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“entrusted one”: “He removeth away the speech of the trusty [entrusted ones], and taketh
away the understanding of the aged” (Job 12:20). In this passage,
is synonymously
parallel (therefore equivalent in meaning) to “elders” or “officebearers.” Thus, it should
be rendered “entrusted ones” or “those who have been given a certain responsibility
(trust).” Before receiving the trust, they are men “worthy of trust” or “trustworthy” (cf. 1
Sam. 2:35; Neh. 13:13).
In Gen. 42:20 (the first biblical appearance of this word in this stem), Joseph requests
that his brothers bring Benjamin to him; “so shall your words be verified,” or “be shown
to be true” (cf. 1 Kings 8:26; Hos. 5:9). In Hos. 11:12,
contrasts Judah’s actions
(“faithful”) with those of Ephraim and Israel (“deceit”). So here
represents both
“truthfulness” and “faithfulness” (cf. Ps. 78:37; Jer. 15:18). The word may be rendered
“true” in several passages (1 Kings 8:26; 2 Chron. 1:9; 6:17).
A different nuance of
is seen in Deut. 7:9: “… the faithful God, which keepeth
covenant and mercy.…” There is a good reason here to understand the word
as
referring to what God has done (“faithfulness”), rather than what He will do
(“trustworthy”), because He has already proved Himself faithful by keeping the covenant.
Therefore, the translation would become, “… faithful God who has kept His covenant
and faithfulness, those who love Him kept …” (cf. Isa. 47:7).
In the causative stem,
means “to stand fast,” or “be fixed in one spot,” which
is demonstrated by Job 39:24: “He [a war horse] swalloweth the ground with fierceness
and rage: neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet.”
Even more often, this stem connotes a psychological or mental certainty, as in Job
29:24: “If I laughed on them, they believed it not.” Considering something to be
trustworthy is an act of full trusting or believing. This is the emphasis in the first biblical
occurrence of
&
“And [Abram] believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for
righteousness” (Gen. 15:6). The meaning here is that Abram was full of trust and
confidence in God, and that he did not fear Him (v. 1). at was not primarily in God’s
words that he believed, but in God Himself. Nor does the text tell us that Abram believed
God so as to accept what He said as “true” and “trustworthy” (cf. Gen. 45:26), but simply
that he believed in God. In other words, Abram came to experience a personal
relationship to God rather than an impersonal relationship with His promises. Thus, in
Exod. 4:9 the meaning is, “if they do not believe in view of the two signs,” rather than,
“if they do not believe these two signs.” The focus is on the act of believing, not on the
trustworthiness of the signs. When God is the subject or object of the verb, the Septuagint
almost always renders this stem of
with
$
(“to believe”) and its composites.
The only exception to this is Prov. 26:25.
A more precise sense of
does appear sometimes: “That they may believe that
the Lord … hath appeared unto thee” (Exod. 4:5; cf. 1 Kings 10:7).
In other instances,
has a cultic use, by which the worshiping community
affirms its identity with what the worship leader says (1 Chron. 16:32). The “God of the
3
(2 Chron. 20:20; Isa. 65:16) is the God who always accomplishes what He says;
He is a “God who is faithful.”