חוּס

Genesis 45:20 תָּחֹ֖ס it look with regret

But pay no regard to your belongings, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.’”

Deuteronomy 7:16 תָחֹ֥ס it will look with pity

You must destroy all the peoples the LORD your God will deliver to you. Do not look on them with pity. Do not worship their gods, for that will be a snare to you.

Here: '(Your eye) shall not spare.' The verb means the feeling of compassion that makes you hold back a blow. It is feminine because its subject, 'eye', is feminine in Hebrew.

Deuteronomy 13:8 תָח֤וֹס it will look with pity

you must not yield to him or listen to him. Show him no pity, and do not spare him or shield him.

Deuteronomy 19:13 תָח֥וֹס it will look with pity

You must show him no pity. You are to purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, that it may go well with you.

Here: 'It shall spare / look with compassion.' The grammatical subject is 'your eye' (feminine, hence the feminine verb). The verb covers both the feeling of pity and the sparing that comes from it. What is forbidden is pity that leads you to let the murderer go.

Deuteronomy 19:21 תָח֖וֹס it will look with pity

You must show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.

Here: To be moved for someone and act on it by sparing them or easing their penalty. The verb is feminine because its subject, 'eye', is feminine in Hebrew. The court must not soften the sentence out of sympathy for the convicted lying witness.

Deuteronomy 25:12 תָח֖וֹס it will look with pity

you are to cut off her hand. You must show her no pity.

1 Samuel 24:10 וַתָּ֣חָס and it looked with compassion

Behold, this day you have seen with your own eyes that the LORD delivered you into my hand in the cave. I was told to kill you, but I spared you and said, ‘I will not lift my hand against my lord, since he is the LORD’s anointed.’

Nehemiah 13:22 וְח֥וּסָה and have mercy !

Then I instructed the Levites to purify themselves and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy. Remember me for this as well, O my God, and show me mercy according to Your abundant loving devotion.

Here: 'Feel for me and spare me.' The word means pity that keeps someone from destruction or harsh treatment. Nehemiah follows his request for credit with a request for compassion.

Psalm 72:13 יָ֭חֹס he will have compassion

He will take pity on the poor and needy and save the lives of the oppressed.

Isaiah 13:18 תָח֥וּס it will look with pity

Their bows will dash young men to pieces; they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb; they will not look with pity on the children.

Jeremiah 13:14 אָח֛וּס I will have mercy

I will smash them against one another, fathers and sons alike, declares the LORD. I will allow no mercy or pity or compassion to keep Me from destroying them.’”

Here: 'I will not pity.' The verb is often paired with 'eye' (an eye that pities). It pictures looking at someone about to be struck and letting that look stop the blow.

Jeremiah 21:7 יָח֣וּס he will have mercy

‘After that,’ declares the LORD, ‘I will hand over Zedekiah king of Judah, his officers, and the people in this city who survive the plague and sword and famine, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and to their enemies who seek their lives. He will put them to the sword; he will not spare them or show pity or compassion.’

Here: To look on someone with pity and so hold back from harming them. Often used with 'eye' ('your eye shall not pity'). He will feel no pang at the sight of them.

Ezekiel 5:11 תָח֣וֹס it will look with compassion

Therefore as surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable idols and abominations, I Myself will withdraw My favor; I will not look upon you with pity, nor will I spare you.

Here: '(It) will pity'. The verb is feminine to agree with 'eye'. This is the compassion that makes someone hold back from harming. Here it is refused.

Ezekiel 7:4 תָח֥וֹס it will look with compassion

I will not look on you with pity, nor will I spare you, but I will punish you for your ways and for the abominations among you. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’

Here: 'Will (not) pity.' The verb is feminine because its subject is 'eye.' It is the feeling of compassion that makes someone hold back from destroying something; here that feeling is withheld.

Ezekiel 7:9 תָח֥וֹס it will look with compassion

I will not look on you with pity, nor will I spare you, but I will punish you for your ways and for the abominations among you. Then you will know that it is I, the LORD, who strikes the blow.

Ezekiel 8:18 תָח֥וֹס it will look with compassion

Therefore I will respond with wrath. I will not look on them with pity, nor will I spare them. Although they shout loudly in My ears, I will not listen to them.”

Here: 'Will (not) feel pity.' The verb is feminine because its subject, 'eye', is a feminine noun. In this idiom the eye is the place where pity is felt and shown, in the look that decides to spare.

Ezekiel 9:5 תָּחֹ֥ס let it look with compassion

And as I listened, He said to the others, “Follow him through the city and start killing; do not show pity or spare anyone!

Here: The grammatical subject is 'eye' (feminine singular), so the phrase means 'let your eye not pity'. Hebrew pictures compassion as something that happens in the eye: you look at the victim and are moved to hold back.

Ezekiel 9:10 תָח֥וֹס it will look with compassion

But as for Me, I will not look on them with pity, nor will I spare them. I will bring their deeds down upon their own heads.”

Here: "Will (not) pity / spare." The verb is feminine because its subject, "eye," is a feminine noun in Hebrew. It means the feeling that rises when you see someone suffer and that makes you hold back the blow.

Ezekiel 16:5 חָ֨סָה it looked with compassion

No one cared enough for you to do even one of these things out of compassion for you. Instead, you were thrown out into the open field, because you were despised on the day of your birth.

Ezekiel 20:17 וַתָּ֧חָס and it looked with compassion

Yet I looked on them with pity and did not destroy them or bring them to an end in the wilderness.

Ezekiel 24:14 אָח֖וּס I will have compassion

I, the LORD, have spoken; the time is coming, and I will act. I will not refrain or show pity, nor will I relent. I will judge you according to your ways and deeds,’ declares the Lord GOD.”

Here: 'I will not look on you with pity' and so spare you. This is the feeling that stays the hand of the one carrying out a sentence. Elsewhere Ezekiel says 'my eye will not pity' (5:11; 7:4, 9; 8:18; 9:10).

Joel 2:17 ח֧וּסָה have compassion !

Let the priests who minister before the LORD weep between the portico and the altar, saying, “Spare Your people, O LORD, and do not make Your heritage a reproach, an object of scorn among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”

Here: A command with an extra lengthening ending that makes it urgent: 'Oh, have pity!' The verb means the feeling of pity that holds back a blow, so it covers both compassion and sparing.

Jonah 4:10 חַ֙סְתָּ֙ you had compassion

But the LORD said, “You cared about the plant, which you neither tended nor made grow. It sprang up in a night and perished in a night.

Jonah 4:11 אָח֔וּס will I have compassion?

So should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well?”

Here: 'Shall I feel for / spare?' It is the same verb used of Jonah and the plant in verse 10 ('you pitied'), so the argument works from the lesser case to the greater. The verb joins a feeling of pained concern over something about to be lost with the act of sparing it from destruction.