Pity
PITY
Is generally defined to be the uneasiness we feel at the unhappiness of another, prompting us to compassionate them, with a desire of their relief. God is said to pity them that fear him, as a father pitieth his children. The father, says Mr. Henry, pities his children that are weak in knowledge, and instructs them; pities them when they are froward, and bears with them; pities them when they are sick, and comforts them, Isa 66:13; when they are fallen, and helps them up again; when they have offended, and forgives them; when they are wronged, and rights them. Thus the Lord pitieth them that fear him. Psa 103:13.
See COMPASSION OF GOD.
Fuente: Theological Dictionary
Pity
is usually defined to be the uneasiness we feel at the unhappiness of others, prompting us to compassionate them, with a desire for their relief. God is said to pity them that fear him, as a father pitieth his children (Psa 103:13). Pity is thus a Christian grace, to the practice of which we are exhorted by the apostle: Love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous (1Pe 3:8). The phrase , nashim rachamaniyoth, rendered pitiful women in our version (Lam 4:10), properly refers to the tenderness and affectionate love which is the distinguishing trait of the female character; and that such women should in the siege and the straitness be driven to and adopt the terrible expedient of feeding upon their own children, as in this passage they are stated to have done, is an awful instance of the literal fulfillment of the threatenings of the Lord in the event of the disobedience of the house of Israel (Deu 28:57). The same horrible expedient was resorted to also in the last siege of Jerusalem, as it had formerly been at the siege of Samaria, in the reign of Ahab (2Ki 6:28-29).
Pitiful is a word whose derivations have by modern usage been almost limited to the sense of mean, contemptible, or insignificant. In the Bible and Prayerbook the old and primary meaning of full of mercy compassionate, or tender, is retained. The English Prayer-book gives us these examples: … though we be tied and bound with the chain of our sins, yet let the pitifulness of thy great mercy loose us. Occasional Prayer. Again: Pitifully behold the sorrows of our hearts; which petition in the Litany is thus altered in the American Prayer-book, With pity behold the sorrows of our hearts. In these the original and better sense of the word is alone intended. In the Primer of king Edward VI there is this expression: O pitiful Physician, and Healer both of body and soul, Christ Jesu! And Latimer, in his sermon on the birth of Christ, remarks: Preachers exhort us to godliness, to do good works, to be pitiful and liberal unto the poor; that is, to be compassionate, tenderhearted, and sympathizing to them.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Pity
Racham expresses a deep and tender feeling of compassion, suc has is aro used by the sight of weakness or suffering in those that are dear to us or need our help. It is rendered pity [The English word pity is really piety.] or pitiful in a few passages. Thus Psa 103:13, ‘Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him;’ Psa 106:46, ‘He made them also to be pitied of all those that carried them captives;’ Lam 4:10, ‘The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children.’ It is curious that the word ‘pitiful’ should have had its meaning so altered in modern times as to be hardly understood in the passage last cited.
Racham is rendered ‘mercy’ several times, and is the orig in of the word Ruhamah, which occurs in Hos 2:1. Jacob used it to express his strong feeling on sending Benjam in with his brothers into Egypt, ‘God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your other brother, and Benjamin’ (Gen 43:14). It is an element in the character of God, who shows mercy on whom He will show mercy (Exo 33:19), and is merciful as well as gracious (Exo 34:6, Deu 4:31). Accordingly David says, ‘Let us fall now into the hands of God, for his mercies are abounding’ (2Sa 24:14). Mercy (misericordia) is really the same thing as pity, though the words have gradually assumed rather different senses.
Racham also represents the beautiful expression ‘tender mercy’ wherever it occurs; thus the Psalmist prays, ‘According to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions’ (Psa 51:1). It is the only word rendered ‘mercy,’ with two exceptions (Jer 3:12, and Dan 4:27), in the prophetical books of the O.T., being specially used in them to mark the tenderness with which God regards his people in their downcast condition. It is rendered ‘compassion’ and ‘bowels of compassion’ in all passages where these expressions are found in the A. V., with the exception of Exo 2:6, 1Sa 23:21, 2Ch 36:15; 2Ch 36:17, and Eze 16:5, where a less forcible word () is used. Racham has twice been rendered ‘love,’ viz in Psa 18:1 and Dan 1:9. With regard to the first of these passages, ‘I will love thee, O Lord, my strength,’ the word seems at first sight out of place, because there can be no element of pity in man’s love to God; but it expresses here the depth and tenderness of the Psalmist’s feeling; and it may be observed that in this passage the word is used not in the Piel or intensive voice (as in all other passages), but in the Kal, or simple active voice.
