StrongerBible

akhzari

אַכְזָרִי

HebrewH0394“cruel, merciless, ...”

Appears 8 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Pro 5:9Pro 11:17Pro 12:10Pro 17:11Isa 13:9Jer 6:23Jer 30:14Jer 50:42
Root family
Word studyakh-zah-REEadjective

What akhzari means

cruel: unmoved by another person's suffering, and unwilling to let up

TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled

Hebrew names this quality mostly by what is missing. Jeremiah describes an oncoming army twice with the same pair of statements: the enemy "is cruel" and "will not show mercy." The word pictures less someone who enjoys inflicting pain than someone who cannot be reached by another person's pain, who has heard the pleading and will not soften.

Proverbs sets it directly opposite kindness. The kind man does himself good while the cruel man wrecks his own flesh (Proverbs 11:17), and even the compassion of the wicked counts as cruelty (Proverbs 12:10), because at their gentlest they still wound. The word is a verdict on what a person is, not a report on one bad mood.

The prophets widen it past individuals:

  • an invading army that rides in and gives no quarter (Jeremiah 6:23; 50:42)
  • a punishment that falls with nothing held back (Jeremiah 30:14)
  • the day of the LORD itself, arriving with wrath and burning anger (Isaiah 13:9)

In each case the point is the same: nothing is going to call this off partway.

A shorter word of the same family (אַכְזָר) covers much of the same ground while reaching further, to things and creatures as well as people. One verse uses the naming form of this word, "cruelty" (אַכְזְרִיּוּת), for the quality on its own.

Nuances

1aa pitiless person: someone whose dealings with others are untouched by their suffering
Pro 5:9Pro 11:17Pro 12:10Pro 17:11
1ban army or nation that gives no quarter
Jer 6:23Jer 50:42
1ca day of reckoning or a punishment that lands without pity
Isa 13:9Jer 30:14
1dcruelty itself: the pitilessness that belongs to rage
Pro 27:4
Variants

The same word in another spelling or form.

אַכְזְרִיּוּת“cruel”The noun akhzeriyyut, "cruelty," is the naming form that matches the adjective "cruel." It appears once, in the proverb that weighs rage against jealousy: "Wrath is cruelty, and anger is a flood." It carries exactly the idea the adjective carries, a settled refusal to show pity, but names the quality itself rather than the person who has it, so it is covered here rather than in an entry of its own.

What scholars say about akhzari

The lexica treat אַכְזָרִי as an adjective in -i formed on אַכְזָר, both glossed "cruel"; BDB organizes the eight occurrences by referent (individuals throughout Proverbs, nations at Jeremiah 6:23 and 50:42, the day of YHWH at Isaiah 13:9, chastisement at Jeremiah 30:14), and HALOT and DCH agree on the sense without proposing a second homonym. The abstract noun אַכְזְרִיּוּת occurs once, governing חֵמָה at Proverbs 27:4, and is glossed "cruelty, fierceness." Commentary on Proverbs stresses that the term functions as the antonym of חֶסֶד at 11:17 and of רַחֲמִים at 12:10, so the collocation, not an etymology, carries the definition. At Jeremiah 30:14 מוּסַר אַכְזָרִי is read either attributively ("cruel discipline") or as identifying the agent who administers it ("the discipline of a cruel one"), a syntactic question rather than a lexical one; standard versions go both ways.

Sources

  • HALOT, s.v. אַכְזָרִיlexicon
  • BDB, s.v. אַכְזָרִיlexicon
  • DCH, s.v. אַכְזָרִיlexicon
  • Bruce K. Waltke, The Book of Proverbs: Chapters 1-15 (NICOT)commentary
  • William L. Holladay, Jeremiah 1 (Hermeneia)commentary

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of אַכְזָרִי

m s absolute

אַכְזָרִי

Pro 5:9, Pro 11:17, Pro 12:10, Pro 17:11, Isa 13:9, Jer 6:23, Jer 30:14, Jer 50:42