Reḥem names the womb in the selected birth, grief and vocation passages. Genesis 29:31 describes the Lord seeing Leah's unloved condition and opening her womb, while the surrounding account records her longing for affection.
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Full entry for רֶחֶם (H7358) · Open the biblical lexicon
Reḥem names the womb in the selected birth, grief and vocation passages. Genesis 29:31 describes the LORD seeing Leah's unloved condition and opening her womb, while the surrounding account records her longing for affection.
The BSB source-word alignment has 26 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include from the womb (6), womb (5), her womb (3), . . . (2), in the womb (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 20:18. Its strongest book concentrations include Job (5), Exodus (4), Jeremiah (4), Numbers (4).
Reḥem names the womb in the selected birth, grief and vocation passages. Genesis 29:31 describes the Lord seeing Leah's unloved condition and opening her womb, while the surrounding account records her longing for affection. First Samuel 1:6 describes Hannah's closed womb as the occasion for her rival's cruel provocation. These narratives require attention to suffering and relationships rather than a claim that fertility measures a person's spiritual standing.
Jeremiah 1:5 places the prophet's formation in the womb within God's particular call, and Job 31:15 appeals to shared formation when discussing the claims of servants. The physical noun does not itself mean compassion or guarantee a particular family outcome. Its contexts can affirm God's knowledge and concern while distinguishing a prophet's commission, another person's dignity and the grief of infertility. Teaching should preserve those distinctions without using one person's answered longing as a universal timetable for everyone else.
The selected uses concern Leah's relational suffering, Hannah's cruel treatment, Jeremiah's particular calling and shared human formation in Job's account of justice. The noun identifies the womb while the passages supply their distinct moral and theological claims.
When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb; but Rachel was barren.
The Lord sees that Leah is unloved, and the narrative connects her opened womb to that situation. Her later hopes reveal relational pain rather than a complete resolution of it.
Because the Lord had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival would provoke her viciously to taunt her.
Hannah's rival uses her infertility as an occasion for repeated cruelty. The narrative describes the wound and does not authorize readers to repeat that treatment or judge her spiritual worth.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
God's knowledge and setting apart concern Jeremiah's appointed prophetic vocation. The verse is not a commission granting every reader Jeremiah's particular office or message.
Did not He who made me in the womb also make them? Did not the same One form us in the womb?
Job appeals to the same Creator forming him and his servants when considering their complaints. The context grounds accountability in shared origin rather than social power.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. The womb as life's origin; metaphorically extends to divine compassion (raḥamim) rooted in maternal tenderness
The womb as life's origin; metaphorically extends to divine compassion (raḥamim) rooted in maternal tenderness
the womb BDB: womb Usage: matrix, womb.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 26 lexical occurrence verses.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Leah and Hannah are not abstract examples of a reproductive outcome. Leah is unloved, and Hannah is repeatedly taunted in the very setting where her household goes to worship. Their narratives make it irresponsible to speak about the womb as though another person's pain were merely a stage before a guaranteed reward. The Lord's action in a particular story does not establish a timetable that can be imposed on every reader who longs for a child.
Job's appeal concerning servants places shared formation beside accountability for hearing their complaints. Jeremiah's call places formation beside a particular prophetic appointment. These uses show why context must carry the teaching: the same physical noun appears within justice, vocation and sorrow, without making them identical experiences. Even Jeremiah's later anguish in chapter 20 belongs to lament rather than a directive to harm. An explanation can acknowledge the intensity of grief while protecting the dignity and safety of the person hearing it.
Job.31.15
Womb identifies a bodily place of formation in the chosen texts. A relationship to similar Hebrew forms is not permission to replace this noun with mercy; any connection involving compassion requires evidence from the actual word and passage concerned.
Acts 17:24-28 presents all peoples as dependent on the Creator's gift of life and shared origin. This can accompany Job's appeal to shared formation and dignity. It neither repeats Jeremiah's commission for all believers nor turns the Hebrew womb noun into a Greek theological definition of mercy.