ʾāman

Semantic range

1. 1qal: to support, to nurse or carry (a nursing father)
2. 2niphal: to be reliable, established, faithful
3. 3hiphil: to consider reliable, to believe, to trust

The root behind ʾĕmûnāh, ʾĕmet (truth) and the word every congregation says at the end of a prayer. To say amen is to say: this is firm, this holds, I stake myself on it. It is not a verbal full stop but an act of ratification, which is why the Lord instructs that the congregation say Amen (D&C 88:135) and why Paul cares whether the unlearned can say it (1 Corinthians 14:16).

Genesis 15:6 — "and he believed in the LORD" — is the hiphil of this verb: Abram treated the Lord's promise as firm ground and stood on it. That is the verse Paul builds Romans 4 on, and it is the reason Latter-day Saints describe faith as a principle of action and power rather than an opinion held.

See also

• אֱמוּנָהʾĕmûnāh
• πίστιςpistis
• אֱמֶתʾĕmet