welcoming his returning son. These narratives can shape mercy without turning every relationship into compelled reconciliation, canceling safeguarding or due process, prescribing unsafe financial decisions, or demanding that harmed people return to danger.
Mark 1:41 requires a transparent local witness boundary. The governed BSB table assigns the compassion form to G4697, while the selected SBLGNT-based artifact's eleven-form count excludes that verse. This source includes the governed BSB occurrence, labels the difference, and does not claim to resolve the textual question. Either local reading remains inside a scene where Jesus responds and the man is cleansed.
Twelve governed Synoptic forms distinguish Jesus' compassion, three parable figures, and one appeal for compassion while preserving a local Mark 1:41 witness difference.
He was moved with compassion for them
Jesus sees communal vulnerability and responds with shepherding concern.
When he saw him, he had compassion
The Samaritan's compassion becomes concrete neighbor care.
Have compassion on us and help us
A parent voices a desperate appeal; the lexeme does not describe Jesus' interior response in this verse.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Deep emotional compassion originating from the bowels; visceral pity moving one to merciful action.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
12 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I have pity on
Read verseI have pity on
Read verseI have pity on
Read verseI have pity on
Read verseI have pity on
Read verseI have pity on
Read verseI have pity on
Read verseI have pity on
Read verseI have pity on
Read verseI have pity on
Read verseI have pity on
Read verseI have pity on
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
How this verb appears across 11 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 8 selected witnesses from 11 lexical occurrence verses.
σπλαγχνίζομαι is built from this root:
Reveals the Shepherd heart of Christ driving gospel mission. Luke 10:25–37
Reveals the heart of Christ toward the afflicted. Luke 15:11–32
Reveals Christ’s shepherd heart. Luke 7:11–17
Demonstrates deep, active mercy. Mark 1:40–45
Reveals the emotional depth of divine mercy.
Reveals Christ’s deep covenant mercy.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
G4697 does not name one emotional performance. Jesus' compassion leads to different forms of care according to the actual need: teaching, healing, feeding, raising, and preparing others for mission. Parable figures release debt, provide skilled neighbor care, or welcome a returning son, while Mark 9 records a parent's request. The repeated movement from seeing to mercy to fitting action challenges indifference, but it does not make a caregiver omnipotent or a sufferer responsible for producing a miracle.
Mature compassion can involve medical treatment, food, money, patient listening, reporting harm, professional referral, boundaries, grief support, restitution, and protected distance. It can also refuse a harmful demand, share responsibility with qualified people, and remain faithfully present when no quick resolution is available.
Matt.9.36
The governed BSB rows contain six aorist passive indicatives, four aorist passive participles, and two present middle forms. Morphological voice labels do not imply that compassion is passive in effect. The selected artifact has eleven forms because its textual base excludes Mark 1:41 from G4697.
The Synoptic shepherd and mercy settings resonate with Israel's language for God's compassion and care, especially Numbers 27 and Ezekiel 34. These are canonical connections, not proof that G4697 occurs in those Hebrew passages.
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain