Mercy
Mercy in the Updated Bible Version runs along two joined tracks. On one side stands a divine attribute — Yahweh names himself "merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in loving-kindness" (Ex 34:6 disclosure formula, repeated at Ne 9:17, Ps 103:8, Joe 2:13, Sir 2:11) — and that attribute is exhibited as the rescuing, pardoning, gathering action of God toward a covenant-people who would otherwise be consumed. On the other side stands a human duty: mercy is something man is commanded to do, the disposition that Yahweh requires alongside justice (Mic 6:8), and the mark by which the merciful are themselves measured at the bench (Jas 2:13). The vocabulary moves between mercy, kindness, loving-kindness, compassion, and tender mercies; the narratives flesh out what those words look like when one person actually spares another. Sirach holds the two sides together at length, and Lamentations gathers the divine side into the morning-by-morning verdict that the speakers are not consumed.
God Is Merciful
The standing self-disclosure is in Exodus, where Yahweh, passing before Moses, names himself as "keeping loving-kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin" (Ex 34:7). Moses repeats the verdict directly to Israel: "Yahweh your God is a merciful God; he will not fail you, neither destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which he swore to them" (Deut 4:31). The same Exodus 34 language reappears as the standing formula of the Hebrew Scriptures. The Levite prayer of Nehemiah confesses it twice: "you are a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving-kindness, and did not forsake them" (Neh 9:17), and again, "in your manifold mercies you did not make a full end of them, nor forsake them; for you are a gracious and merciful God" (Neh 9:31). The Psalmist plants it as the summary verdict over Yahweh's dealings with his people: "Yahweh is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and abundant in loving-kindness" (Ps 103:8). Joel preaches it as the warrant for return: "rend your⁺ heart, and not your⁺ garments, and turn to Yahweh your⁺ God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving-kindness, and repents of the evil" (Joel 2:13). Sirach uses the same terms in its sapiential register: "For Yahweh is merciful and gracious, And he saves in time of trouble" (Sir 2:11).
What is asserted in the formula is also asserted in cosmic measures. "For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is his loving-kindness toward those who fear him" (Ps 103:11). "For your loving-kindness is great above the heavens; And your truth [reaches] to the skies" (Ps 108:4). "The earth, O Yahweh, is full of your loving-kindness" (Ps 119:64). Sirach says it as a proportionality: "For as is his majesty, so also is his mercy" (Sir 2:18); and as quantity: "For many are the mercies of God, And to the meek he reveals his secret" (Sir 3:20). The same point is reached by the asking in the form of a rhetorical question: "Who can declare the might of his majesty, And who can recount his mercies?" (Sir 18:5). And it is reached by personal claim: "Because your loving-kindness is better than life, My lips will praise you" (Ps 63:3).
Micah closes his prophecy with the same incomparability: "Who is a God like you, who pardons iniquity, and passes over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in loving-kindness" (Mic 7:18).
Mercy Within the Covenant
The mercy of Yahweh is bound to a covenant. The Exodus disclosure puts the loving-kindness on a thousand-generation reach (Ex 34:7), and the Davidic oracle pledges it for the king at endless duration: "My loving-kindness I will keep for him forevermore; And my covenant will stand fast with him" (Ps 89:28). The same covenant-loving-kindness sits as the enduring side of Yahweh's relation to "those who fear him": "But the loving-kindness of Yahweh is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, And his righteousness to sons of sons" (Ps 103:17). The Sinai language returns at the prophet's word: Yahweh "shows loving-kindness to thousands" (Jer 32:18). Hosea places the covenant-mercy at the heart of a betrothal: "And I will betroth you to me forever; yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness, and in justice, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies" (Hos 2:19). And Jeremiah states the unbroken motive directly: "Yahweh appeared of old to me, [saying,] Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness I have drawn you" (Jer 31:3).
The same loving-kindness is sung as the great-deeds verdict: "I will make mention of the loving-kindnesses of Yahweh, [and] the praises of Yahweh, according to all that Yahweh has bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he has bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his loving-kindnesses" (Isa 63:7). Psalmic petition rests on the same ground: "Show your marvelous loving-kindness, O you who save by your right hand those who take refuge [in you]" (Ps 17:7); "For your loving-kindness is before my eyes; And I have walked in your truth" (Ps 26:3).
Hezekiah's letter to the northern remnant fastens the return-summons to the same name: "if you⁺ turn again to Yahweh, your⁺ brothers and your⁺ sons will find compassion before those who led them captive, and will come again into this land: for Yahweh your⁺ God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you⁺, if you⁺ return to him" (2 Chr 30:9). Ezra confesses the same verdict from inside the post-exilic remnant: "you our God have punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us such a remnant" (Ezra 9:13). Daniel uses the same warrant in petition: "O Lord, according to all your righteousness, let your anger and your wrath, I pray you, be turned away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain" (Dan 9:16). Habakkuk asks for the briefer form of the same favor: "In wrath remember mercy" (Hab 3:2).
