Literally firmness ; figuratively security ; morally fidelity
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' The English tradition debates whether that verse means faith (the believer's trust) or faithfulness (the believer's consistent conduct) — but the Hebrew word encompasses both, because in the OT the two are not separable. אֱמוּנָה is the quality of being אֱמֶת — true, reliable, trustworthy — embodied in consistent action over time.
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Full entry for אֱמוּנָה (H530) · Open the biblical lexicon
' The English tradition debates whether that verse means faith (the believer's trust) or faithfulness (the believer's consistent conduct) — but the Hebrew word encompasses both, because in the OT the two are not separable. אֱמוּנָה is the quality of being אֱמֶת — true, reliable, trustworthy — embodied in consistent action over time.
The BSB source-word alignment has 49 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Your faithfulness (8), faithfully (4), and faithfulness (2), faithfulness (2), My faithfulness (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Exodus 17:12. Its strongest book concentrations include Psalms (22), 2 Chronicles (5), Isaiah (4), Jeremiah (4).
אֱמוּנָה is the Hebrew noun for faithfulness, reliability, and steadfastness — and it is the word Habakkuk 2:4 uses when it says 'the righteous shall live by his אֱמוּנָה.' The English tradition debates whether that verse means faith (the believer's trust) or faithfulness (the believer's consistent conduct) — but the Hebrew word encompasses both, because in the OT the two are not separable.
אֱמוּנָה is the quality of being אֱמֶת — true, reliable, trustworthy — embodied in consistent action over time. BDB's primary range includes: firmness, steadiness, fidelity, trust, honesty. The word derives from the root אָמַן (to be firm, stable, trustworthy), the same root that gives אָמֵן (amen) its meaning: this is firm, this can be counted on, this is established.
אֱמוּנָה is indexed in the local Hebrew artifact at about 49 OT occurrences, primarily in the Psalms. It describes both God's faithfulness (Ps 36:5 — 'your faithfulness reaches to the skies'; Ps 92:2 — declaring God's אֱמוּנָה every morning) and the human character that the covenant calls for (Ps 119:30 — 'I have chosen the way of faithfulness'). The Psalmists repeatedly appeal to God's אֱמוּנָה as the basis for their confidence that he will act: what God has been, he will continue to be.
He is not unpredictable, not capricious, not liable to change the covenant on a whim. His אֱמוּנָה is the stability of the universe — 'your faithfulness is established in the very heavens' (Ps 89:2). For the preacher, אֱמוּנָה is the word that connects the doctrine of God's trustworthiness to the practice of human trust. When Habakkuk says the righteous shall live by אֱמוּנָה, he is saying that the life of the צַדִּיק is sustained by both God's faithful reliability (which creates the conditions for life) and the human response of trusting steadfastness (which is how that life is lived).
The NT's justification vocabulary inherits this double register: the faith through which we are justified (Rom 1:17) is the human response to the faithfulness that God has always been.
אֱמוּנָה is indexed in the local Hebrew artifact at about 49 OT occurrences, concentrated in the Psalms. It describes God's faithfulness as the stable foundation of the covenant (Ps 36:5, Ps 89:1-5, Lam 3:23) and the human faithfulness that God's covenant demands and produces (Hab 2:4, Ps 119:30). The word belongs to the אָמַן root family (trustworthy, firm, established), making it the noun form of the quality that אָמֵן (amen) affirms.
Your loving devotion, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, Your faithfulness to the clouds.
The pairing of חֶסֶד (lovingkindness) and אֱמוּנָה is one of the most frequent collocations in the Psalter. They name two aspects of God's covenant character that belong together: חֶסֶד is the loyal love that defines what God is committed to; אֱמוּנָה is the reliability and consistency with which that commitment is kept. The spatial image here — אֱמוּנָה reaching to the skies — conveys scale: God's faithfulness is not a local or temporary quality.
It exceeds the visible horizon of human experience. The heavens are the standard of immeasurable vastness; God's אֱמוּנָה exceeds even that.
They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness!
Lamentations 3:22-23 is the most familiar OT statement of אֱמוּנָה in its most unexpected context: the ruins of Jerusalem, the aftermath of the Babylonian destruction. The mercies are called 'new every morning' — not because God produces new kindness to replace spent kindness, but because each morning's sunrise is the fresh manifestation of the faithful commitment that never ceased.
'Great is your faithfulness' is not a prosperity declaration but a confession of trust made in the middle of catastrophe. אֱמוּנָה is the ground on which lament stands: God has not changed his character even when his people are in the rubble of their disobedience.
