Hebrew word · H395

אַכְזְרִיּוּת

'akhzeriyut

cruel

Cruelty, ruthlessness, mercilessness. This abstract noun appears only here. Related adjectives are ʾakhzār (Deut 32:33; Job 30:21; Lam 4:3) and ʾakhzārî (Prov 5:9; 11:17; 12:10; 17:11; Jer 6:23; 50:42), used of pitiless enemies, venomous snakes, and the 'cruel messenger' sent against a rebel.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

cruelty, fierceness, cruel

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Proverbs 27:4

Range of meaning

Cruelty, ruthlessness, mercilessness. This abstract noun appears only here. Related adjectives are ʾakhzār (Deut 32:33; Job 30:21; Lam 4:3) and ʾakhzārî (Prov 5:9; 11:17; 12:10; 17:11; Jer 6:23; 50:42), used of pitiless enemies, venomous snakes, and the 'cruel messenger' sent against a rebel.

Against the English

Translations usually turn the phrase 'cruelty of rage' into a sentence, 'Wrath is cruel'. That is fair, but the Hebrew is blunter, almost an exclamation: 'Ruthless, the heat!'

Used elsewhere in the period

Prov 12:10: 'the mercies of the wicked are cruel (ʾakhzārî)'. Jer 6:23 and 50:42 use the word of invading armies that 'show no mercy'. The Greek translation renders the idea here as anelēmōn, 'merciless'.

Where it appears

Proverbs · 1

  1. Proverbs 27:4 אַכְזְרִיּ֣וּת [the] cruelty of

    Wrath is cruel and anger is like a flood, but who can withstand jealousy?

    Here: An abstract noun found only here in the Bible: ruthlessness, the quality of something that shows no pity. It opens the verse as a cry with no verb: 'the ruthlessness of rage!'

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.