Mercy in the Narrative
The narrative books exhibit divine mercy as concrete acts. Yahweh holds back judgment on Sodom on the threshold of fifty righteous: "If I find in Sodom fifty righteous inside the city, then I will spare all the place for their sake" (Gen 18:26). When Lot lingers, mercy is rescue in the form of physical extraction: "the men laid hold on his hand, and on the hand of his wife, and on the hand of his two daughters, Yahweh being merciful to him; and they brought him forth, and set him outside the city" (Gen 19:16).
The reciprocal verdict comes from David. Caught between three forms of judgment, the king picks Yahweh-side punishment over man-side punishment on a single ground: "let us fall now into the hand of [the Speech of] Yahweh; for his mercies are great; and don't let me fall into the hand of man" (2 Sam 24:14). The Psalmic principle behind that choice is stated as a mirror-rule: "With the merciful you will show yourself merciful; With the perfect man you will show yourself perfect" (2 Sam 22:26; the same couplet at Ps 18:25).
Solomon's temple-prayer asks the heavenly hearing in mercy-and-forgiveness terms: "hear in heaven your dwelling-place; and when you hear, forgive" (1 Kings 8:30). The prophets gather the same mercy as the active reversal of exile. Isaiah pledges it as great-mercies-gathering: "For a small moment I have forsaken you; but with great mercies I will gather you" (Isa 54:7). And the same prophet stretches the ground further: "let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to Yahweh, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon" (Isa 55:7). Jeremiah voices the call as Yahweh's own self-confession: "Return, you backsliding Israel, says Yahweh; I will not look in anger on you⁺; for I am merciful, says Yahweh, I will not keep [anger] forever" (Jer 3:12).
Lamentations gathers the verdict into one stanza: "[It is of] Yahweh's loving-kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassions do not fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness" (Lam 3:22-23).
Sirach extends the same imagery. Mercy is the divine outpouring matched to the brevity of human life: "Therefore is the Lord longsuffering toward them And pours out his mercy upon them" (Sir 18:11). It is forgiveness scaled up against the human end: "He sees and knows that their end is evil, Therefore he increases his forgiveness" (Sir 18:12). It is a shepherd-act over all flesh: "The mercy of man is upon his neighbor, But the mercy of the Lord is upon all flesh, Reproving, and chastening, and teaching, And bringing back as a shepherd his flock" (Sir 18:13). It is conditioned on the receptive: "He has mercy on those who accept chastening, And who diligently seek after his judgements" (Sir 18:14). It is timely: "Mercy is fitting in the time of their affliction, As rain in the time of drought" (Sir 35:26). And it is the standing-stock the Lord-fearer waits for: "You⁺ who fear the Lord, wait for his mercy; And do not turn aside lest you⁺ fall" (Sir 2:7).
Supplications for Mercy
The Psalter teaches the petition. The wither-away sufferer asks healing as mercy: "Have mercy on me, O Yahweh; for I am withered away: Heal me, O Yahweh; for my bones are troubled" (Ps 6:2). The petitioner asks hearing as mercy: "Hear, O Yahweh, when I cry with my voice: Have mercy also on me, and answer me" (Ps 27:7). The Davidic Psalm of Bathsheba lays the petition on the doubled ground of loving-kindness and tender mercies: "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your loving-kindness: According to the multitude of your tender mercies blot out my transgressions" (Ps 51:1). The sons of Korah ask loving-kindness shown and salvation granted: "Show us your loving-kindness, O Yahweh, And grant us your salvation" (Ps 85:7). The 119th asks tender mercies as a coming: "Let your tender mercies come to me, that I may live; For your law is my delight" (Ps 119:77). The ascent-song doubles the imperative under the saturated contempt-endurance: "Have mercy on us, O Yahweh, have mercy on us; For we are exceedingly filled with contempt" (Ps 123:3). And the ground for the petition is laid as a profile of the addressee: "For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, And abundant in loving-kindness to all those who call on you" (Ps 86:5).
