Shaks. Merch. 9 Venice, Il. i. 134—‘ Were he out of Venice, I can make what merchandise I will.’
Merchantman is in AV simply ‘ merchant,’ Gn 37%, 1 K 10%, Mt 1395. Latimer, Sermons, p. 500, says, ‘The craftsman or merchantman teacheth his prentice to lie, and to utter his wares with lying and forswearing.’ J. HASYINGS.
MERCURY.—The tr® of Ἑρμῆς, Ac 148, for which the rendering ‘Hermes’ of RVm is preferable. The Romans in many cases transferred the attri- butes and functions of the Greek deities to their own. Thus Mercury (from merx = merchandise), the god of commerce and profit, was identified with the Greek Hermes, the patron of good luck. One of the many functions of the latter was that of messenger and spokesman of the gods. Hence the word épunveis=an interpreter (‘interpres Divom,’ Verg. dn. iv. 356). He was also regarded as the
MERCY, MERCIFUL
inventor of speech and the god of eloquence. When Paul and Barnabas had healed the cripple st Lystra, the inhabitants in their gratitude wished to sacrifice to them as gods, and they called the former Hermes because he took the lead in speak- ing. C. H. PRICHARD.
MERCY, MERCIFUL.—These words have some- what changed in meaning since 1611. As the next article will show, they do not in AV express pardon, they denote compassion. Thus He 27 ‘Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things per- taining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people’ (éAejuwrv=pitiful, Vulg. misericors) ; Mt 57 ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy’ (ol ἐλεήμονες. . . ἐλεηθήσονται, Vulg. misericordes . . . misericordiam consequentur) ; Lk 10% ‘ which now of these three, thinkest thon, was neighbour unto him that felle among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him’ (‘O ποιήσας τὸ ἔλεος μετ᾽ αὐτοῦ) ; Sir 29! ‘He that is merciful will lend unto his neighbour’ (ὁ ποιῶν ἔλεος). Cf. Shaks. Othello, v. ii. 86—
‘Not dead? not yet quite dead?
I that am cruel am yet merciful ; I would not have thee linger in thy pain.’
Merch. of Venice, Iv. i. 6—
* Uncapable of pity, void and empty, From any dram of mercy.’
Pity is the oldest meaning of the word, which, it is now nerally allowed, comes from Lat. mercedem, ‘ ,’ ‘reward.’ Low Latin meant ‘ pity’; in French it expressed the ‘thanks’ of one who receives reward or consideration ; taken into English, it seems to have been associated with ‘amerce’ and to have denoted the pay or penalty due for tranagression, as ‘ to be in grievous mercie of the king’ (Statute of Henry vi.), t.e. ‘to be in hazard of a great penaltie,’ as Minshew explains. Then to ‘cry mercy’ is to beg off a penalty, e grace that pardons successively developed. us ‘ pity,’ found in the word as it came from Low Latin, was obscured through the τεσσ with ‘amerce,’ and restored by the natural use of Θ WO!
In Ps 117? 11978 499 is translated ‘ merciful kind- ness.’ The translation comes from Coverdale. RV gives ‘mercy’ in the first passage, ‘ loving- kindness’ in the second; Amer. RV prefers ‘lovingkindness’ in both.
‘Tender mercies’ is a frequent tr., esp. in the Psalter, of Ὀ' ΠῚ ‘ bowels’ (as the seat of compas- sion), ‘pity.’ This tr. is from the Gen. Bible, and is retained in RV. In Ph 182! RV turns ‘ bowels’ of AV into ‘tender mercies’ (Gr. σπλάγχνα, which is the LXX tr. of opq2 in Pr 12"). See BoweE.s.
The form mercifulness occurs in Sir 4017 ‘ Merci- fulness endureth for ever’ (ἐλεημοσύνη, RV ‘alms-
iving’). Cf. Matt. Bible, Notes to Dt 22 ‘This aw wyll no more but that in dealyng mercifullye with tes we shoulde lerne mercifulnesse unto oure neighboures.’ J. HASTINGS.
and, that being granted, the sense of pasion and of τ
MERCY.—I. Op TESTAMENT.—‘ Mercy’ is used in AV to translate the following :—1. 7107 hesedh, LXX usually ἔλεος (see below on NT), Vulg. usually misericordia ; the translation ‘mercy’ is sometimes retained by RV, sometimes replaced by ‘loving- kindness’; also AV ‘ merciful-kindness’ (Ps 117%), and often ‘loving-kindness.’ The Hithpael of the cognate verb is rendered by LXX ὁσιωθήσῃ, Vulg. sanctus eris, EV ‘show thyself merciful’; the adj. von hdsidh, by LXX usually ὅσιος, Vulg. sanctus, EV ‘saint,’ ‘holy (one),’ ‘godly,’ and RV of Ps 145” ‘gracious.’ There are no English words to which /hesedh and hdsidh are exactly equiva- lent. Oxf. Heb. Lex. renders hesedh ie * ood- ness,’ ‘ kindness’ ; and /dgsidh, ‘as denoting active practi:e of 1 i ‘kind,’ ‘ pious.” G. A. Smith rendeis 199 by ‘leal love,’ and explains that it
MERCY
‘means always not merely an affection, “ loving- kindness” . . . but a relation loyally observed ' (Book of the Twelve Prophets, i. 243 n.). That hesedh includes these two use of kindly affection and of loyalty is shown by the fact that it is coupled with and used as a parallel to rahdmim (see below), Ps 77° 1034, on the one hand, and to émeth, ‘ fidelity,’ Ps 25 26%, and bérith, ‘covenant,’ Dt 7%, on the other. Hesedh is used of man towards man, e.g. between David and Jonathan and his house, 1 S 20! ; of Israel towards Jehovah, Hos 6°; but chiefly of Jehovah towards His people. Hasidh is almost always—only two exceptions, Jer 313, Ps 145", of God—used of men, probably as exercising hesedh (s0 Oxf. Heb. Lex.). Its gopheatian to God is in favonr of this view rather than that of ‘object of God’s hesedh.’ Hdsidh became specialized in the sense of pious towards God, hence the versions.