The most prominent rendering for Racham in the LXX is . this word occurs five times in the N.T., twice as the attribute of God (Rom 12:1, and 2Co 1:3), and three times as a quality to be manifested in our dealings with one another (Php 2:1; Col 3:12; see also Heb 10:28)
Fuente: Synonyms of the Old Testament
Pity
PITY.This word occurs once in the Gospels (Mat 18:33 Authorized Version ) as translation of apparently in accordance with the practice of the translators that we have not tied ourselves to an uniformity of phrasing or to an identity of words, since the same word is rendered by have compassion in the verse immediately before, as elsewhere.
1. In the Synoptic Gospels four different words occur which carry with them the notion of pity or compassion: (), ( and , and .
Of these, the first three are used with reference to Jesus: (1) , moved with compassion, found in Mat 9:36; Mat 14:14; Mat 15:32; Mat 18:27, Mar 1:41; Mar 6:34; Mar 8:2, Luk 7:13; (2) , used in Mar 5:19 by our Lord Himself to describe His own work in the cure of the demoniac, and hath had compassion on thee, ; (3) , Mar 3:5, translation being grieved (for the hardness of their hearts). The word occurs nowhere else in NT, but is used by Herodotus and elsewhere with the significance of having pity or compassion (see Liddell and Scott).
By their usage in these passages the Synoptics plainly declare that in His manifestation of human nature our Saviour was drawn towards suffering humanity by that Divine gift of pity which has ever been regarded as one of the higher feelings: sickness, sorrow, being like tired sheep, even bodily hunger, filled Him with compassion for the suffering ones,while in the solitary use of alluded to above to describe His feeling at the unwillingness of men to receive truth, we can hardly hesitate to give to the word its classical meaning of pity, when we remember the outburst of weeping which accompanied His wail over Jerusalem (Luk 19:41). And while Himself manifesting forth pity towards men and inculcating the same feeling on His disciples, He also most clearly taught them to think of His Father in heaven as One moved with compassion for His earthly family. The tender mercy of our God in the Benedictus (Luk 1:78) is the thought illustrated in the parable of the Good Samaritan, who was moved with compassion () at the sight of the wounded man (Luk 10:33); as in that of the king who forgave the debtor, being moved with compassion (, Mat 18:27); and even more strikingly so in the description of the father of the Prodigal, who, when he saw his son returning, (Luk 15:20). So also the solitary use of in the Gospels (used again only in Jam 5:11) is found in our Saviours exhortation, Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful; (Luk 6:36).
It is true that in speaking of God as the Merciful One our Saviour was repeating what is a familiar thought in the OT, , compassionate, is there used exclusively as an epithet of God (Deu 4:31), while in Sir 50:19 we already find the simple as a name of God (see Dalman, Words of Jesus, p. 204); but in our Saviours teaching we recognize a new fulness and meaning in the thought that would have been impossible for men to grasp before He came who could say, He that hath seen me hath seen the Father (Joh 14:9).
2. The teaching of St. Johns Gospel.It is striking that in St. Johns Gospel we never find any word used which conveys the meaning of pity or compassion; Christ is never described as merciful or as showing mercy, nor does He so speak of the Father; while even the exhortation to mercy as a duty of man to man is not found there.
Can we give a reason for this? or is the omission purely accidental? We believe the reason is found in the fact that in St. Johns mind the thought of pity is absorbed in that of love.
To St. John was given the task of presenting the life of Christ upon earth in all its eternal meaning. The human idea of pity, as a feeling called forth by mans needs, is but one manifestation of love. St. John does not stop to show that Jesus Christ both pitied and also loved men, but in passing at once to the thought of love as the bond of union between God and man manifested forth in the Saviours life upon earth, he naturally ascribes to it those actions that the Saviours contemporaries had felt as acts of mercy. As an illustration of this, we may take the story of the raising of Lazarus. Here is a miracle performed for those who knew more of Christ than merely that He pitied them. The familiar cry for help, found so often in the first three Gospels ( ), is not the message sent by the sisters, but instead, it is a direct appeal to loveHe whom thou lovest is sick (Joh 11:3). The delay in giving the prompt relief which pity would ask for is explained by Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus (Joh 11:5). At the sight of the sorrow of those about Him we are told Jesus wept; but the Evangelist apparently hastened to add the remark of the Jews, Behold how he loved him, that the thought of His love should even here swallow up that of mere pity. And this fuller presentation of Christs feelings for men, he shows, had also been accompanied by a teaching of Christ, both as regards mans duty to his fellow and also Gods attitude towards the world, which went far beyond what bad been already recorded in the Synoptic Gospels. St. Luke had preserved the saying, Be ye therefore merciful, but St. John was the first to record how his Master had taught, A new commandment give I unto you, That ye love one another as I have loved you (Joh 13:34).
