Grow With Me
Grow With Me

חֶסֶד

chesed · loyal love

Hebrew word · Strong’s number H2617 · appears 247 times in the Bible

What is the Strong number?Strong’s number identifies this word: use it to find the same word in other study tools.

What it means

chesed (חֶסֶד) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “loyal love”.

"Chesed": love that stays faithful to a commitment. It is kindness that does not remain a feeling: it acts in favor of the other and does not abandon him. The Bible says it above all of God's love for his people.

How to say it

che·sed

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

  1. God's steadfast kindness, true to his covenant, never forsaking.
  2. Loyal love between people, faithfulness and kindness.
  3. Another word spelled the same: something shameful.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Chesed: love that stays faithful to a commitment; kindness that acts for the other's good and does not abandon him. BDB defines it as kindness and, toward God, piety. The Bible says it above all of God's love for his people.

How we translate it

“Loyal love” 240 times, “loyal loves” 5. This edition's glossary sets “loyal love” with no deviations, so that the word is recognized throughout the text and it can be seen that it joins love and faithfulness. חֶסֶד וֶאֱמֶת is translated “loyal love and faithfulness”. In Leviticus 20:17 there is a homonym that means “disgrace”, with a note.

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

  • loyal love ×240
  • loyal loves ×5
  • disgrace ×2

Related words

Comes from

Words that come from it

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

  • Genesis 19:19

    Look, your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have made great your loyal love that you have shown me by keeping me alive; but I cannot escape to the mountain, lest the evil overtake me and I die.

  • Genesis 20:13

    And when Elohim caused me to wander from the house of my father, I said to her, ‘This is the loyal love that you shall show me: in every place that we come to, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”

  • Genesis 21:23

    So now, swear to me here by Elohim that you will not deal falsely with me or with my children or with my descendants. As the loyal love that I have shown you, so you will show me and the land in which you have resided as an alien.”

  • Genesis 24:12

    And he said, “YHWH, the Elohim of my lord Abraham, please make it happen before me today, and show loyal love to my lord Abraham.

  • Genesis 24:14

    Let it be that the girl to whom I say, ‘Please lower your jar so that I may drink,’ and she says, ‘Drink, and I will also water your camels,’ she is the one you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown loyal love to my lord.”

  • Genesis 24:27

    and said, “Blessed be YHWH, the Elohim of my lord Abraham, who has not abandoned his loyal love and his faithfulness toward my lord. As for me, YHWH has led me on the way to the house of my lord’s brothers.”

  • Genesis 24:49

    So now, if you are going to show loyal love and faithfulness to my lord, tell me; and if not, tell me, so that I may turn to the right or to the left.”

  • Genesis 32:10

    I am too small for all the acts of loyal love and all the faithfulness that you have shown your servant; for with my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps.

  • Genesis 39:21

    But YHWH was with Joseph and extended to him loyal love, and gave him favor in the eyes of the chief of the prison.

  • Genesis 40:14

    But think of me when it goes well with you, and show, please, loyal love to me, and mention me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this house.

  • Genesis 47:29

    The days of Israel drew near to die, and he called his son Joseph and said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please put your hand under my thigh, and deal with me in loyal love and faithfulness: please do not bury me in Egypt.

  • Exodus 15:13

    In your loyal love you have led the people whom you redeemed; you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode.

  • Exodus 20:6

    but showing loyal love to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments.

  • Exodus 34:6

    And YHWH passed by before him and proclaimed, “YHWH, YHWH, an El merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loyal love and faithfulness,

  • Exodus 34:7

    keeping loyal love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, calling to account the iniquity of fathers on sons and on sons’ sons, to the third and to the fourth generation.”

  • Leviticus 20:17

    And a man who takes his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother, and sees her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace, and they shall be cut off before the eyes of the sons of their people. He has uncovered his sister’s nakedness; he shall bear his iniquity.

