to be or become soft: to lose firmness, so that a wound, a spoken word, or a person's courage gives way.
The picture underneath every use is physical. Something firm gives way: torn skin rubbed with oil until it is supple again, or oil itself, which is the standard of smoothness. Hebrew then carries that picture straight over to people, and almost always through one image, a heart that goes soft.
Whether going soft is good or bad depends entirely on what the sentence is doing.
- Before a battle it is the thing to resist, and Israel is told not to let the heart give way at the sight of an enemy army.
- After God has spoken it is the thing to praise, and Josiah is commended precisely because his heart gave way when he heard.
- Sometimes the sentence names who did the softening, as when Job complains that God is the one who drained his courage away.
Two nearby Hebrew verbs go further than this one. The word for melting away (מָסַס) pictures a heart dissolving like wax or running off like water, a more total collapse. The word for going slack (רָפָה) pictures hands letting go of their grip. This verb stays closest to texture: it describes what used to be stiff and is now easy to press. The adjective built on the same root (רַךְ) names what is tender by nature, a young calf, delicate skin, a gentle answer.