What does רַחוּם (raḥûm) mean in the Bible?
רַחוּם (raḥûm) means compassionate or merciful. It appears chiefly in statements about God's character, especially the confession first spoken in Exodus 34:6 after Israel's grave covenant failure.
Hebrew · H7349
רַחוּם
Compassionate
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רַחוּם H7349
Pronunciation raḥûm
What does רַחוּם (raḥûm) mean in the Bible?
רַחוּם (raḥûm) means compassionate or merciful. It appears chiefly in statements about God's character, especially the confession first spoken in Exodus 34:6 after Israel's grave covenant failure.
Reader summary
Full entry for רַחוּם (H7349) · Open the biblical lexicon
Questions this entry answers
How does the BSB render H7349?
The BSB source-word alignment has 13 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include and compassionate (6), is compassionate (2), [is] a merciful (1), and merciful (1), are a compassionate (1).
Where does רַחוּם (raḥûm) appear in Scripture?
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Exodus 34:6. Its strongest book concentrations include Psalms (6), Nehemiah (2), 2 Chronicles (1), Deuteronomy (1).
What This Word Actually Means
רַחוּם (raḥûm) means compassionate or merciful. It appears chiefly in statements about God's character, especially the confession first spoken in Exodus 34:6 after Israel's grave covenant failure. The adjective is normally paired with other descriptions such as gracious, slow to anger, abundant in covenant love, faithful, or forgiving. Its force should therefore be read as part of a character formula rather than isolated as a vague feeling of kindness.
Deuteronomy 4 grounds hope for return in the Lord's compassion and covenant faithfulness. Nehemiah 9 uses the word while recounting repeated rebellion and repeated divine mercy. Joel 2 places the confession within a call to return, and Jonah 4 exposes a prophet who resents God's compassion toward Nineveh. These contexts hold mercy, repentance, justice, patience, and God's freedom together. Compassion is neither indifference to evil nor a tool for avoiding truthful repair.
Raḥûm belongs to a Hebrew word family associated with compassion and with the noun for womb. That relationship can illuminate the embodied depth of compassion imagery elsewhere, but etymology alone does not mean this adjective literally says womb-like, proves that God has a body, or assigns God a human gender. Psalm 112:4 also requires interpretive care because its description can be read in relation to God or the upright person. The adjective's theology must come from its actual sentences and canonical uses.
Lexical sourceCanonical synthesis
How the Bible Uses It
Raḥûm is a low-occurrence adjective concentrated in the Exodus 34 confession of God's compassion and its reuse in Torah, prophecy, prayer, worship, and postexilic historical reflection.
- Exod.34.6
The Lord proclaims himself compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in covenant love and faithfulness after the golden-calf crisis.
- Deut.4.31
Moses grounds hope amid judgment and return in the Lord's compassion, covenant remembrance, and refusal to abandon his people.
- 2Chron.30.9
Hezekiah's appeal urges return to the Lord on the basis that God is gracious and compassionate and will not turn away from those who return.
- Joel.2.13
The prophet calls people to rend their hearts and return because the Lord is gracious, compassionate, patient, and abundant in covenant love.
- Jonah.4.2
Jonah cites God's compassion as the reason he expected mercy for Nineveh and resents the outcome.
- Ps.78.38
The historical psalm recalls that God was compassionate, forgave iniquity, and repeatedly restrained destructive anger.
- Ps.103.8
The psalm echoes the character formula while celebrating forgiveness, healing, justice, and fatherly compassion.
- Ps.111.4
God's memorable works are praised together with the Lord's gracious and compassionate character.
- Ps.112.4
Compassionate language appears in a wisdom psalm about light in darkness and the character of the upright, with the precise subject interpreted in more than one way.
- Neh.9.31
The community confesses that God did not completely destroy or abandon Israel because he is gracious and compassionate.
