אֱמֶת
e.met
truth: faithful
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# Analysis of אֱמֶת (emet): Truth and Faithfulness in Hebrew The Hebrew word אֱמֶת (emet) denotes a semantic range encompassing both "truth" and "faithful" or "faithfulness." This dual semantic domain suggests that in biblical Hebrew, these concepts were not entirely separate—truth and reliability were understood as interconnected qualities. The word appears 66 times throughout the biblical text, indicating it was a significant term in Hebrew religious and ethical vocabulary. The inclusion of "faithful" alongside "truth" in the definition points to a meaning that encompasses not only factual accuracy but also trustworthiness and constancy. The presence of both these senses in a single lemma reflects how ancient Hebrew thought understood truth less as abstract correspondence to fact and more as a quality of persons or things that could be relied upon. Something or someone described as אֱמֶת could be counted on to be consistent and dependable. This explains why the word could apply both to statements that accord with reality and to individuals or attributes that demonstrate steadfastness—both are forms of reliability. The frequency of occurrence (66 instances) across biblical literature suggests this was a foundational concept for expressing ideas about integrity, dependability, and authenticity in ancient Hebrew religious and social contexts.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
66 total occurrences across the text — showing 50
Hezekiah did so throughout all Judah; and he did that which was good, right, and faithful before Yahweh his God.
2 Chronicles 32:1After these things and this faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria came, entered into Judah, and encamped against the fortified cities, and intended to win them for himself.
Nehemiah 7:2I put my brother Hanani, and Hananiah the governor of the fortress, in charge of Jerusalem; for he was a faithful man, and feared God above many.
Nehemiah 9:33However you are just in all that has come on us; for you have dealt truly, but we have done wickedly.
Psalms 25:10All the paths of Yahweh are loving kindness and truth to such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.
Psalms 26:3For your loving kindness is before my eyes. I have walked in your truth.
Psalms 30:9“What profit is there in my destruction, if I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise you? Shall it declare your truth?
Psalms 31:5Into your hand I commend my spirit. You redeem me, Yahweh, God of truth.
Psalms 40:10I have not hidden your righteousness within my heart. I have declared your faithfulness and your salvation. I have not concealed your loving kindness and your truth from the great assembly.
Psalms 40:11Don’t withhold your tender mercies from me, Yahweh. Let your loving kindness and your truth continually preserve me.
Psalms 54:5He will repay the evil to my enemies. Destroy them in your truth.
Psalms 57:3He will send from heaven, and save me, he rebukes the one who is pursuing me. God will send out his loving kindness and his truth.
Psalms 57:10For your great loving kindness reaches to the heavens, and your truth to the skies.
Psalms 61:7He shall be enthroned in God’s presence forever. Appoint your loving kindness and truth, that they may preserve him.
Psalms 69:13But as for me, my prayer is to you, Yahweh, in an acceptable time. God, in the abundance of your loving kindness, answer me in the truth of your salvation.
Psalms 71:22I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, my God. I sing praises to you with the lyre, Holy One of Israel.
Psalms 85:10Mercy and truth meet together. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
Psalms 85:11Truth springs out of the earth. Righteousness has looked down from heaven.
Psalms 86:15But you, Lord, are a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth.
Psalms 89:14Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Loving kindness and truth go before your face.
Psalms 91:4He will cover you with his feathers. Under his wings you will take refuge. His faithfulness is your shield and rampart.
Proverbs 14:22Don’t they go astray who plot evil? But love and faithfulness belong to those who plan good.
Psalms 108:4For your loving kindness is great above the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
Psalms 111:7The works of his hands are truth and justice. All his precepts are sure.
Psalms 111:8They are established forever and ever. They are done in truth and uprightness.
Psalms 115:1Not to us, Yahweh, not to us, but to your name give glory, for your loving kindness, and for your truth’s sake.
Psalms 117:2For his loving kindness is great toward us. Yahweh’s faithfulness endures forever. Praise Yah!
Psalms 132:11Yahweh has sworn to David in truth. He will not turn from it: “I will set the fruit of your body on your throne.
Psalms 138:2I will bow down toward your holy temple, and give thanks to your Name for your loving kindness and for your truth; for you have exalted your Name and your Word above all.
Psalms 146:6who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps truth forever;
Proverbs 3:3Don’t let kindness and truth forsake you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart.
Proverbs 16:6By mercy and truth iniquity is atoned for. By the fear of Yahweh men depart from evil.
Proverbs 20:28Love and faithfulness keep the king safe. His throne is sustained by love.
Proverbs 29:14The king who fairly judges the poor, his throne shall be established forever.
Isaiah 38:18For Sheol can’t praise you. Death can’t celebrate you. Those who go down into the pit can’t hope for your truth.
Isaiah 38:19The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do today. The father shall make known your truth to the children.
Isaiah 16:5A throne will be established in loving kindness. One will sit on it in truth, in the tent of David, judging, seeking justice, and swift to do righteousness.
Isaiah 38:3and said, “Remember now, Yahweh, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight.” Then Hezekiah wept bitterly.
Isaiah 42:3He won’t break a bruised reed. He won’t quench a dimly burning wick. He will faithfully bring justice.
Isaiah 61:8“For I, Yahweh, love justice. I hate robbery and iniquity. I will give them their reward in truth and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
Jeremiah 2:21Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a pure and faithful seed. How then have you turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine to me?
Jeremiah 10:10But Yahweh is the true God. He is the living God, and an everlasting King. At his wrath, the earth trembles. The nations aren’t able to withstand his indignation.
Jeremiah 23:28The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he who has my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the straw to the wheat?” says Yahweh.
Jeremiah 32:41Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.”
Ezekiel 18:9has walked in my statutes, and has kept my ordinances, to deal truly; he is just, he shall surely live,” says the Lord Yahweh.
Hosea 4:1Hear Yahweh’s word, you children of Israel; for Yahweh has a charge against the inhabitants of the land: “Indeed there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land.
Micah 7:20You will give truth to Jacob, and mercy to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.
Zechariah 8:3Yahweh says: “I have returned to Zion, and will dwell in the middle of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called ‘The City of Truth;’ and the mountain of Yahweh of Armies, ‘The Holy Mountain.’ ”
Zechariah 8:8and I will bring them, and they will dwell within Jerusalem; and they will be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.”
Genesis 24:27He said, “Blessed be Yahweh, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his loving kindness and his truth toward my master. As for me, Yahweh has led me on the way to the house of my master’s relatives.”