Hesed and Emet
Full of Favor and Faithfulness

Psalm 108:4 For your steadfast love [hesed] is great above the heavens; your faithfulness [emet] reaches to the clouds.

David mentions two of God’s attributes, steadfast love, and faithfulness, and he says that these attributes are incredibly large, larger than he could ever measure. The Hebrew for these two words are ‘hesed’ (or checed), and ‘emet’ (or emeth). These two words appear very often together in the Old Testament. In fact, they are listed together in one of the most important passages of the entire Bible, where God reveals Himself to Moses. Remember when Moses was with God on the mountain and asked if he could see God’s glory? God told him that no human could see His face and live, so God would pass before Moses, but would cover his eyes.

Exodus 34:6. The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love [hesed] and faithfulness [emet].

God tells Moses that He abounds (as in overflowing lavishly, unmeasurable) in steadfast love and faithfulness. He abounds in hesed and emet.

These two character traits are so important that they are mentioned together 33 times in the Old Testament. They are mentioned together in the books of Genesis, Exodus, Joshua, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, Psalms, Proverbs, Isaiah, Hosea, Micah, and Zecharia. God’s character of abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness is literally all over the Old Testament. So it is important that we get a good understanding of what these two words mean.

Let’s start with hesed, which the ESV consistently translates as Steadfast Love. The NKJV consistently translates it as Lovingkindness. There is a little book called “Hesed in the Bible”, by Nelson Glueck, who was an archeologist and uncovered over a 1,000 sites in the Middle East. His main conclusion is that hesed can best be described as ‘covenantal loyalty’. So that is a bit different from lovingkindness, or even steadfast love.

Sometimes it's impossible to translate a given word from one language into one word from another language. And also one word can also have very different meanings. So it's important to keep an open mind when looking at which particular meaning the author intended.

I have been fascinated with this word hesed for over a decade now. When we lived in New York, we had a sermon on this topic and our pastor mentioned that it is more like covenantal loyalty, based on the book by Nelson Glueck. But I think it might be a bit broader than that.

In New York, Elaine had a Jewish boss, Mark, and one night he invited us over for dinner. I asked him and his wife what the word hesed meant in their view. Was it more covenantal loyalty or lovingkindness? I will never forget her reaction. “What is that, lovingkindness? That is not even a word!” She did not appreciate taking two separate words, loving and kindness, and just gluing them together. But they also could not give a clear definition of what hesed really means.

I have looked up pretty much every instance in the Bible where it is being used, and my understanding of the word hesed is influenced by some passages where it actually describes the behavior of people. Let’s look at three examples:

The first example is from the book of Esther:

Esther 2:9. And the young woman pleased him and won his favor [hesed]. And he quickly provided her with her cosmetics and her portion of food, and with seven chosen young women from the king's palace, and advanced her and her young women to the best place in the harem.

The situation is that the king is looking for a new queen. Esther won the favor of Hegai, who was in charge of all the women that were selected as potential candidates. So favor seems like a good translation here, it fits the context much better than covenantal loyalty, there was no covenant in place.

The second example is very similar, this time from Daniel, where he and his companions were selected to be brought up in the court of the Babylonian king and they had to eat the king’s food.

Daniel 1:8 But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself. 9. And God gave Daniel favor [hesed] and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs.

So God gave Daniel hesed, which is here also translated as favor, through the kindness of the chief of the eunuchs. There was no covenant in place, but again here we have someone in a position of power who grants favor.

The last one is from Joshua 2, where the prostitute Rahab hides the two spies in the city of Jericho, shortly before its walls would come crashing down. This example actually contains both hesed and emet.

Joshua 2:12. Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that, as I have dealt kindly [hesed] with you, you also will deal kindly [hesed] with my father's house, and give me a sure [emet] sign 13. that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.” 14. And the men said to her, “Our life for yours even to death! If you do not tell this business of ours, then when the LORD gives us the land we will deal kindly [hesed] and faithfully [emet] with you.”

At first this may look like covenant loyalty, because Rahab and the spies are making a deal. But, the hesed actually comes before the deal. Rahab had already protected the spies and she says she ‘dealt kindly with them’. She was in a position of power, she could have easily handed them over the people of her city, but she did not. She granted them a huge favor, and now she asks them to return the favor to her, to spare her and her family when they conquer the land.

So that is what I basically understand hesed to mean. Favor from someone in a position of power. It has absolutely the elements of loyalty, and kindness, and steadfastness, and love. But above all, I believe it is favor, it is blessing, from someone who has no obligation to give it, but who does it out of love.

As for the word emet, it is most often translated as truth, and sometimes as faithful. In this example of Rahab and the spies, we actually saw it as well. She asks for a ‘sure sign’ or ‘true token’, and the men respond that they will deal faithfully with her. So that word really means reliable, true, trustworthy, faithful.

And how awesome is it that God is overflowing with these two? There is no limit to His blessings and He is trustworthy and will keep His promises.

If God was only giving us favors, but could not be trusted, then what good is that? You never know if you are on His good side or not. And if He could be trusted but would not bless but curse instead, that is not good either. But being both hesed and emet, full of favor and faithfulness, that is a God we love to worship.

Since God is so characterized throughout the whole Old Testament with these two words, I believe that anyone who is deeply familiar with the OT (as a lot of Jews were in Jesus’ days), would immediately understand what John meant when he introduced Jesus like this:

John 1:14. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

We teach at Awana that grace means ‘giving someone something good that they don’t deserve’. It is closely related to mercy (not giving someone something bad that they do deserve). You see how grace and hesed are related? Jesus came full of grace and truth, just like God is abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. So now we come full circle. The OT and the NT agree about God’s attributes and they say the same thing about God’s character, full of favor and faithfulness.

But we are not there yet. We have to really bring this home. You see, it is not enough that God is abounding in hesed and emet, grace and truth, favor and faithfulness, but we must be too.

Proverbs 3:3. Let not steadfast love [hesed] and faithfulness [emet] forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.

We too must show grace and favor and steadfast love and lovingkindness to other people, even when they do not deserve it, no, especially when they do not deserve it. That is Godlike, that is Christlike. And like God and like Jesus, we must be faithful, reliable and truthful.

We must bind these traits around our neck. That means that everyone can see them. Our reputation should be that we are kind and loving and give good things to others, even when they do not deserve it, and that we are trustworthy and faithful.

We must write these traits on our heart, that is, at the essence of our being. Our thoughts and prayers and words and values must be full of grace and truth, favor and faithfulness. We must become like Jesus. That is our responsibility. And it is hard work. We call this progressive sanctification.

But, as we have seen, we cannot do this in our own strength. Only through the power of the Holy Spirit can we put to death the deeds of the body, and put on the new man that is created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. So we need to ask God to change us, and then we must cooperate with Him. He will do great things in our lives, and we will praise Him for it. We can do all things through Him who strengthens us. Praise the Lord!

(This text is part of the sermon given at Faith Community Church, Lynden, WA, by Gerrit Kamp about Psalm 108, on July 6th, 2025. The full sermon is visible here: https://youtu.be/UgUfPx6Lr08)