Source Word Evidence
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders It and compassionate 6× Nehemiah 9:17, Nehemiah 9:31, Psalms 111:4, Psalms 145:8
is compassionate 2× Exodus 34:6, Psalms 103:8
[is] a merciful 1× Deuteronomy 4:31
and merciful 1× 2 Chronicles 30:9
are a compassionate 1× Psalms 86:15
compassionate 1× Psalms 112:4
was compassionate 1× Psalms 78:38
Show sample aligned rows
Exodus 34:6 רַח֖וּם to is compassionate Adjective - masculine singular Deuteronomy 4:31 רַחוּם֙ to [is] a merciful Adjective - masculine singular 2 Chronicles 30:9 וְרַחוּם֙ to and merciful Conjunctive waw | Adjective - masculine singular Nehemiah 9:17 וְרַח֛וּם to and compassionate Conjunctive waw | Adjective - masculine singular Nehemiah 9:31 וְרַח֖וּם to and compassionate Conjunctive waw | Adjective - masculine singular Psalms 78:38 רַח֨וּם׀ to was compassionate Adjective - masculine singular Psalms 86:15 רַח֣וּם to are a compassionate Adjective - masculine singular Psalms 103:8 רַח֣וּם to is compassionate Adjective - masculine singular Psalms 111:4 וְרַח֣וּם to and compassionate Conjunctive waw | Adjective - masculine singular Psalms 112:4 וְרַח֣וּם to compassionate Conjunctive waw | Adjective - masculine singular
Usage map
A compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
First aligned row Exodus 34:6
Aligned rows 13
Books represented 7
Exodus 1 Deuteronomy 1 2 Chronicles 1 Nehemiah 2 Psalms 6 Joel 1 Jonah 1
Source forms
וְרַח֣וּם 3x wə·ra·ḥūm Psalms 111:4, Psalms 112:4, Psalms 145:8
וְרַחוּם֙ 2x wə·ra·ḥūm 2 Chronicles 30:9, Joel 2:13
רַח֣וּם 2x ra·ḥūm Psalms 86:15, Psalms 103:8
וְרַח֛וּם 1x wə·ra·ḥūm Nehemiah 9:17
וְרַח֖וּם 1x wə·ra·ḥūm Nehemiah 9:31
וְרַח֔וּם 1x wə·ra·ḥūm Jonah 4:2
רַח֖וּם 1x ra·ḥūm Exodus 34:6
רַחוּם֙ 1x ra·ḥūm Deuteronomy 4:31
Parsing patterns
Conjunctive waw | Adjective - masculine singular 8x 2 Chronicles 30:9, Nehemiah 9:17, Nehemiah 9:31, Psalms 111:4
Adjective - masculine singular 5x Exodus 34:6, Deuteronomy 4:31, Psalms 78:38, Psalms 86:15
Using This Word Well
Be careful not to...
- Compassion can include consequences, reporting, boundaries, protection, and patient rebuilding of trust.
- Calls to return in Chronicles and Joel must not be used to place responsibility for reconciliation on a person who is being harmed.
Avoid claiming...
- Do not claim that divine compassion means God ignores injustice or that every consequence should be removed.
- Do not use compassion language to silence disclosure, prevent safeguarding action, or require renewed access for an unsafe person.
- Do not claim that the word's root relationship proves that God literally has a womb or is identified with a human gender.
- Do not cite Lamentations 3:22 as a direct occurrence of H7349; it uses related compassion vocabulary.
Evidence Summary
Hebrew word. God's defining mercy: compassion rooted in tender love rather than mere duty or obligation
Source Gloss
compassionate
Extended definition Source: Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon + Brown-Driver-Briggs
God's defining mercy: compassion rooted in tender love rather than mere duty or obligation
compassionate Usage: full of compassion, merciful.
Grammatical Forms
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected Scripture Witness
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Biblical Witnesses
God's compassionate nature demonstrated through righteous acts and forgiveness
Showing 1 selected witness from 13 lexical occurrence verses.
Word Origins
רַחוּם is built from this root:
Part of These Phrases
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
For the Preacher and Teacher
Raḥûm gives communities a tested confession of God's compassion in the presence of betrayal, exile, suffering, repentance, and mercy toward enemies. Exodus 34 refuses to make Israel's failure the final definition of God. Joel 2 makes compassion a reason to return, not a reason to postpone repentance. Jonah 4 reveals how people may welcome mercy for themselves while resenting it for outsiders.
Nehemiah 9 remembers both the justice of consequences and the mercy that prevented total abandonment. Pastoral use should therefore join hope with truth: compassion listens to harmed people, protects the vulnerable, invites repentance, and leaves room for wise boundaries and consequences. It must not be invoked to force forgiveness language, suppress reporting, restore access, or demand trust before safety and repair are established.
Anchor passage
Exod.34.6
Doctrinal connections
- Exod.34.6: God's self-declared compassion
- Deut.4.31: compassion and covenant remembrance
- 2Chron.30.9: invitation to return
- Joel.2.13: heart-level repentance
- Jonah.4.2: compassion extended to enemies
- Ps.78.38: restraint and forgiveness in Israel's history
- Ps.103.8: compassion in worship
- Neh.9.31: preservation despite repeated rebellion
H7349 is an adjective concentrated in formulaic descriptions of compassion. It belongs to the רחם word family, but responsible interpretation distinguishes lexical meaning, root association, metaphor, and wider theology rather than deriving all claims from etymology.
From Old to New Testament
The New Testament calls disciples to mercy and presents God's compassion through Jesus, but those claims should be established from their own texts. Greek compassion terms are related canonically, not identical lexical forms of H7349.
Sources
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