Christians had already in their hands the teaching of Christ which spoke of God as the Merciful One, but now St. John records words which tell them not of a merciful God, but of a loving Father (Joh 3:16; Joh 14:23 etc.). It is true that even this conception of God is found in the OT, but a perusal of the passages in which the love of God, or God as loving, are spoken of, will show that such are always equivalent to the pity of God, or God as pitiful,that is, in direct relationship to man as a needy creature. In the Fourth Gospel, however, the thought is altogether different: the Father loves men with the same love with which He loves the Son (Joh 17:26); that same feeling of real affection with which Christ had let them feel He regarded them, He taught them was also the feeling of His Father towards them (Joh 14:21; Joh 14:23, Joh 16:26 f.). The common bond of fellowship between Christ and the Father and between man and God through the Son was the power of the Divine love (Joh 17:26). But whatever doubt may exist as to the meaning of the omission of the thought of pity in this Gospel, its very omission leads us to see how St. John supplies what might be felt as a want, in the first three Gospels, in another particular.
How are men to think of that pitiful, gracious Saviour who in His own life was so sorely tried and afflicted? Now nowhere in the Gospelsnor indeed in any passage of the NTis Christ presented to men as an object of pity. The thought that seems to underlie the words of some well-known hymns, and even Isaiah 53, is not found in the NT. Pity is the demand for help, and as an object of our help Christ never appealed to men. On the contrary, He said to the women, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me (Luk 23:28); and to the disciple peter, Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? (Mat 26:53). To the Father alone He cries, If it be possible, let this cup pass from me (Mat 26:39). But if we are not allowed to pity the suffering Saviour, are we to view His passion with indifference? St. John clearly and abundantly answers this question. While the mystery of pain is not revealed, the message of the Saviours agony is declared to be the proof to mankind of His and His Fathers love. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends (Joh 15:13). That love manifested in dying is the same love spoken of in Joh 3:16, Joh 16:27, Joh 17:26.
It may well be doubted if any presentation of the Passion which moves our pity is in accordance with the Gospel (see, for a strong indictment against such, Ruskins Lectures on Art, ii. 56, 57); but even if we hesitate to accept this, we must confess that unless we are led through pity to understand love, the message of pity has failed. We must look through the suffering to the triumph. The crucifix with the dead Christ obscures our faith. Our thoughts rest not upon a dead, but upon a living Christ. The closed eye and the bowed head are not the true marks of Him who reigns from the Cross, who teaches us to see through every sign of weakness the fulfilment of His own words, I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself (Westcott, The Victory of the Cross, vi., which see throughout).
Literature.Trench, NT Synon.8 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] , 160 ff., 361; Westcott on Heb 10:28; Lightfoot on Php 1:8; Php 2:1; Liddell and Scott, s.vv.; also Maclear on Mar 3:5 (Cambr. Bible for Schools); Butler, Serm. v. vi.; T. G. Selby, The God of the Frail (1902) p. 1.
J. B. Bristow.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Pity
PITY.This word is entirely synonymous with compassion both in OT and NT, except, perhaps, in 1Pe 3:8, where sympathetic would better express the meaning of the original word (see RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ). Pity was regarded by OT writers as holding an essential place in the relations of God and His people (see Psa 78:38; Psa 86:15; Psa 103:13; Psa 111:4; Psa 112:4; Psa 145:8, Isa 63:8; cf. Jam 5:11). One of the ways in which this Divine feeling became active on their behalf reveals an incipient belief in the dealings of Jehovah with nations other than Israel; for He is often represented as infusing compassion for His chosen into the hearts of their enemies (cf. 1Ki 8:50, 2Ch 30:9, Psa 106:46, Ezr 9:9, Neh 1:11, Jer 42:12). An objective manifestation of the feeling of pity in the heart of God was recognized in the preservation of His people from destruction (Lam 3:22 f.), and in the numerous instances which were regarded as the interventions of mercy on their behalf (cf. Exo 15:13, Num 14:19, Deu 13:17; Deu 30:3, 2Ki 13:23, 2Ch 36:15). The direct result of this belief was that Israelites were expected to display a similar disposition towards their brethren (cf. Mic 6:8, Isa 1:17, Jer 21:12, Pro 19:17). They were not required, however, to look beyond the limits of their own race (Deu 7:16, See Deu 7:9) except in the case of individual aliens who might at any time be living within their borders (see Exo 22:21; Exo 23:9, Deu 10:18 f. etc.).
