H2550 — חָמַל (châmal)¶

Core Data¶

Strong's: H2550
Original: חָמַל
Transliteration: châmal
Pronunciation: khaw-mal'
Part of Speech: Verb
Root: Primitive root
Occurrences: 55 tokens / 40 unique verses in OT
Books: 15
First Occurrence: Exo 2:6 — "she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion (châmal) on him"
Hapax Legomenon: No

Lexicon Definition¶

A primitive root; to commiserate; by implication, to spare:—have compassion, (have) pity, spare.

The word denotes an emotional response (commiseration, pity) that issues in a concrete action of restraint — withholding destruction, sparing from harm, refusing to strike down what one has power to strike. Unlike abstract love-words, châmal is almost always measured against the foil of warranted destruction: it is what one does (or pointedly does NOT do) when judgment, wrath, or violence stand ready.

Verb Stem Distribution¶

All 44 morphological occurrences of lemma חמל are Qal. The lexeme has no attested derived stems. (Three tokens are the cognate noun חֶמְלָה / חֻמְלָה / מַחְמָל — "compassion / object of compassion" — parsed separately.)

Stem	Count	Typical Meaning
Qal	41 (verbal)	to spare, have pity, have compassion

Tense distribution (from hebrew_parser.py): Qal Imperfect dominates (~22x), Qal Perfect (~11x), Qal Wayyiqtol (~7x), Qal Infinitive (~1x). The heavy Imperfect usage reflects the word's common setting in oracles and conditional statements ("I will not spare," "thine eye shall not pity").

Translation Distribution (KJV)¶

Translation	Verses	%
spare / spared / spareth / spare ye / shalt thou spare	17	42%
pity / pitied / have pity / have any pity / shall have pity / will I have pity	16	40%
(have) compassion / had compassion / have ye compassion	5	13%
Auxiliary-fragment renderings ("But," "I will," "hath," "he shall," etc. — the verb absorbed into phrasing)	2	5%

Across the 55 tokens, the KJV lexical field is narrow: spare, pity, compassion. These three English stems cover the full semantic range.

Distribution by Book¶

Book	Count	Per 100 Verses
Lamentations	4	2.6
Habakkuk	1	1.8
Malachi	1	1.8
Joel	1	1.4
Zechariah	2	0.9
Ezekiel	8	0.6
1 Samuel	4	0.5
Job	4	0.4
Jeremiah	5	0.4
2 Samuel	3	0.4
Isaiah	2	0.2
2 Chronicles	2	0.2
Exodus	1	0.1
Deuteronomy	1	0.1
Proverbs	1	0.1

Pattern: The word is overwhelmingly concentrated in prophetic-judgment literature (Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Lamentations, the Twelve) and military-narrative settings (1–2 Samuel, 2 Chronicles). Highest density is in Lamentations, where YHWH is the emphatic subject of "did NOT spare." Absent from the Pentateuch apart from two instances (Exo 2:6, Deut 13:8), and absent from Psalms — a telling silence given how common compassion-vocabulary is in the Psalter, suggesting châmal is reserved for contexts where judgment is on the table.

Semantic Categories¶

1. Refraining from destruction in holy war / ban contexts¶

The archetypal usage: a commander or warrior withholding the sword against an enemy marked for destruction. Often coupled with חרם (châram, devote to destruction) or הרג (hârag, slay). - 1 Sam 15:3 — "smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not" - 1 Sam 15:9 — "But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep" - 1 Sam 15:15 — "the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen" - Jer 50:14 — "shoot at her, spare no arrow" - Jer 51:3 — "spare ye not her young men; destroy ye utterly all her host"

2. YHWH withholding or executing judgment on His people¶

God as subject, often in formulaic oracle language: "mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity." The negated form dominates; positive occurrences function as striking exceptions. - Ezek 7:4 — "mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity" - Ezek 7:9; 8:18; 9:5, 10; 5:11 — the same formulaic pair, clustered in Ezekiel's judgment oracles - Jer 13:14 — "I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy" - Jer 21:7 — "he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have mercy" - Lam 2:2 — "The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied" - Lam 2:17; 2:21; 3:43 — recurring refrain of unpitying judgment in the fall of Jerusalem

