he verb appears fifty times in the OT and is distributed throughout sections and contexts.

It appears
thirteen times in Psa and six times in Lev in the Niphal stem (Lev 1:4ff) in the special sense "to be
favorably received" as to the ritual cleanliness of offerings. The more normal Qal construction occurs
initially in Gen 33:10 to describe Jacob's wishes toward Esau. r¹ƒâ is frequently used in prayers (Deut
33:11, 24) and religious greetings (2Sam 24:23). The root frequently describes God's pleasure with his
servants, particularly referred to the Messiah (Isa 42:1). r¹ƒâ serves as the "B" word in the beautiful
parallel phrases of Psa 147:10 [H 11]. The "A" word in the first hemistich is a synonym, hapes (q.v.). r¹ƒâ
is also used in passages dealing with the favor of men (Mal 1:8) and a father's son (Prov 3:12). It is used
in contexts requiring the favor of a king (1Sam 29:4) or the favor of a people for their king (2Chr 10:7 ). it
is used of the satisfaction of a debt both in the sense of atonement for sin (Mic 6:7) and fulfilment of ritual
requirements (2Chr 36:21). in an obscure and difficult passage (Job 14:6) the root r¹ƒâ seems at first out
of place until carefully translated. Job mourns the frailty of mankind, "Look away from him, so that he can
rest, so that he may enjoy his (single) day like a hired man." RSV confuses the use of the root.

r¹ƒôn. Pleasure, delight, favor. This masculine noun occurs over fifty times in the OT. It carries three major
shades of meaning. The primary one is the "favor" or "good will" of God (Deut 33:16; Isa 60:10; Psa 5:12
[H 13]; Psa 30:6, 8 et al).The root also refers to the "pleasure" or "favor" of kings (Prov 14:35; Prov 16:13
, 15 only ) and all men (Prov 10:32; Prov 11:27 et al.).

The second shade of meaning is the "delight" or "acceptance" of an individual (Exo 28:38) and always in
a religious or ritual sense. The word r¹ƒôn describes the "permissibility" or "acceptance" of a gift or
sacrifice (Lev 1:3; Lev 22:20; Isa 56:7 et al.).

The third shade of meaning which attaches to this word is "desire, " "pleasure" in the specific sense of
"will, " as the "will" of God (Ezr 10:11; Psa 40:9 et al.). Even more texts describe the "desire" or "will" of
man (2Chr 15:15; Dan 8:4 et al.). One obscure and difficult usage is found in Gen 49:6, the final
benediction of Jacob. The versions are sharply divided on the proper reading, KJV "in their self-will they
digged down a wall"; AV "they hocked an ox"; RSV "in their wantonness they hamstring oxen"; JPS "in
their self-will they houghed oxen." The KJV seems to follow the Hebrew text most closely. The root r¹ƒâ
and the noun r¹ƒôn have a wide variety of connotations but are most important as the standard
anthropomorphic expressions of God's preceptive will.

Bibliography: TDNT, II, pp. 743-45. THAT, II, pp. 810-12. W.W.