In the parable of the Unmerciful Servant, Jesus inculcates the exercise of pity in mens dealings with each other, and teaches the sacredness of its character by emphasizing its identity with Gods compassion for sinners (Mat 18:33; cf. Luk 6:36, Mat 5:7; Mat 9:18). The teaching of Jesus, moreover, broadened its conception in the human mind by insisting that henceforth it could never be confined to the members of the Jewish nation (cf. the parable of the Good Samaritan, Luk 10:25-37). At the same time His own attitude to the thronging multitudes surrounding Him was characterized by profound pity for their weaknesses (Mat 15:32 = Mar 8:2; cf. Mat 9:36; Mat 14:14). Under His guidance, too, Divine pity for the world was transmuted into that Eternal Love which resulted in the Incarnation (Joh 3:16). Side by side with this development, and in exact correspondence with it, Jesus evolves out of human pity for frailty the more fundamental, because it is the more living, quality of love, which He insists will be active even in the face of enmity (Mat 5:43 f., Luk 6:27 ff.).
J. R. Willis.
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Pity
piti (, hamal, , hus; , eleeo): Pity, probably contracted from piety, is tender feeling for others in misery or distress. It is allied to compassion (which see), but differs in respect of the object that causes the distress (or feeling). The feeling of pity is excited chiefly by the weakness, miserable or degraded condition of the object; compassion by his uncontrollable and inevitable misfortunes: We pity a man of weak understanding who exposes his weakness; we compassionate the man who is reduced to a state of beggary and want (Crabb, English Synonyms). Pity often becomes allied to contempt; a pity is something to be regretted. See PITIFUL. In the Old Testament pity is closely akin to mercy. It is most frequently the translation of hamal, to pity, to spare, e.g. in Nathan’s parable of the poor man’s one lamb, it is said that the rich man was worthy to die because he had no pity (2Sa 12:6).
In Jer 13:14 we have, I will not pity nor spare, nor have mercy, the Revised Version (British and American) compassion; compare Jer 21:7; Lam 2:2; Eze 5:11; Eze 7:4, in all of which passages pity stands in a negative connection; we have it positively attributed to God in Eze 36:21, I had pity for mine holy name, the Revised Version (British and American) regard; Joe 2:18; hus, probably meaning, primarily, to cover, protect, hence, to pity, to spare, is translated pity (Deu 7:16; Deu 13:8; Eze 16:5, etc., all negative; Jon 4:10, positive: Thou hast had pity on the gourd (the Revised Version (British and American) regard for) and should not I spare (the Revised Version (British and American) have regard for, hus) Nineveh, etc.); hanan, to incline, toward, be gracious, pity, is thrice rendered pity (Job 19:21, Have pity upon me, have pity upon me; Pro 19:17; Pro 28:8, he that hath pity upon the poor); raham, to feel warm, to love, twice (Psa 103:13, like as a father pitieth his children; Isa 13:18, no pity); once in plural rahamm (Amo 1:11); other words once so translated are hemlah, pity (Isa 63:9); hesedh, loving-kindness (Job 6:14, the Revised Version (British and American) kindness); mahmal, object of pity (Eze 24:21); nudh, to move, bemoan (Psa 69:20). In the New Testament pity occurs once only as the translation of eleeo, to be kind, tender (Mat 18:33, the Revised Version (British and American) mercy). In 2 Macc 3:21 we have (the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American)) pitied in the obsolete sense of exciting pity, Then it would have pitied (eleen) a man to see the multitude, etc.
The Revised Version (British and American) has pity for mercy (Pro 14:21); have pity on for spare (Psa 72:13); for favour (Psa 109:12; Psa 102:13, Psa 102:14), Have pity upon her dust. See MERCY; COMPASSION.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Pity
Of God
Isa 63:9; Jas 5:11
Of Jesus
– General references
Mar 6:34 Jesus, The Christ, Compassion of
Not to be shown offenders
Deu 7:16; Deu 13:8; Deu 19:13; Deu 19:21; Deu 25:11-12 Mercy
Instances of. The master of the impecunious servant
Mat 18:27
Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible
Pity
A more or less condescending feeling for other living beings in their suffering or lowly condition, condoned by those who hold to the inevitability of class differences, but condemned by those who believe in melioration or the establishment of more equitable relations and therefore substitute sympathy (q.v.). Synonymous with “having mercy” or “to spare” in the Old Testament (the Lord is “of many bowels”), Christians also are exhorted to be pitiful (e.g., 1. Pet. 3.8). Spinoza yet equates it with commiseration, but since this involves pain in addition to some good if alleviating action follows, it is to be overcome in a life dictated by reason. Except for moral theories which do not recognize feeling for other creatures as a fundamental urge pushing into action, such as utilitarianism in some of its aspects and Hinduism which adheres to the doctrine of karma (q.v.), however far apart the two are, pity may be regarded a prime ethical impulse but, due to its coldness and the possibility of calculation entering, is no longer countenanced as an essentially ethical principle in modern moral thinking. — K.F.L.