to show mercy: to be moved by someone's misery and act to relieve it
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
This verb is about doing, not merely feeling. It names mercy that reaches out and helps a person who is suffering or in the wrong, not a warm pang that stays inside. The one who needs it is always the helpless party, and the one who shows it has the power to make a real difference. To ask for it is to admit you cannot fix your own trouble; to give it is to stoop toward someone who cannot pay you back.
The word carries a rich background. In the Greek Old Testament it became the standard translation for two Hebrew ideas at once: gut-deep, parental tenderness (רחם), and the favor a stronger person freely shows a weaker one (חנן). So by the time it reaches the New Testament it can sound, in a single breath, like a beggar's plea, a psalm of lament, and a claim on a covenant-keeping God.
It appears in three recognizable settings that all share this one core.
Desperate people shout it to Jesus when they want healing or rescue, crying out to the Son of David to act on their behalf.
God is its greatest subject: he shows mercy to whom he chooses, and in Paul's letters this becomes the engine of salvation itself, the free and decisive act by which both Jews and Gentiles are brought in.
People are commanded to show it to one another, so that mercy received and mercy given form a single unbroken circle.
names the receiving side, being shown mercy by God, often as a settled new standing one now lives in1Pe 2:10
Both
both point to mercy actually landing on a person in need1Ti 1:13
Only obtain mercy
obtain in English suggests something earned or acquired, but here the mercy is entirely given, never won
How eleeō differs from similar Greek words
σπλαγχνίζομαιto be moved in the gut with visceral compassion; this is the inward stirring that prompts the act, where showing mercy is the deed it produces
This is the word people cry out when they beg Jesus for help: "have mercy on me." It names the rescue itself, the help asked for and given, not the feeling behind it.Mat 9:27Mat 20:30Luk 18:38
It is the standard word for God's saving mercy in the letters, the mercy by which God chooses and rescues whole peoples. The feeling word is never used this way.Rom 9:15Rom 11:321Pe 2:10
It can be commanded as something people do to one another, a kindness shown and a duty owed, rather than only a stirring that wells up inside.Jud 1:22Mat 18:33Rom 12:8
Both
Both belong to the healing scenes where someone helpless meets Jesus: the sufferer cries out for mercy and Jesus is moved with compassion and heals. The two words describe the two sides of the same encounter.Mrk 10:47Mrk 1:41Mat 20:34
Both describe one and the same act of mercy in the parable of the unforgiving servant: the king is moved with compassion and so he has mercy on his servant and cancels the debt. The compassion felt and the mercy shown are the single response of God-like generosity.Mat 18:33Mat 18:27
This word names the gut-level compassion that rises at the sight of people in need, the inner stirring that comes first and then moves a person to act. It points to what is felt, not yet to what is done.Mat 9:36Mrk 6:34
Jesus speaks it of his own heart, declaring "I feel compassion for the crowd" before he provides for them. It is the only word here that describes the welling up of mercy from within the one who shows it.Mat 15:32Mrk 8:2
In the parables it falls on the figure who stands for God, and it is the hinge that turns feeling into costly action: the Samaritan stops and pays, the father runs to embrace.Luk 10:33Luk 15:20
οἰκτίρωto feel deep pity or heartfelt sympathy, stressing the inward emotion itself more than the help that follows
The everyday word for mercy across the New Testament: the cry of desperate people to someone who can relieve their misery, and the help that answers it.Mat 9:27Mat 15:22Mrk 10:47Luk 17:13
Ranges beyond a felt emotion to name mercy actually shown and received, whether God rescuing a person or people being told to be merciful to one another.Mat 5:7Mat 18:33Rom 12:81Ti 1:13
Both
Both describe God freely choosing on whom to bestow his mercy, set side by side in one breath to press home that the choice is entirely his.Rom 9:15
Leans on the inward stirring of pity itself, the tender feeling of compassion welling up, rather than on the concrete help that mercy provides.Rom 9:15
χάριςgrace, a gift freely given to the undeserving; mercy overlaps with it but frames the recipient as miserable and in need rather than simply unworthy
Mercy answers to misery: it is the compassionate relief given to someone in distress, the response to a desperate cry for help.Mat 9:27Mrk 10:47Luk 17:13
It names an act of pity that God performs toward whomever he chooses, not a standing quality he holds out.Rom 9:15Rom 9:18
Both
