HEBREW WORD STUDY – A FATHER’S PITY KERACHEM AV  כרחם אב   

Psalms 103:12-13: “As far as the east is from the west, [so] far hath he removed our transgressions from us. (13) Like as a father pitieth [his] children, [so] the LORD pitieth them that fear him.”

In checking about twenty-seven modern English translations the most common rendering of the word pity as expressed in the King James Version is compassion. As a father has compassion for his children.  One uses the word mercy and another just says as a father is kind to his children and the remainder uses the word pity.  The word in Hebrew is racham which has other usages. It is also lovingkindness mercy and is the word for the womb. That last one would be a little hard to plug into this passage especially since it is referencing a father.

This brings up a good point, why does the passage not say a mother which would more easily fit the idea of a womb?  If we look at the context we find that this compassion or pity is for those children who commit transgressions. The word transgression in the Hebrew is pasha’ which in its Semitic root has the idea of misusing or taking advantage of a relationship.  Some sins are against our fellow man, some just breaking the natural laws of God but a transgression is more personal with God, it is taking advantage of our relationship with God.

I believe this is the reason for the use of the word racham which is really a word for love but a special type of love.  This is the love a mother feels for a child in the womb or just born. It is a love that has not been contaminated by abuse, such as rebellion, selfishness, or anger. It is a love that has yet to break a parent’s heart. It is the purest form of love.

So why is this associated with a father? A father will love his newborn baby just as much as the mother.  That child can break a father’s heart just like a mother’s heart. However, traditionally a father plays a little different role than a mother. The father is traditionally the protector, the provider, and the disciplinarian.  So, if a child transgresses against his father, he has taken advantage of his father like the prodigal son who demanded his inheritance and then left home. The father’s heart is broken as was the heart of the father of the prodigal son.

When the prodigal son found himself broke and alone he knew his only hope was to return to his father.  He fully expected to be punished and immediately offered to become just a servant. He knew he had broken his father’s heart and did not deserve anything more from his father but hoped that his father might just have some pity or compassion on him and would let him return to the farm as just a hired hand.  Yet, the father had more than pity or compassion, he had racham for his son.

Before his son was able to ask forgiveness, his father had already forgiven him. His father showed him ‘ahav love in the Hebrew or chav love in the Aramaic.  He forgave his son, he welcomed him home but there is no record of any punishment. In fact he restored him to his original position as a son. I am sure all the neighbors looking on sided with the older brother.  Like what is going on, the kid runs off with his inheritance, blows it on wine, women, song and then comes crawling back home when the money is gone, I mean a kid like that needs to be taken to the woodshed and grounded for the rest of his life. You don’t just take a boys will be boys attitude. It is not fair to the older brother who was faithful and took over his brother’s duties while is kid brother was off sowing his wild oats.  The older brother was right from a natural standpoint.  Where were his celebration and party?  Compassion is one thing but there must be consequences.  That kid has to earn his father’s trust back.

What was Jesus’s thinking when he told the story of the prodigal son?  Love is one thing, but there is also something known as tough love and this kid needed it. He gets away with it one time what is to keep him from pulling a similar stunt in the future.

Here is where I see a difference in racham love and ‘ahav love.  If a father has ‘ahav love he would have allowed the kid to be a servant for a while, to work off the inheritance that he blew. He would have shown his son some tough love.  But instead, he chose to show racham rather than ‘ahav.  What is the difference?  Racham is mercy, compassion, pity and lovingkindness but it is also a love that takes you back to the womb, back to a time when you did not break your parent’s heart.  A time when you were loved and did nothing to deserve that love.  A time when you could do nothing to benefit your parents. You just took from them giving nothing in return. They had to stay awake at night when you could not sleep.  You cause them to dip into their hard-earned money to feed you, clothe you, take you to the doctor and take care of you.  My gosh, they even changed your diapers when you soiled them. If you had a life-threatening illness they would pray that they could change places with you, that they could take on your illness, and even die in your place. What do they get in return, nothing.  They did all those things out of pure love, pure racham.  Their only reward was the joy of having someone to love.

In the prodigal son, the older son refused to attend his brother’s welcome home celebration.  When the father asked why, the older son let him have it.  “So, the brat comes home broke after spending all his money, you take him in, put a ring on his finger to declare him your son, throw him a big party as a reward.  Well, what about me, I was the faithful one, I ran the farm while he enjoyed himself, where’s my party, where’s my fatted calf?”

The father replied: “What transgression? What sin?  What did he do wrong?  I know of no sins.  All, I know is that we thought your brother was dead and now we find he is alive. We are celebrating life, not a past that is forgiven.”

Psalms 103:12-13 is celebrating life.  Transgressions? What transgression?  We’ve committed no sins. At least in the Father’s eyes who has compassion, kindness, and pity on us, but He has something much more, oh so much more.  He takes us back into the womb, allows us to be reborn into life as if we never transgressed, never broke the Father’s heart.

Our modern translations are not wrong to translate the word racham as pity, kindness or compassion, they are not a mistranslation, it is just that there is more to it than that, there is also forgiveness and with that forgiveness comes the key element to racham which takes it a notch above ‘ahav, there is forgetfulness. A slate wiped clean, sanitized. If sin were like the coronavirus it would be bleached out unable to infect you again.  It would be wiped from memory and never a shadow hanging over your head or a skeleton hidden in the closet.