The Two Biggies (Hesed & Emet)

In the early days of this blog, I published a post about two Hebrew words that I discovered through an Old Testament survey class in the 1980s. It became evident these words were two of the Old Testament biggies that describe God and his relationship with his people – hesed and emet. Apparently, they must be biggies for others as well. On average, my most “popular” blog posts have received about 300 views since their posting. The post, Hesed and Emet, is approaching 4000 views. So I thought it might be worth revisiting, combing that post and the subsequent Veritas into a single read.

Hesed

The Hebrew word hesed (sometimes transliterated as chesed) is translated into English using a variety of different words/terms depending on the translation. Looking at Psalm 85:10, we see the treatment of hesed in various translations:

• Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other. (NIV)
• Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other. (ESV)
• Lovingkindness and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. (NASB)
• Mercy and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed. (NKJV)

Hesed is difficult to translate because it stands for a cluster of ideas—love, mercy, grace, kindness. It wraps up in itself all the positive attributes of God.  Hesed is one of Yahweh’s most treasured characteristics. This is a rich and robust term for which no single English word (or two words, in the case of “steadfast love”) is sufficient.  Beyond a sense of love and mercy, embedded in hesed‘s meaning is covenant loyalty and relational fidelity.

Hesed is freely given, often unexpectedly, without requiring anything in return. Though stemming from covenant (contract) loyalty, there is a sense that such loyalty surpasses the letter of the law. In Hosea, God said that he desires mercy (hesed), not sacrifice (law), which Jesus reiterated (Matthew 9:13). Jesus further reinforced this thought when addressing the Roman law that forced locals to carry soldiers’ packs for a mile; Jesus suggested going an extra mile (Matthew 5:41). 

Hesed, you can see, describes the rich and robust depth of God’s character. 

In the Old Testament, the Hebrew scriptures, ‘hesed’ is predominantly used to illustrate God’s benevolence toward His people. There is also a sense that it was to be practiced ethically in the way people treated each other, be it relatives, friends, or foreigners. Hesed is a quality that moves someone to act for the benefit of someone else without considering “what’s in it for me?”

Boaz recognized hesed (kindness) in Ruth’s character (Ruth 3:10). One also thinks of God’s desire that his people not seek vengeance, but show love toward their neighbor (Leviticus 19:18) which Jesus reinforced, as part of “Great Commandments” (Mark 12:30-31). Mark’s gospel used the Greek term agape (love), the Greek equivalent of hesed. Again, think “go the extra mile.”

Hesed is used 248 times in the Old Testament, 50% of its usage is in the Psalms, so it isn’t difficult to spot. As you read, be looking for it. Pay attention to the context in which it is used. I find myself translating the English back to Hebrew, knowing the richness and robustness of the word.

Emet

I learned a new word a couple of years ago – verity. Verity, I discovered, is derived from veritas, the Latin word for truth. We began this post by looking into the word hesed. As we saw in Psalm 85, hesed and emet are often found together, increasing the richness and robustness of the description of God’s character – “Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other” (Psalm 85:10, ESV). The word faithfulness in this passage is emet, another rich and robust Hebrew word describing God’s character, so we have “Hesed and emet meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other.”

The Theological Workbook of the Old Testament suggests that emet can be translated into English as faithfulness or verity (truth).  As with the example above, when coupled with hesed, it creates a synergism of two of God’s strongest attributes. (Keep in mind the definition of synergy – the combined effect is greater than the sum of the individual attributes.) 

So emet carries an underlying sense of certainty & dependability, reliability & trustworthiness; this is over and against our culture-war use of truth, which focuses on absolute accuracy. I suspect the Pharisees and religious leaders of Jesus’ day hijacked emet in favor of telling others how they should live rightly.

Remember that Jesus is the visible expression of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15), the God of hesed and emet. Maybe John had hesed and emet in mind when he said that Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us,  full of grace and truth (John 1:14).

Ponder all this for a while. It gives me the chills when I ponder it. You?

Addendum March 2025. Psalm 117, the shortest psalm in the Psalter, is all about hesed and emet…

¹ Praise the Lord, all you nations;
    extol him, all you peoples.
² For great is his love [hesed] toward us,
    and the faithfulness [emet] of the Lord endures forever.

Addendum July 2025. The correct term for the linking of hesed and emet is hendiadys: the expression of a single idea by two words connected with “and,” e.g., nice and warm, when one could be used to modify the other, as in nicely warm.