אֱמֶת
faithfulness
also: firmness, truth fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Common
- A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
Gender
- Feminine
- Grammatically feminine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
Every verse where H571 appears in the Book of Micah — 1 distinct verse. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Micah
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
“faithfulness” is the headline sense of the Hebrew word אמת (ʼemeth). First canonically at Genesis 24:27, it enters the text early. It turns up in 125 verses across 23 books, a common footprint. It concentrates in Psalms, which alone accounts for 30% of its uses. Not a single-sense word: its full sense range also takes in “firmness” and “truth”. See the sense tree, 125-verse concordance, and the renderings breakdown below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H571 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 125
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 125 distinct verses.
- 23 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 23 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #348
- by frequency
- Top 500 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 348 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 125 occurrences in the concordance →
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 125 distinct verses.
- Writings (Ketuvim) 64 verses · 51%
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 50 verses · 40%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 11 verses · 9%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Truth 74×, True 6×, Truly 6×
- American Standard Version: Truth 64×, True 6×, Is truth 4×
- Berean Standard Bible: Truth 35×, Faithfulness 34×, True 12×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Truth 56×, Faithfulness 26×, Trustworthiness 11×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H571 across 127 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 26 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H571 across 125 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 33 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H571 across 125 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 22 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 2 further occurrences.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H571 across 126 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 12 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in the full BDB
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 5 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
- 1. reliability, sureness: דֶּרֶךְ אֱמֶת sure way Gn 24:48 (J); שׂכר אמת sure reward Pr 11:18; אות אמת sure token Jos 2:12 (J); זֶרַע אמת Je 2:21. e.g. Genesis 24:48
- 2. stability, continuance: שָׁלוֹם וֶאֱמֶת peace and stability Is 39:8 (= 2 K 20:19) Est 9:30 Je 33:6 Zc 8:19, cf. שׁלום אמת Je 14:13. e.g. Isaiah 39:8
- 3. faithfulness, reliableness: (a) of men אִישׁ אֱמֶת faithful man Ne 7:2; אנשׁי אמת Ex 18:21 (E); הָלַךְ בֶּאֱמֶת walk in faithfulness, faithfully 1 K 2:4; 3:6 2 K 20:3 Is 38:3 cf. 1 S 12:24; of י׳, בַּאֲמִתֶּ֑ךָ ψ 25:5; 26:3; 86:11; עיר האמת Zc 8:3; of men ψ 45:5; 51:8 2 Ch 31:20; 32:1 Pr 29:14 Is 10:20; 42:3; 48:1; בא׳ ובתמים Ju 9:16, 19 Jos 24:14; חֶסֶד וֶאֱ׳ mercy and faithfulness Pr 3:3; 14:22; 16:6; 20:28 Ho 4:1, & the phrase עשׂה חסד ואמת Gn 24:49; 47:29 Jos 2:14 (J) 2 S 15:20. (b) an attribute of God ψ 54:7; 71:22 Is 38:18, 19; 61:8; נתן אמת Mi 7:20; עשׂה אמת Ez 18:9 Ne 9:33; עשׂה חסד ואמת Gn 32:11 (J) 2 S 2:6; רב חסד ואמת abundant in mercy and faithfulness Ex 34:6 (J) ψ 86:15; these attributes are also associated ψ 40:11, 12; 61:8; 115:1; 138:2 Is 16:5 Gn 24:27 (J); they are messengers of God to men ψ 57:4; 85:11; 89:15 cf. ψ 43:3; כל ארחות י׳ חסד ואמת ψ 25:10; the faithfulness of God endureth for ever ψ 117:2; he keepeth it for ever ψ 146:6; it reacheth unto the skies ψ 57:11; 108:5; it is shield & buckler ψ 91:4; he is אל אמת ψ 31:6 = אלהי אמת 2 Ch 15:3; אֱמֶת is also associated with the divine ישׁר ψ 111:8; צֶדֶק ψ 85:12; צְדָקָה Zc 8:8; מִשְׁפָּט ψ 111:7 Je 4:2; & salvation ψ 69:14. e.g. Nehemiah 7:2