Look at the proud one; his soul is not upright—but the righteous will live by faith—
The hinge text for NT justification theology uses both צַדִּיק (righteous) and אֱמוּנָה (faithfulness/faith) in the same declaration. The context is Habakkuk's complaint about the Chaldean oppressor: the arrogant man's soul is puffed up and will not endure, but the righteous person will live by his אֱמוּנָה. The Hebrew encompasses both God's reliability (which is the foundation of the righteous person's life) and the human steadfast trust (which is how that life is expressed).
Paul cites this verse in Romans 1:17 and Galatians 3:11 as the OT foundation for justification by faith: the righteous shall live by faith. The life of the justified person is not achieved by works but sustained by the faithful trust that responds to God's faithful promise.
I have chosen the way of truth; I have set Your ordinances before me.
The Psalmist's volitional claim uses אֱמוּנָה as a 'way' — a path, a direction of life. Choosing אֱמוּנָה is choosing the kind of life that can be counted on, that is consistent with God's word, that does not deviate from the covenant obligations. The pairing with 'I have set your ordinances before me' locates אֱמוּנָה within the framework of Torah faithfulness: the faithful life is the life shaped by God's word.
This use shows the human dimension of אֱמוּנָה — not only what God is, but what the covenant community is called to embody.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Steadfast reliability grounded in trustworthiness—both human fidelity and the foundational security of God's covenant faithfulness
Steadfast reliability grounded in trustworthiness—both human fidelity and the foundational security of God's covenant faithfulness
literally firmness; figuratively security; morally fidelity BDB: firmness Usage: faith(-ful, -ly, -ness, (man)), set office, stability, steady, truly, truth, verily.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 49 lexical occurrence verses.
אֱמוּנָה is built from this root:
God’s ancient plans are dependable and sure.Hosea 2:14-23
Identifies the enduring security God provides to his people.Isaiah 25:1-5
Denotes stability and reliability in renewed covenant.Isaiah 33:1-12
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
אֱמוּנָה is the word that runs under the whole biblical story like bedrock. It names the quality in God that makes prayer possible: he can be counted on. It names the quality in human life that the covenant calls for: consistent, reliable, non-capricious faithfulness. And in Habakkuk 2:4, it names the posture of the righteous person in the midst of a world that seems to contradict the promises of God — 'the righteous shall live by his faithfulness.'
Lamentations 3:23 is the pastoral key to the word. The author of Lamentations is sitting in the ruins of Jerusalem, having watched everything he trusted in collapse. And in that place, he writes 'great is your faithfulness.' He is not performing contentment or denying the catastrophe. He is appealing to what cannot change even when everything else does: God's אֱמוּנָה is not contingent on circumstances.
The mercies are new every morning not because the morning manufactured them but because God's reliable character keeps expressing itself in each new day. The preacher who holds אֱמוּנָה has a word for two distinct pastoral moments. The first is the confident moment: God's faithfulness extends to the skies, it is the foundation of the heavens, it endures from generation to generation (Ps 119:90).
The second is the catastrophic moment: even in the ruins, even when the city is destroyed and the people are in exile, the word that sustains is אֱמוּנָה — not the circumstances, not the outcome, but the character of the one who is still there.
Lam.3.23
אֱמוּנָה is a feminine noun from the root אָמַן (to be firm, secure, faithful). The word family includes: אָמַן (qal: to be firm; hiphil: to believe, trust, consider reliable); אֱמֶת (truth, reliability, H571); אָמֵן (amen, confirmed, established). BDB defines אֱמוּנָה as 'firmness, steadiness, fidelity' and notes its range from physical steadiness (Exod 17:12, Moses's hands held steady) to relational reliability (the faithful person, the faithful God) to the steadfast trust of the believer.
The LXX translates אֱמוּנָה with several Greek words: πίστις (faith/faithfulness), ἀλήθεια (truth), and δικαιοσύνη (righteousness) in various contexts — the LXX's range confirms the multi-dimensional character of the Hebrew original. The Habakkuk 2:4 LXX citation uses πίστις, which is why Paul's NT citations of that verse read 'faith' where the Hebrew says 'faithfulness.'
The two dimensions are present in both words.
The NT's inheritance of אֱמוּנָה runs primarily through the Habakkuk 2:4 citation. Paul uses it in Romans 1:17 ('the righteous shall live by faith') to open his argument that God's righteousness is revealed through the gospel — from faith to faith. He cites it again in Galatians 3:11 to argue that no one is justified by the law, because Habakkuk showed that the righteous person lives by faith, not by works.
Hebrews 10:38 uses the same citation in the context of patient endurance: the righteous person does not shrink back but lives by faith. All three NT uses preserve the אֱמוּנָה dynamic: the word covers both the divine reliability that creates the conditions for confident trust and the human steadfast trust that is the fitting response. The Hebrews 11 faith-chapter is the extended narrative explication of אֱמוּנָה as the sustained trust that perseveres through circumstances that contradict the promise — Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, all living by אֱמוּנָה before the fulfillment arrives.