teḥinnah

This word comes from the Hebrew verb meaning to be gracious or to show favor. A plea of this kind reaches for exactly that favor: it is not a demand and not a claim of right, but a request that leans entirely on the kindness of the one being asked. What the speaker wants is grace freely given, and the word keeps that undertone wherever it appears.

Most often the plea is addressed to God. It runs all through Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple, where God is asked again and again to hear the plea of his people (1 Kings 8; 2 Chronicles 6), and it fills the Psalms, where the worshiper begs to be heard. In these settings it stands next to the general word for prayer, adding to it the specific note of asking for undeserved kindness.

The word is not only religious, though. Jeremiah uses it for the plea he lays before King Zedekiah, begging not to be sent back to the dungeon (Jeremiah 37:20; 38:26), and for the request the people make that the prophet pray on their behalf (Jeremiah 42:2, 42:9). The common thread is not who is being asked but the posture of the one asking: someone with no leverage appealing to a superior for kindness.

In two places the same word names not the plea but the favor itself, the grace that is given rather than the request for it. At Joshua 11:20 the Canaanite peoples are hardened for battle so that they receive no favor and are destroyed. At Ezra 9:8 the returned exiles confess that favor has been shown to them by God, leaving them a surviving remnant.

This is the near side of the more common meaning. Because the word is built on the idea of grace, it can point either to the request for favor or to the favor itself once it is granted. The two verses here take the second path, naming the kindness received.