ʾĕmet

Semantic range

1. 1firmness, constancy
2. 2truth as correspondence with reality
3. 3faithfulness in keeping one's word

Contracted from the same root as ʾāman. Hebrew ʾĕmet is truth you can lean on rather than truth as an abstract proposition — the emphasis falls on reliability. The pairing ḥesed weʾĕmet ("mercy and truth," Exodus 34:6; Psalm 85:10) is nearly a hendiadys: loyal love that can be counted on.

The Restoration's definition puts the propositional and the reliable together: "truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come" (D&C 93:24) — and immediately ties it to agency and light (D&C 93:29–31).

See also

• אָמַןʾāman
• אֱמוּנָהʾĕmûnāh
• חֶסֶדḥesed