Word study

Trustworthy

5 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “trustworthy”. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.

At a glance

How often each original word is translated “trustworthy” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • אָמַן âmanconfirm, supporttranslated this way 6 times of its 104 uses · Strong’s H539Verb  ·  Translated: believe 24, faithful 14, trust 8, believed 7

    Nehemiah 13:13 I appointed as treasurers over the storerooms Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and Pedaiah of the Levites, with Hanan son of Zaccur, the son of Mattaniah, to assist them, because they were considered trustworthy. They were responsible for distributing the supplies to their fellow Levites.

    Psalm 19:7 The Law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is trustworthy, making wise the simple.

    Full study and all 98 verses →
  • אֲמַן ămantrusttranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H540Verb  ·  Translated: trustworthy 2, trusted 1

    Daniel 2:45 And just as you saw a stone being cut out of the mountain without human hands, and it shattered the iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold, so the great God has told the king what will happen in the future. The dream is true, and its interpretation is trustworthy.”

    Daniel 6:4 Thus the administrators and satraps sought a charge against Daniel concerning the kingdom, but they could find no charge or corruption, because he was trustworthy, and no negligence or corruption was found in him.

    Full study and all 3 verses →
  • אֶמֶת emethfirmness, faithfulness, truthtranslated this way 1 time of its 125 uses · Strong’s H571Noun  ·  Translated: truth 37, faithfulness 35, true 20, faithfully 10

    Exodus 18:21 Furthermore, select capable men from among the people — God-fearing, trustworthy men who are averse to dishonest gain. Appoint them over the people as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.

    Full study and all 123 verses →
  • אֱמוּנָה ĕmûnâhfirmness, steadfastness, fidelitytranslated this way 1 time of its 47 uses · Strong’s H530Noun  ·  Translated: faithfulness 22, faithfully 6, truth 6, faithful 3

    Psalm 33:4 For the word of the LORD is upright, and all His work is trustworthy.

    Full study and all 47 verses →
  • אֵמוּן êmûntrusting, faithfulnesstranslated this way 1 time of its 8 uses · Strong’s H529Noun  ·  Translated: faithful 5, unfaithfulness 1, honest 1, trustworthy 1

    Proverbs 20:6 Many a man proclaims his loving devotion, but who can find a trustworthy man?

    Full study and all 8 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • πιστός pistóstrustworthy, faithful, believingtranslated this way 6 times of its 67 uses · Strong’s G4103Adjective  ·  Translated: faithful 45, trustworthy 6, believe 4, believers 4

    1 Corinthians 7:25 Now about virgins, I have no command from the Lord, but I give a judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy.

    1 Timothy 1:15 This is a trustworthy saying, worthy of full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst.

    Full study and all 63 verses →
How to study a word well
  1. Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
  2. Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
  3. Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
  4. Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
  5. See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
  6. Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
  7. Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.

Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.