Halakhah for Avodah Zarah 39:2
א"כ לימא קרא לא תחונם מאי לא תחנם שמע מינה תרתי
If so, Scripture should have said "nor show mercy unto them" [spelled with a vav]. What does "nor show mercy unto them" [spelled without a vav] mean? This implies two things.
Sefer HaMitzvot
He prohibited us from at all pitying idolaters and from lauding anything particular to them. And that is His saying, "do not show them mercy (techonem)" (Deuteronomy 7:2). And the tradition comes [to teach]: Do not show them favor; to the point that it is forbidden for us to say, "This one has a nice form," when an idolator has a nice form - as is explained in our Gemara (Avodah Zarah 20a). And in the Gemara Yerushalmi (Yerushalmi Avodah Zarah 1:9), it said, "You shall not show them favor, [involves] a negative commandment." (See Parashat Vaetchanan; Mishneh Torah, Foreign Worship and Customs of the Nations 10.)
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