3. YHWH sparing / having compassion (positive usage)¶

The remnant-reversal: God's pity extended despite deserved judgment. Usually linked to His name, His people, or His covenantal self-interest. - 2 Chr 36:15 — "the LORD God of their fathers... sent to them... because he had compassion on his people" - Ezek 36:21 — "But I had pity for mine holy name" - Joel 2:18 — "Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people" - Mal 3:17 — "I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him"

4. Sparing in interpersonal / narrative contexts¶

Human agents showing pity, often weighed against self-interest or duty. - Exo 2:6 — Pharaoh's daughter has compassion on the infant Moses - 2 Sam 12:4 — the rich man "spared to take of his own flock" (Nathan's parable) - 2 Sam 21:7 — "the king spared Mephibosheth" - 1 Sam 23:21 — Saul to the Ziphites: "ye have compassion on me"

5. Prohibited pity — compassion that must be refused¶

Legal and wisdom contexts where pity is explicitly forbidden as a betrayal of justice or covenant loyalty. - Deut 13:8 — "neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare" (the enticer to idolatry) - Prov 6:34 — "therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance" (the wronged husband) - Job 6:10; 16:13; 20:13; 27:22 — Job's adversary (or God-as-adversary in Job's complaint) who "doth not spare"

6. Cognate noun — "compassion" / "object of compassion"¶

Three morphologically related tokens that the parser flags as nouns (chemlâh / chumlâh / machmal), not verbs: - Gen 19:16 — "the LORD being merciful (חֶמְלַת, chemlath) unto him" - Isa 63:9 — "in his love and in his pity (חֶמְלָתוֹ) he redeemed them" - Ezek 24:21 — "the desire (מַחְמַל) of your eyes" (what one spares / holds dear)

Common Collocations¶

Word	Strong's	Co-occurrences	Typical Pattern
עַל (ʻal, "upon/on")	H5921	24x (60%)	governs the object of compassion: "had compassion on him"
יְהֹוָה (YHWH)	H3068	15x (38%)	divine subject or speaker in judgment oracles
חוּס (chûs, spare/pity)	H2347	10x (25%)	near-synonym doublet: "thine eye shall not spare (חוס), neither will I have pity (חמל)"
עַיִן (ʻayin, eye)	H5869	8x (20%)	idiom "the eye shall (not) spare/pity" — eye as seat of merciful response
עַם (ʻam, people)	H5971	6x (15%)	object of divine compassion or its withholding
אֶרֶץ (ʼerets, land)	H776	6x (15%)	land as object of judgment-restraint
הָרַג (hârag, slay)	H2026	5x (12%)	foil: slaying without sparing
נָתַן (nâthan, give/deliver)	H5414	5x (12%)	"deliver up and not spare" — handing over for destruction
חָרַם (châram, utterly destroy)	H2763	4x (10%)	the ḥerem ban context: devote to destruction vs. spare
נָכָה (nâkâh, smite)	H5221	4x (10%)	"smite and not spare"
מֶלֶךְ (melek, king)	H4428	4x (10%)	royal agent of sparing or executing
שָׁאוּל (Shâʼûl, Saul)	H7586	4x (10%)	concentrated in 1 Sam 15 Amalek narrative

The most diagnostic collocation is the châmal + chûs pair (often with ʻayin), forming the Hebrew stereotyped triplet of merciless judgment: "mine eye shall not spare (chûs), neither will I have pity (châmal)." This doublet appears ~8x in Ezekiel alone.

