Be ye therefore merciful,.... Tenderhearted, kind, beneficent to all men, friends and foes:
as your Father also is merciful; that is your Father which is in heaven; who is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works: nothing is more common in Zohar y, and the Talmud z than to express the Divine Being by no other name, than "the Merciful"; אמר
רחמנא, "the Merciful said" so, and so; that is, God: and so the Arabians generally begin their books and Chapter s with these words, "in the name of God, exceeding merciful", or "the merciful commiserator": a saying much like to this in the text, is the Targum of Jonathan, on
"O my people, the children of "Israel, as your father",
רחמן, "is merciful" in heaven, so be ye merciful on earth.''
y Zohar in Lev. fol. 2. 2. & 9. 4. & 20. 1. & 22. 1. z T. Bab. Moed Katon, fol. 15. 2.