רַחוּם (Rachum)

MEANINGCompassionate, merciful. The first character attribute after the covenant name in Exodus 34:6. Derived from rechem (רֶחֶם --- womb). Describes visceral compassion --- the physical interior resonance of a mother for the child she carried.

GRAMMARAdjective from the root ר-ח-מ (Resh-Chet-Mem). Related words: rechem (womb), racham (to have compassion --- Piel), rachamim (compassions, always plural in Hebrew --- suggesting the inexhaustible abundance of compassion).

SIGNIFICANCERachum pictures God's compassion as womb-deep --- an interior movement that is involuntary, physical, and maternal. This is the God whose 'heart recoils within me' in Hosea 11:8 (nehpakh libbi --- the heart that physically turns in distress). Thread 1's reaching is not obligation but this kind of visceral compassion.

KEY VERSE / SCRIPTURESExodus 34:6 (4th of the 13 attributes); Deuteronomy 4:31; Nehemiah 9:17, 31; Psalm 78:38; 86:15; 103:8.

CROSS-REFERENCESExodus 34:6 · Hosea 11:8 · σπλαγχνίζομαι splanchnizomai (NT equivalent --- gut-level compassion)