The same plea is heard at the elders' heifer-rite: "Forgive, O Yahweh, your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and don't allow innocent blood [to remain] in the midst of your people Israel. And the blood will be forgiven them" (Deut 21:8). It is heard on the lips of the publican in the parable: "God, be merciful to me a sinner" (Luke 18:13). And it is heard in Sirach's two-verse plea for the people: "Have mercy upon the people called by your name, Israel whom you surnamed Firstborn. Have mercy upon your holy city, Jerusalem, the place of your dwelling" (Sir 36:12-13). Sirach sums the same thanksgiving: "You helped me, according to the abundance of your mercy, Out of the snare of those watching for my downfall" (Sir 51:3); "Then I remembered the lovingkindnesses of Yahweh, And his mercies which have been from of old; He delivers those who put their trust in him, And redeems them from all evil" (Sir 51:8). The hymn of praise that follows turns the same ground into a refrain: "Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good, For his mercy endures forever" (Sir 51:12). The Psalmist plants the same opening doxology: "Hallelujah. Oh give thanks to Yahweh; for he is good; For his loving-kindness [endures] forever" (Ps 106:1).
Mercy as a Human Duty
What God does, man is commanded to do. Micah names mercy as one of the three irreducible demands: "He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does Yahweh require of you, but to do justly, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Mic 6:8). The kindness in question is something to be loved, not merely tolerated. Hosea joins the same kindness to justice as a sustained discipline of the returned addressee: "Therefore you will turn to your God: keep kindness and justice, and wait for your God continually" (Hos 12:6). Hosea's covenant-lawsuit shows the inverse: where there is "no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land" (Hos 4:1), Yahweh has a controversy with the inhabitants.
Wisdom binds kindness and truth as a single wearable: "Don't let kindness and truth forsake you: Bind them about your neck; So you will find favor and good understanding In the sight of God and man" (Prov 3:3-4). The merciful man does himself good: "The merciful man does good to his own soul; But he who is cruel troubles his own flesh" (Prov 11:17). Mercy reaches even to the beast: "A righteous man regards the soul of his beast; But the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel" (Prov 12:10). Pity for the poor is named happiness: "He who despises his fellow man sins; But he who has pity on the poor, he is happy" (Prov 14:21). Mercy and truth track the deviser of good: "Do they not err who devise evil? But mercy and truth [will be to] those who devise good" (Prov 14:22). Kindness and truth preserve the throne: "Kindness and truth preserve the king; And his throne is upheld by kindness" (Prov 20:28). And the pursuer of the pair finds the corresponding life: "He who follows after righteousness and kindness Finds life, righteousness, and honor" (Prov 21:21). Psalmic observation generalizes the daily habit: "All the day long he deals graciously, and lends; And his seed is blessed" (Ps 37:26). And mercy meets truth as joined attributes: "Mercy and truth are met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed each other" (Ps 85:10).
Sirach makes the same demand inside its own register. The merciful conduct is forbidden to despise the misery of the soul that lacks: "Do not snort at the misery of the soul who lacks, And do not hide yourself from a contrite soul" (Sir 4:2). The needy's request must not be despised: "Do not despise the requests of the needy" (Sir 4:4). The pay-out, by inversion, is no occasion-for-curse: "And you will not give him a place to curse you" (Sir 4:5). The merciful act is among the things God himself most carefully guards: "The righteousness of men is to him as a signet, And the mercy of man he preserves as the apple of an eye" (Sir 17:22). And the Lord-side mercy is the standing model: "How great is the mercy of the Lord, And [His] forgiveness to those who turn to him" (Sir 17:29).
The wisdom literature also names the inconsistency the merciless man performs. Sirach exposes him by his own asking: "One man cherishes wrath against another, And does he seek healing from the Lord? Upon a man like himself he has no mercy, And for his own sins does he make supplication?" (Sir 28:3-4). The Greek apologetic to outsiders gives the same demand a divine backdrop: "For God, the Master and builder of all things, he who made all things and set them in order, was not only loving toward man, but also long-suffering" (Gr 8:7). And Daniel's counsel to the king lays the duty on a ruler under sentence: "break off your sins by righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor; if there may be a lengthening of your tranquility" (Dan 4:27).
The Lukan word of Jesus binds the human exercise to its divine pattern: "Be⁺ merciful, even as your⁺ Father is merciful" (Luke 6:36). The same Sermon teaches the corresponding measure: "give, and it will be given to you⁺; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, they will give into your⁺ bosom. For with what measure you⁺ mete it will be measured to you⁺ again" (Luke 6:38). When the Samaritan village refuses Jesus and the disciples ask for fire from heaven, the merciful response is rebuke directed at his own: "But he turned, and rebuked them" (Luke 9:55). Paul lists mercy among the body-gifts and binds it to a manner: "he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness" (Rom 12:8). Among the vices that mark the hardened mind, unmercifulness is named in the closing-string position: "without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, unmerciful" (Rom 1:31). And in the apostolic ethic, mercy is the dressed-on garment of the elect: "Put on therefore, as God's elect, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving each other, if any man has a complaint against any; even as the Lord forgave you⁺, so also [should] you⁺" (Col 3:12-13).
