Definition

properly, to bend or stoop in kindness to an inferior; to favor, bestow; causatively to implore (i.e. move to favor by petition)

Etymology

a primitive root (compare H2583 (חָנָה));

Where the KJV renders it

• beseech
• fair
• (be
• find
• shew) favour(-able)
• be (deal
• give
• grant (gracious(-ly)
• intreat
• (be) merciful
• have (shew) mercy (on
• upon)
• have pity upon
• pray
• make supplication
• very

Every distinct English word the King James Version uses to translate this Hebrew term. The variety shows what readers in English receive across many different surface words — the same underlying word, scattered across the English Bible under different names.

What the first audience heard

A deep-dive treatment of this word is in the works. The featured chapter above carries the long form of what this word meant to its first audience.