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God’s “favor” is especially seen in His deliverance from one’s enemies or
surrounding evils (Ps. 77:9; Amos 5:15). However, God extends His “graciousness” in
His own sovereign way and will, to whomever He chooses (Exod. 33:19).
In many ways,
combines the meaning of the Greek
(with the general
classical Greek sense of “charm” or “graciousness”) and the New Testament sense of
“undeserved favor” or “mercy.”
B. Noun.
( , 2580), “favor; grace.” The root with the meaning “to favor someone” is a
common Semitic term. In Akkadian, the verb
$
(“to have compassion”) is related to
$
(“favor”), which occurs only as a proper noun. The Hebrew noun
occurs 69
times, mainly in the Pentateuch and in the historical books through Samuel. The word’s
frequency increases in the poetic books, but it is rare in the prophetic books. The first
occurrence is in Gen. 6:8: “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”
The basic meaning of
is “favor.” Whatever is “pleasant and agreeable” can be
described by this word. When a woman is said to have
, she is a “gracious” woman
(Prov. 11:16); or the word may have the negative association of being “beautiful without
sense” (Prov. 31:30). A person’s speech may be characterized by “graciousness”: “He
that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips the king shall be his friend” (Prov.
22:11; cf. Ps. 45:2).
)
also denotes the response to whatever is “agreeable.” The verbs used with
“favor” are: “give favor” (Gen. 39:21), “obtain favor” (Exod. 3:21), and “find favor”
(Gen. 6:8,
RSV
). The idioms are equivalent to the English verbs “to like” or “to love”:
"[She] said to him, Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of
me, when I am a foreigner?” (Ruth 2:10,
RSV
).
The Septuagint translations are:
(“grace; favor; graciousness; attractiveness”)
and
(“mercy; compassion; pity”).
C. Adjective.
$
(
3
, 2587), “gracious.” One of the word’s 13 occurrences is in Exod.
34:6: “And the Lord passed by before him [Moses], and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord
God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.…”
TO BE GREAT, HEAVY
A. Verbs.
(
$
, 3515), “to be heavy, weighty, burdensome, dull, honored, glorious.”
This word is a common Semitic term, one that is found frequently in ancient Akkadian
and Ugaritic, as well as in Hebrew of all periods.
occurs more than 150 times in
the Hebrew Bible. The verb’s first occurrence is in Gen. 13:2 in the sense of “being rich”:
“And Abram was very rich.…” This usage vividly illustrates the basic implications of the
word. Whenever
is used, it reflects the idea of “weightiness,” or that which is
added to something else. Thus, to be “very rich” means that Abram was heavily
“weighted down” with wealth. This idea also explains how the word can be used to