TO HAVE COMPASSION, at the gut — built on splanchna, the inward organs (English 'splanchnic' descends from it), so the verb is not sympathy observed from a distance but something felt in the body. Matthew 9:36 is its first use in this Gospel: Jesus sees the crowds, 'harassed and thrown down like sheep without a shepherd,' and is moved AT THE INSIDES. ⚠ It recurs at moments of real need — before feeding the five thousand (14:14) and the four thousand (15:32), for two blind men (20:34), never as a mere narrative aside. → first discussed at Matt 9:36