Both name God's undeserved kindness toward people who have no claim on him, the ground on which sinners are received.Rom 11:321Ti 1:13Rom 3:24Rom 5:20
Names active kindness given to someone already in distress: the sufferer calls out for help and expects to receive it, not merely to be left alone.Mat 9:27Mat 15:22Mrk 10:47Luk 17:13
Describes God's free decision to treat the undeserving kindly, which Paul makes the ground of salvation itself.Rom 9:15Rom 9:18Rom 11:30
Can name the settled standing of people who have received that kindness, so a whole community is described by what was done for it.1Pe 2:101Ti 1:132Co 4:1
Names a practice believers are told to keep up themselves, listed among the contributions a person makes to the community.Rom 12:8Mat 5:7Jud 1:22
Both
Both can describe someone in the stronger position choosing not to press an advantage against a person who is at their mercy.Mat 18:332Co 13:2
Both are used of God dealing with people who have earned otherwise, so in each case the outcome turns on God's decision rather than on what the person deserves.Rom 11:322Pe 2:5
Points at harm held back rather than help given, which is why it so often appears in the negative, stating what someone did not hold back from doing.Rom 8:32Rom 11:212Pe 2:4Act 20:29
Can mean keeping someone clear of trouble that has not arrived yet, so the concern is protection from what is coming rather than relief of what is already being suffered.1Co 7:282Co 1:23
Stretches to a person restraining their own speech, with no weaker party in view at all: Paul holds back from saying more about himself.2Co 12:6
eleeō in the other biblical languages
רָחַםHebrew“to have compassion”the Hebrew verb for gut-deep compassion, like a parent's tenderness toward a child, which the Greek translators often rendered with this word
Names the act of showing mercy in answer to a cry from someone in distress, the standard response to a plea for help.Mat 20:30Mrk 10:47Luk 18:38
Carries the sense of mercy as God's free, sovereign choice, given to whom he wills and not earned.Rom 9:15Rom 9:18
Marks the personal turning point of being pardoned and brought into mercy after a life lived against God.1Ti 1:131Pe 2:10
Both
Both name mercy shown to the weak and helpless by one who has the power to relieve them, and the Greek word is the usual translation of the Hebrew when the older Scriptures are quoted.Isa 49:13Mat 9:27
Both describe God taking pity on a sufferer who calls out, answering the cry rather than turning away.Psa 116:5Luk 17:13
Feels like the tenderness of a parent for a child, a warmth that wells up from within rather than a decision to act.Psa 103:13Isa 49:15
Names God relenting toward his own people, gathering and restoring them after judgment.Deu 30:3Isa 14:1Jer 30:18
Stands as the very thing withheld in unsparing judgment, so its absence signals a people shown no pity.Hos 1:6Isa 13:18
חָנַןHebrew“be gracious”the Hebrew verb for showing favor or being gracious to someone, the freely given kindness of a stronger party that this word also translates
leans toward pity that answers real misery: the mercy is drawn out by someone in a wretched or suffering state, often a loud cry for help from the desperate.Mat 9:27Mrk 10:47Luk 17:13
in Paul it becomes the settled word for God's saving mercy toward people who could never earn it, the sheer decision of God to spare and receive.Rom 9:15Rom 9:181Ti 1:13
Both
both name an act of undeserved kindness from someone with power toward someone in need, and Greek translators of the Old Testament regularly used the mercy word to render the Hebrew favor word, so the New Testament cry for mercy grows straight out of the Old Testament plea to be gracious.Psa 6:2Mat 15:22
carries the idea of favor freely granted, a superior stooping to give what was asked or turn a kind face toward someone, whether or not that person is in visible misery.Gen 33:5Gen 33:11Num 6:25
is the standard plea of the Psalms, asking God to be gracious and answer prayer, so it colors an ongoing appeal to God's kindness rather than a single cry for pity.Psa 4:1Psa 51:1Psa 86:3
Answers a cry for help from someone in visible trouble who has no relationship with the helper and no claim on him. Blind men by the road, a foreign mother with a tormented daughter, and ten men with a skin disease all shout the same appeal to a passing stranger.Mat 20:30Mat 15:22Luk 17:13Mrk 10:47
Describes kindness given where there was no bond at all beforehand, and which then creates one. Paul writes of people who once were shown no mercy and now have been shown mercy, and of himself as someone who received mercy while actively opposing God.1Pe 2:10Rom 11:30Rom 11:311Ti 1:13
Is God's free decision, resting on his own will rather than on anything in the person: he says he will have mercy on whomever he has mercy, and it depends not on the one who wills or runs.Rom 9:15Rom 9:16Rom 9:18