Word Family / Cognates¶

חֶמְלָה (chemlâh) — noun: "compassion, mercy, pity" (Gen 19:16, Isa 63:9)
חֻמְלָה (chumlâh) — noun: "compassion" (Ezek 16:5)
מַחְמָל (machmâl) — noun: "object of affection/sparing" (Ezek 24:21)

Synonyms¶

H2347 חוּס (chûs) — pity, regard, spare; the closest overlap, and already a stereotyped partner with châmal in merciless-judgment formulas.
H3680 כָּסָה (kâsâh) — cover, conceal; surfaced by search_relationships.py as a protective/shielding neighbor rather than as a direct translation equivalent.
H7065 קָנָא (qânâ') — be jealous, be zealous; returned as a relational-protective neighbor, not a full semantic replacement for châmal.
H7355 רָחַם (râcham) — have compassion, show mercy; overlaps with châmal on the pity/mercy side, though râcham is more visceral and covenantal.

Antonyms¶

No antonyms returned by search_relationships.py for H2550.

Easily Confused Words¶

Word	Strong's	Shared Translation	Key Difference
חוּס (chûs)	H2347	"spare," "pity" (11v as "spare")	Overlapping near-synonym; also means "to cover/look upon with pity." Chûs is the more frequent partner in the stereotyped "eye spare/pity" idiom; in isolation it leans toward the visual/emotional ("cast a pitying look"). Châmal leans toward the enacted restraint. They pair (not replace) each other.
חָשַׂךְ (châsak)	H2820	"spare" (3v)	Means "withhold, hold back, keep back." Broader than châmal; used of withholding a son (Gen 22:12), withholding words, withholding the rod. Overlaps with châmal only in the sense of withholding punishment.
נָשָׂא (nâsâʼ)	H5375	"spare" (2v)	Means "lift, bear, forgive." When rendered "spare," it is via the "lift up / bear away" sense (e.g., Gen 18:26 "spare the place"). Broader semantic field than châmal.
רָחַם (râcham)	H7355	"pity," "mercy"	Related to רֶחֶם (womb); visceral, maternal-parental compassion. Covenant-loyalty compassion rather than judgment-restraint. Châmal = withhold the blow; râcham = feel womb-deep tenderness. They often appear together in Jer 13:14 / 21:7 triplets.
חֶסֶד (chéseḏ)	H2617	"pity" (1v)	Covenant loyalty / steadfast love. Overlaps only marginally with châmal.
סָלַח (sâlach)	H5545	"spare" / "forgive" (1v)	Forgiveness / pardon of sin; does not carry the "withhold destruction" emphasis.

UBS Semantic Domains¶

Code	Domain Label	Notes
002001002018	Love	`search_relationships.py` places châmal in a compassionate-affection field, fitting its positive "have compassion" usages.
002001002019	Merciful	Closest relationship-domain match for the word's core "spare / pity / have compassion" range.
002001002031	Unwilling	Captures the restraint side of the verb: withholding the blow or refusing to carry destruction through.
002001003013	Lax	Reflects passages where sparing is negatively framed as improper leniency, especially in ban-war or judgment contexts.

LXX Mapping (Hebrew → Greek)¶

Greek Equivalent	Strong's	Co-occ	PMI	Notes
φείδομαι (pheídomai)	G5339	33	7.94	Primary — "to spare, refrain, be chary of." Overwhelming LXX default.
ἐλεέω (eleéō)	G1653	8	5.75	Secondary — "have mercy/compassion." Used when châmal carries the emotional-pity nuance.
περιποιέομαι (peripoiéomai)	G4046	3	6.09	Occasional — "preserve for oneself, keep."
ἀποκτείνω (apokteínō)	G615	5	4.17	Appears alongside châmal in negated-pair contexts ("slay and not spare") rather than as a direct equivalent.
ὀφθαλμός (ophthalmós)	G3788	8	3.19	Co-translates the "eye shall not spare" idiom (eye = ophthalmos; spare = pheidomai).
θυμός (thymós)	G2372	5	3.61	Context word: wrath/fury alongside sparing-or-not.

The LXX fundamentally renders châmal as φείδομαι in judgment contexts and ἐλεέω in mercy contexts, splitting the Hebrew word's single semantic field across two Greek lexemes along the spare/pity axis.