- 4. truth (a) as spoken: דבר אמת speak truth 1 K 22:16 2 Ch 18:15 Je 9:4 Zc 8:16 ψ 15:2; דִּבְרֵי א׳ Ec 12:10; אֱמֶת הַדָּבָר the thing is true Dt 22:20 1 K 10:6 2 Ch 9:5 Dn 10:1; אמת נכון הדבר the thing is certainly true Dt 13:15; 17:4; אִמְרֵי אֱמֶת = אמרים אמת Pr 22:21; הגה אמת Pr 8:7; הגיד א׳ Dn 11:2, אֲמִתְּךָ ψ 30:10; שׂפת אמת Pr 12:19; אֱמֶת it is true Is 43:9; האמת אתכם whether truth is with you Gn 42:16 (E) cf. Is 59:14, 15. (b) of testimony and judgment עֵד אֱמֶת true witness Pr 14:25; עד אמת ונאמן Je 42:5; משׁפט אמת Ez 18:8 Zc 7:9; שָׁפַט אמת Zc 8:16. (c) of divine instruction כְּתָב אֱמֶת Dn 10:21; תורת אמת Mal 2:6 cf. Ne 9:13; תורתך אמת ψ 119:142; דבר י׳ בְּפִיךָ אמת 1 K 17:24 cf. 2 S 7:28; משׁפטי י׳ אמת ψ 19:10; ראשׁ דברך אמת ψ 119:160; מצותיך אמת ψ 119:151. (d) truth as a body of ethical or religious knowledge Dn 8:12; להשׂכיל באמתך Dn 9:13. e.g. 1 Kings 22:16
- 5. adv. in truth, truly ψ 132:11; יהוה אלהים אמת Yahweh is God in truth, truly Je 10:10; 23:28; elsewhere בֶּאֱמֶת Ju 9:15; ψ 145:18 Je 26:15; 28:9; 32:41. e.g. Psalms 132:11
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
n.f. firmness, faithfulness, truth (contr. for אֱמֶנֶת, from אָמֵן) Gn 24:48 + 106 times; sf. אֲמִתּוֹ, אֲמִתְּךָ ψ 91:4 + 18 times
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from אמן (ʼâman) (H539) — to confirm.
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
אֱמֶת
- (b. h.; = אמנת; אמן) truth, faith, reality. Y. Snh. XI, 30ᶜ top לחם א׳ bread of truth, unfeigned hospitality. Gen. R. s. 96 חסד של א׳ true (unselfish) charity. Y. Meg. I, 70ᵃ top כאֲמִיתָּהּ של תורה as the Law itself, i.e. as though the Scroll of Esther were the Pentateuch. Y. Shebu. VI, 37ᵃ top אֲמִיתָּן של דברים the truth of &c. Num. R. s. 12 א׳ של תורה וכ׳ the truth of the Law is a weapon (of protection) to its owner.—בא׳ אמרו in fact they said that &c. Sabb. I, 3; a. fr.—B. Mets. 60ᵃ, a. e. כל בא׳ אמרו הלכה היא wherever an opinion is introduced with the words ‘In fact they said’ it means to say that it is an established legal rule. Y. Sabb. I, 3ᵇ bot., a. e. כ׳'מ ששנו בא׳ וכ׳ wherever the Mishnah says, ‘In fact’, it indicates a rule dating from Moses on Sinai, i.e. an ancient tradition; v. Frank. Darké p. 286.—הא׳ indeed? Tanḥ. Noah, 10 (ed. Bub. 15, corr. acc.); v. אוֹנְטוֹס.
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 57 distinct written forms H571 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H571, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Shares the same root
- אמון ʼâmôwn H525 craftsman
- אמון ʼêmûwn H529 faithfulness
- אמן ʼăman H540 to trust
- אמן ʼâmân H542 artisan
- אמן ʼâmên H543 truly
- אמן ʼômen H544 faithfulness
Proper names from this root
People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.
Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 11 — not the complete family. 3 of the same-root words are proper names (people or places). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 108 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 125 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
- Genesis 24:27
- Exodus 18:21
- Deuteronomy 13:14
- Joshua 2:12
- Judges 9:15
- 1 Samuel 12:24
- 2 Samuel 2:6
- 1 Kings 2:4
- 2 Kings 20:3
- 2 Chronicles 9:5
- Psalms 15:2
- Proverbs 3:3
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