Is something ordinary people are told to do for each other, even listed as a regular job in the church. A forgiven servant is faulted for not doing it, and believers are told to do it for those who doubt.Mat 18:33Rom 12:8Jud 1:22
Both
Both are used with God as the one acting, and both state a settled way he deals with people rather than a passing feeling: how he treats the person loyal to him, and his declaration that he will show mercy.2Sa 22:26Rom 9:15
Both appear in sayings where the way a person treats others comes back on them: God shows himself faithful to the faithful person, and those who show mercy are promised mercy in return.Psa 18:25Mat 5:7
English Bibles reach for the same small set of words for both, so the difference disappears in translation. "You show yourself merciful" in the Old Testament verse and "have mercy on me" in the Gospel scene read alike, though the first is about kept faithfulness and the second about pity for someone in trouble.2Sa 22:26Mrk 10:47
Describes faithfulness kept toward someone already committed to you. The person God treats this way is named in the same line as one who is loyal to him, so the kindness answers a standing bond rather than a stranger's plight.2Sa 22:26Psa 18:25
Carries a second, unrelated sense under the same spelling: to bring disgrace on someone. Proverbs warns that a person who repeats a confidence will be shamed by whoever hears it, and no Greek word for mercy does anything like this.Pro 25:10
What scholars say about eleeō
Standard lexica (BDAG, Louw-Nida 88.76, EDNT, LSJ) treat ἐλεέω as monosemous: to be greatly concerned about someone in need and act to relieve it, with the passive to be shown or find mercy. The active/passive alternation is grammatical, not a difference in meaning, so the entry carries one meaning and one sense. Recent scholarship stresses that the New Testament sense is action-shaped rather than affective: Louw-Nida warns translators against rendering the Synoptic cries (Mark 10:47) with words for mere emotional pity, and Luke 10:37 (ὁ ποιήσας τὸ ἔλεος, the Samaritan who did the mercy) is read as decisive. The action-shape derives from the Septuagint, where the verb standardly renders רחם (womb-compassion) and חנן (gracious favor), while the cognate noun ἔλεος overwhelmingly renders חסד (covenant loyalty); a single Greek word-family thus carries three Hebrew streams. Hagner notes the Matthean distinction between the requested outward deed (ἔλεος) and Jesus' inward visceral motive (σπλαγχνίζομαι, TDNT 7:548-59, Köster). In Romans 9 to 11 the verb bears the weight of Paul's argument about God's free and decisive saving mercy toward Jews and Gentiles alike. Barclay (Paul and the Gift) reframes ἔλεος and χάρις as mutually interpretative vocabularies of divine gift, with Paul perfecting the incongruity of the gift given to the unworthy.
Where scholars disagree about eleeō
Whether the Septuagint carried the Hebrew covenant-loyalty and compassion freight of the mercy words into this Greek family intact, so that New Testament mercy language is heard as covenant faithfulness, or whether it recast that freight as a more classical Greek pity extended by a superior to a sufferer.
majorityThe Greek mercy vocabulary transmitted the Hebrew theology: for Bultmann the systematic ἔλεος-for-חסד equivalence reshaped the Greek word toward covenant kindness, and on the interlinear paradigm (Pietersma, Boyd-Taylor) its meaning is determined by the Hebrew donor, so a Greek-speaking Jew heard loyal-love. Nelson concludes the New Testament analogue of חסד is ἔλεος.; R. Bultmann, "ἔλεος, ἐλεέω," TDNT 2:477-487; A. Pietersma and C. Boyd-Taylor, interlinear paradigm (NETS; Boyd-Taylor, Reading Between the Lines, Peeters, 2011); K. Nelson, Ḥesed and the New Testament (Eisenbrauns, 2023)
minorityThe Greek word kept its classical sense of pity from a superior toward a sufferer, so pairing it systematically with covenant-loyalty introduced a genuine semantic shift; the God of great mercy in the Septuagint is not quite the God abounding in loyalty of the Hebrew Bible, and Pentateuch translators often avoided the equivalence, rendering covenant-loyalty as righteousness instead.; J. Joosten, "Ḥesed 'Benevolence' and Éleos 'Pity'" (Mohr Siebeck, 2012)
In-depth research
This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.
Sources
BDAG, s.v. ἐλεέωlexicon
J. P. Louw and E. A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the NT Based on Semantic Domains, 88.76lexicon
H. Hübner, "ἐλεέω," EDNT 1:429-431dictionary
R. Bultmann, "ἔλεος, ἐλεέω," TDNT 2:477-487dictionary
J. Joosten, "Ḥesed 'Benevolence' and Éleos 'Pity': Reflections on Their Lexical Equivalence in the Septuagint" (Mohr Siebeck, 2012)article
H. Köster, "σπλάγχνον κτλ.," TDNT 7:548-559dictionary
J. M. G. Barclay, Paul and the Gift (Eerdmans, 2015)monograph
D. Konstan, Pity Transformed (Duckworth, 2001)monograph