חָסַד
to be kind
‘to be kind’ is one of 2 main senses fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Verb
- An action or state-of-being word.
Stem
- Hithpael
- The reflexive or reciprocal stem (the subject acts on itself).
- Piel
- An intensive or resultative active stem.
Form
- Imperfect
- An incomplete, ongoing, or future action (“he will / would write”).
Person
- 2nd Person
- The one addressed (“you”).
- 3rd Person
- The one spoken about (“he / she / it / they”).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
Every verse where H2616 appears in the Book of 2 Samuel — 1 distinct verse. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
2 Samuel
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
At its core, חסד (châçad) means “to be kind.” A scarce word — 3 verses in all of the Hebrew Bible. The word gravitates to 2 Samuel (33%), then Psalms and Proverbs. Scripture first uses it in 2 Samuel 22:26. Ranging over 2 senses, it is not a single-sense word. Dig into 3-verse concordance and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H2616 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 3
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 3 distinct verses.
- 3 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 3 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #4,179
- by frequency
- Top 5000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 4,179 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 3 occurrences in the concordance →
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 3 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 2 verses · 67%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 1 verse · 33%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
BDB lists this Strong’s number as 2 distinct words (homographs). Each count above pools all of them and is not split by sense — see the Senses section below. A low-frequency rendering may belong to a different one of those words, not the primary meaning.
- King James Version†: Thou wilt shew thyself merciful 2×
- American Standard Version†: Thou wilt show thyself merciful 2×
- Berean Standard Bible†: You show yourself faithful 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text†: You show yourself faithful 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H2616 across 3† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H2616 across 3† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H2616 across 3† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H2616 across 3† tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in the full BDB
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 0 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
חסד I be good, kind
חסד II be reproached, ashamed
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
I. [ חָסַד ] vb. be good, kind —only Hithp. Impf.
II. [ חָסַד ] vb. be reproached, ashamed —only Pi. Impf. Pr 25:10
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Origin: a primitive root
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
חָסַד I
- (v. next w.) to be white, pure, charitable, graceful.—Part. pass. חָסוּד, fem. חֲסוּדָה, endowed with חֶסֶד, graceful. Keth. 17ᵃ (in a bridal song) כלה נאה וח׳ handsome and graceful bride. Num. R. s. 12; Cant. R. to III, 10 (not חסידה).
חָסַד II
- ; Pi. חִסֵּד, חִשֵּׂד [to scrape off,] (cmp. גדף, גרף) to jeer, scoff at, to shame. Ruth R. to IV, 8 שחִסְּדָן ברבים (or שחֲסָדָן; ed. Wil. שחשדן) he scoffed at them publicly (speaking ironically, with ref. to II Chr. XIII, 8); Y. Yeb. XVII, beg. 15ᶜ שחִישֵּׂד וכ׳ he jeered at Jeroboam; Gen. R. s. 65; ib. s. 73 שחסדם ed. Wil. (oth. שחש׳); Lev. R. s. 33; Midr. Sam. ch. XVIII שחִיסְּדָן; Yalk. Kings 205 ומְחַשֵּׂד.—Ex. R. s. 30 (ref. to Ex. II, 14) שחִיסְּדוּ וכ׳ when Dathan and Abiram sneered at him. Ib. בזה שחִיסַּדְתֶּם אותו וכ׳ with the very word (שופט) with which you sneered at him, I shall give him the rulership (משפטים). Pesik. R. s. 42 מְחַסְּדִים את שרה (not מחסרו׳) jeered at Sarah; a. e.—V. חִיסּוּד. e.g. 2 Chronicles 13:8
חֲסַד
- 1. to be put to shame (be whitened). Targ. Ps. XXXIV, 6 Ms. (ed. עצבו). Ib. XL, 15 (ed. Lag. a. oth. Ithpa.; some ed. ר for ד).
- 2. to shame &c.; v. infra.
- to jeer, blaspheme, disgrace (in ed. frequ. Pe.). Targ. I Sam. XVII, 36. Targ. Prov. XXV, 10 נַחְסִידָךְ Lev. (ed. נֶחְסְדָךְ); a. fr. [Some ed. ר for ד.]
- to be reviled, put to shame. Targ. Ps. LXXI, 24; a. e.; v. supra. Targ. Prov. XX, 4 (v. LXX).
חֶסֶד
- grace, kindness, love, charity. Sifra K’dosh., Par. 4, ch. X (ref. to חסד, Lev. XX, 17) שמא תאמר … ח׳ הוא if you will object, why did Cain marry his sister? (Answ.) It was an act of kindness (to secure the propagation of the race); Y. Yeb. XI, 11ᵈ top ח׳ עשיתי וכ׳ I (the Lord) dealt kindly with &c.—חוט של ח׳, v. חוּט. Succ. 49ᵇ אין צדקה … לפי ח׳ שבה charity is rewarded only in proportion to the benevolence in it. Ib. תורה של ח׳ a study of love (for its own sake); a. fr.—Ruth R. Par. 3, beg., v. חִסְדָּאָה.—Gen. R. s. 8 ח׳ אומר Charity said &c.—Pl. חֲסָדִים acts of kindness. Succ. l. c.; a. fr.; v. גָּמַל a. גְּמִילוּת. e.g. Leviticus 20:17
חֶסֶד ²
- Targ. Y. Lev. XX, 17 (v. Y. Yeb. Xl, 11ᵈ top, quot. in preced). Targ. Gen. XXXIX, 21; a. fr.—Y. Ab. Zar. III, 42ᶜ top; Y. Ḥag. II, 77ᵈ bot., v. גְּמַל; a. e.—Pl. חִסְדַּיָּא, חַסְ׳; חִסְדִּין, חַסְ׳, חִיסְ׳. Targ. O. Gen. XXXII, 11. Targ. Ps. CVII, 43; a. e.
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 2 distinct written forms H2616 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that stem’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
| Form | Parsing | Example | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| תִּתְחַסָּ֑ד | Verb, Hithpael, Imperfect, 2nd Person, Masculine, Singular | 2 Samuel 22:26 | 2 |
| יְחַסֶּדְ/ךָ֥ | Verb, Piel, Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular | Proverbs 25:10 | 1 |
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H2616, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derived from this word
Compare all same-root words → They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 2 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 3 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
