REA+7+Tender+Mercy+in+Scripture+and+the+Artificial+Nigger

Tender Mercy in Scripture and "The Artificial Nigger"

“ This graceful, parable-like short story, with its precise, weighted language and its comically sympathetic rural Georgians Mr. Head and his ten-year-old grandson Nelson, is virtually unique in Flannery O'Connor's oeuvre, ending not in violent death, nor even in devastating irony, but with tenderness .” - Joyce Carol Oates “He saw that no sin was too monstrous for him to claim as his own, and since God loved in proportion as He forgave, he felt ready at that instant to enter Paradise.” - Flannery O’Connor, “The Artificial Nigger”

**// Images of “Tender Mercy” in Scripture //** O remember not against us former iniquities; let ** Thy **** tender mercies ** speedily //meet// {prevent} us; for we are brought very low. - Psalm 79:8 Through **the tender mercy** of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us. -Luke 1:78 Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of **tender mercy**. – James 5:11 Withhold not thou **thy tender mercies** from me, O LORD: let thy loving kindness and thy truth continually preserve me. – Psalm 40: 11 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness: according unto the multitude of **thy tender mercies** blot out my transgressions. – Psalm 51:1 Remember, O LORD, **thy tender mercies** and thy loving kindnesses; for they have been ever of old. – Psalm 25:6 O remember not against us former iniquities: let **thy tender mercies** speedily prevent us: for we are brought very low. – Psalm 79:8 taken away my peace from this people, my steadfast love and **mercy**, declares the **...** my

peace from this people, saith Jehovah, even lovingkindness and **tender** mercies **...** – Jeremiah 16: 5 Great is your **mercy**, O LORD; give me life according to your rules. **...** Great are **thy**

**tender** **mercies**, O LORD: quicken me according to thy judgments… Psalm 119: 156 Surround me with your **tender** mercies so I may live, for your instructions are my

delight. **...** Let your **mercy** come to me, that I may live; for your law is my delight. Psalm 119: 77 The LORD is good to all, and his **mercy** is over all that he has made. **...** The LORD

is good to all: and his **tender** mercies are over all his works. Psalm 145: 9 A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the **tender mercies** of the wicked are cruel. – Proverbs 12:10 .. good things for the nation of Israel because of his compassion and his unlimited

**mercy**. **...** I will remember the **tender** **mercies** of the Lord, the praise of the Lord.. –Isaiah 63:7 "soft, easily injured," early 13c., from O.Fr. tendre "soft, delicate, tender" (11c.), from L. tenerem (nom. tener) "soft, delicate, of tender age," from PIE *ten- "stretch" (see [|tenet] ). Meaning "kind, affectionate, loving" first recorded c.1300. Meaning "having the delicacy of youth, immature" is attested from early 14c. Tender-hearted first recorded 1530s. The verb tenderize is attested from 1733; specifically of food, recorded by 1935, originally Amer.Eng.; tenderizer is recorded from 1958.
 * tender **