  • Numbers 14:18

    ‘YHWH is slow to anger and abounding in loyal love, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on children, on the third and on the fourth generation.’

  • Numbers 14:19

    Please forgive the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your loyal love, and just as you have forgiven this people from Egypt and until now.”

  • Deuteronomy 5:10

    but showing loyal love to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments.

  • Deuteronomy 7:9

    Know that YHWH your Elohim, he is Elohim, the faithful El, who keeps the covenant and the loyal love for those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,

  • Deuteronomy 7:12

    And it will be, because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, that YHWH your Elohim will keep with you the covenant and the loyal love that he swore to your fathers.

  • Joshua 2:12

    Now please swear to me by YHWH, since I have shown loyal love to you, that you also will show loyal love to the house of my father, and give me a sign of truth,

  • Joshua 2:14

    And the men said to her, “Our life for yours to the death, if you do not tell this matter of ours. And it shall be, when YHWH gives us the land, that we will show you loyal love and faithfulness.”

  • Judges 1:24

    Those watching saw a man coming out of the city, and they said to him, “Show us, please, the way into the city, and we will show loyal love to you.”

  • Judges 8:35

    nor did they show loyal love to the house of Jerubbaal, Gideon, in accordance with all the good that he had done for Israel.

  • Ruth 1:8

    And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return, each to the house of her mother. May YHWH do loyal love with you, as you have done with the dead and with me.

  • Ruth 2:20

    And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “Blessed be he by YHWH, who has not abandoned his loyal love with the living and with the dead.” And Naomi said to her, “The man is close to us; he is one of our kinsman-redeemers.”

  • Ruth 3:10

    And he said, “Blessed be you by YHWH, my daughter. You have made your last loyal love better than the first, by not going after the young men, whether poor or rich.

  • 1 Samuel 15:6

    Saul said to the Kenites, “Go, turn aside, go down from among the Amalekites, lest I remove you with them; for you showed loyal love to all the sons of Israel when they came up from Egypt.” So the Kenites turned aside from among Amalek.

  • 1 Samuel 20:8

    Show loyal love to your servant, for into a covenant of YHWH you have brought your servant with you. But if there is iniquity in me, put me to death yourself; why should you bring me to your father?”

  • 1 Samuel 20:14

    And if I am still alive, will you not show me the loyal love of YHWH, so that I do not die?

  • 1 Samuel 20:15

    And you shall not cut off your loyal love from my house forever, not even when YHWH cuts off the enemies of David, each one, from the face of the ground.”

  • 2 Samuel 2:5

    David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh-gilead and said to them, “Blessed are you by YHWH, for you have done this loyal love with your lord, with Saul, and buried him.

  • 2 Samuel 2:6

    And now may YHWH do loyal love and faithfulness with you; and I also will do this good with you, because you have done this thing.

  • 2 Samuel 3:8

    Abner was very angry over the words of Ish-bosheth, and he said, “Am I a dog’s head that belongs to Judah? Today I am doing loyal love with the house of Saul your father, with his brothers and with his companions, and I have not handed you over into the hand of David; and you call me to account today for the iniquity of the woman?

  • 2 Samuel 7:15

    but my loyal love will not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I took away from before you.

  • 2 Samuel 9:1

    David said, “Is there still anyone who is left of the house of Saul, that I may do loyal love with him for the sake of Jonathan?”

  • 2 Samuel 9:3

    The king said, “Is there no longer any man of the house of Saul, that I may do the loyal love of Elohim with him?” Ziba said to the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan, injured in the feet.”

  • 2 Samuel 9:7

    David said to him, “Do not be afraid, for I will certainly do loyal love with you for the sake of Jonathan your father; I will restore to you all the land of Saul your father, and you will eat bread at my table always.”

  • 2 Samuel 10:2

    David said, “I will do loyal love with Hanun son of Nahash, as his father did loyal love with me.” So David sent by the hand of his servants to comfort him concerning his father. And the servants of David came into the land of the sons of Ammon,

And 207 more times.