James draws the consequence for judgment day: "For judgment [is] without mercy to him who has shown no mercy: mercy glories against judgment" (Jas 2:13).
Promises to the Merciful
Wisdom and Psalmody tie a corresponding pay-out to the merciful posture. The merciful man does himself good (Prov 11:17). The man who has mercy on the needy honors his Maker: "He who oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker; But he who has mercy on the needy honors him" (Prov 14:31). The Psalmist promises Yahweh's own attendance in the sickbed of the considerate: "[The Speech of] Yahweh will support him on the couch of languishing: You make all his bed in his sickness" (Ps 41:3). The dispersing-and-giving man is set up for enduring righteousness and exalted honor: "He has dispersed, he has given to the needy; His righteousness endures forever: His horn will be exalted with honor" (Ps 112:9). Isaiah promises the rising light to the soul-pouring giver: "and if you draw out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul: then your light will rise in darkness, and your obscurity be as the noonday" (Isa 58:10). Sirach promises the divine sonship to the one who fathers the orphan and husbands the widow: "Be as a father to the fatherless, And in the place of a husband to widows. And God will call you son, And will be gracious to you" (Sir 4:10). And the Lukan measure-for-measure rule fastens the same return on the giving: "give, and it will be given to you⁺" (Luke 6:38).
Apostolic Mercy in the Saving Act
The apostolic writings center mercy on the saving act of God in Christ. Paul names the divine mercy as the wealth that grounds the salvation: "but God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us" (Eph 2:4). The Pastoral parallel makes the same point as a displacement of the petitioner's works: "not by works [done] in righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy he saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5). The mercy that names Yahweh in the Hebrew Scriptures is named here as the very measure under which the saving act is performed.
Instances of Human Mercy
The narratives concretize what the commands ask for.
The prison-keeper to Joseph. When Joseph is thrown into the round-house, the kindness extended to him by the keeper is grounded in Yahweh's accompanying presence: "But [the Speech of] Yahweh was with Joseph, and showed kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners who were in the prison; and whatever they did there, he was the one who did it" (Gen 39:21-22).
Joshua to Rahab. After Jericho falls, the merciful exception is recorded as a saving-alive of the woman who had hidden the spies: "But Rahab the whore, and her father's household, and all who she had, Joshua saved alive; and she dwelt in the midst of Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers, whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho" (Josh 6:25).
The Israelites to the man of Beth-el. A pledge to "deal kindly with you" is honored after the city is taken: "And the watchers saw a man come forth out of the city, and they said to him, Show us, we pray you, the entrance into the city, and we will deal kindly with you. And he showed them the entrance into the city; and they struck the city with the edge of the sword; but they let the man go and all his family" (Judg 1:24-25).
Saul at Mizpah. On the day of Yahweh-wrought deliverance, Saul refuses to execute the despisers who had rejected him: "And Saul said, There will not be a man put to death this day; for today Yahweh has wrought deliverance in Israel" (1 Sam 11:13).
David to Saul. Twice David has Saul at his mercy and refuses to take revenge. After cutting the skirt of Saul's robe in the cave he protests: "this day your eyes have seen how that Yahweh had delivered you today into my hand in the cave: and some bade me kill you; but [I] spared you; and I said, I will not put forth my hand against my lord; for he is Yahweh's anointed... Yahweh judge between me and you, and Yahweh avenge me of you; but my hand will not be on you" (1 Sam 24:10,12). Saul himself ratifies the mercy as good-for-evil: "And he said to David, You are more righteous than I; for you have rendered to me good, whereas I have rendered to you evil" (1 Sam 24:17). At the second occasion David stops Abishai with the same protected-status verdict: "Don't destroy him; for who can put forth his hand against Yahweh's anointed, and be innocent?" (1 Sam 26:9).
David to Shimei. Returning to Jerusalem after Absalom's revolt, David refuses any execution on the return-day, even of the cursing Benjamite: "Will there be any man put to death this day in Israel? For don't I know that I am this day king over Israel?" (2 Sam 19:22).
Solomon to Adonijah. The new king's hair-preservation pledge to the failed pretender holding the altar: "If he will show himself a worthy man, not a hair of him will fall to the earth; but if wickedness is found in him, he will die" (1 Kings 1:52).
Elisha to the Syrians. Captured enemy soldiers led blind into Samaria are not put to the sword. The prophet's mercy-order is feed-and-release: "You will not strike them: would you strike those whom you have taken captive with your sword and with your bow? Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master" (2 Kings 6:22).