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Marital love is often related to
Marriage certainly is a legal matter, and there
are legal sanctions for infractions. Yet the relationship, if sound, far transcends mere
legalities. The prophet Hosea applies the analogy to Yahweh’s
to Israel within the
covenant (e.g., 2:21). Hence, “devotion” is sometimes the single English word best
capable of capturing the nuance of the original. The
RSV
attempts to bring this out by its
translation, “steadfast love.” Hebrew writers often underscored the element of
steadfastness (or strength) by pairing
with
(“truth, reliability”) and
$
(“faithfulness”).
Biblical usage frequently speaks of someone “doing,” “showing,” or “keeping”
!
The concrete content of the word is especially evident when it is used in the
plural. God’s “mercies,” “kindnesses,” or “faithfulnesses” are His specific, concrete acts
of redemption in fulfillment of His promise. An example appears in Isa. 55:3: “… And I
will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.”
)
has both God and man as its subject. When man is the subject of
the
word usually describes the person’s kindness or loyalty to another; cf. 2 Sam. 9:7: “And
David said … I will surely show thee [Mephibosheth] kindness for Jonathan thy father’s
sake.…” Only rarely is the term applied explicitly to man’s affection or fidelity toward
God; the clearest example is probably Jer. 2:2: “Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem,
saying, thus saith the Lord; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine
espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness.…” Man exercises
toward various units within the community—toward family and relatives, but also to
friends, guests, masters, and servants.
)
toward the lowly and needy is often
specified. The Bible prominently uses the term
to summarize and characterize a
life of sanctification within, and in response to, the covenant. Thus, Hos. 6:6 states that
God desires “mercy [
RSV
, “steadfast love”] and not sacrifice” (i.e., faithful living in
addition to worship). Similarly, Mic. 6:8 features
in the prophets’ summary of
biblical ethics: “… and what doth the Lord require of thee, but … to love
..?”
Behind all these uses with man as subject, however, stand the repeated references to
God’s
!
It is one of His most central characteristics. God’s loving-kindness is
offered to His people, who need redemption from sin, enemies, and troubles. A recurrent
refrain describing God’s nature is “abounding/plenteous in
" (Exod. 34:6; Neh.
9:17; Ps. 103:8; Jonah 4:2). The entire history of Yahweh’s covenantal relationship with
Israel can be summarized in terms of
!
It is the one permanent element in the flux
of covenantal history. Even the Creation is the result of God’s
(Ps. 136:5-9). His
love lasts for a “thousand generations” (Deut. 7:9; cf. Deut. 5:10 and Exod. 20:6), indeed
“forever” (especially in the refrains of certain psalms, such as Ps. 136).
Words used in synonymous parallelism with
help to define and explain it. The
word most commonly associated with
is
(“fidelity; reliability”): “… Let thy
loving-kindness [
] and thy truth [
] continually preserve me.”
, $
with a