Because thy hesed is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name. Psalm 63:3
President Nelson wrote: “Once we make a covenant with God, we leave neutral ground forever. God will not abandon His relationship with those who have forged such a bond with Him. In fact, all those who have made a covenant with God have access to a special kind of love and mercy. In the Hebrew language, that covenantal love is called hesed (חֶסֶד).
“Hesed has no adequate English equivalent. Translators of the King James Version of the Bible must have struggled with how to render hesed in English. They often chose ‘lovingkindness.’ This captures much but not all the meaning of hesed. Other translations were also rendered, such as ‘mercy’ and ‘goodness.’ Hesed is a unique term describing a covenant relationship in which both parties are bound to be loyal and faithful to each other.
“A celestial marriage is such a covenant relationship. A husband and wife make a covenant with God and with each other to be loyal and faithful to each other.
“Hesed is a special kind of love and mercy that God feels for and extends to those who have made a covenant with Him. And we reciprocate with hesed for Him.
“Once you and I have made a covenant with God, our relationship with Him becomes much closer than before our covenant. Now we are bound together. Because of our covenant with God, He will never tire in His efforts to help us, and we will never exhaust His merciful patience with us. Each of us has a special place in God’s heart. He has high hopes for us” (Liahona, Oct 2022).
Hebrew Word Origin
The Hebrew word ḥesed appears 248 times in the Old Testament. Hesed’s meaning has no direct translation in English or Greek. It comes from a root word (hasad) which means to bow one’s head toward another and “highlights the active display of covenant loyalty” (Bible Hub). That is, hesed implies bowing one’s head to make a covenant. But, hesed is difficult to define, the more we understand it, the more we realize that words can’t fully capture its infinite nature. Hesed isn’t a sentimental love, but translators have rendered it as mercy, goodness, kindness, loving-kindness, grace, love, covenant love, faithfulness, strength, and loyalty.
Ruth and Naomi/Boaz: This story is a powerful demonstration of human hesed. Naomi goes back to Judah after her husband and two sons die. Ruth, her daughter-in-law, could have returned home, but remained with Naomi, vowing, “May God take my life if anything but death parts us.” This dedication exceeds just family duty, displaying a faithful love that surpasses a contract’s stipulations.
Boaz acknowledged Ruth’s remarkable hesed for Naomi, stating, “This kindness [hesed] outweighs what you did before: You didn’t pursue young men, whether wealthy or impoverished”. Boaz marries Ruth, showing her kindness and becoming her “kinsman-redeemer,” thus helping Naomi and Ruth. This story exemplifies hesed, a kinship love that selflessly serves regardless of consequences.
Marriage – A Symbol of Hesed
There is a significant difference between covenants and what might be understood as modern contracts, particularly in the context of biblical hesed and ancient Israelite culture. The legendary bible scholar, Frank Moore Cross’s work showed that biblical covenants are deeply linked to Israelite kinship society. Hesed (loving-kindness, mercy, loyalty) is fundamentally a kinship term, reflecting the duties, rights, and obligations within a tribe. Covenants allowed these kinship-based rights and duties to be extended to non-kin, bringing “strangers into the tribe with all the rights and duties of natural-born members”.
There is no quid pro quo contract concept in covenants. Covenants create a loving society, not a business contract. God is our Heavenly Father, who loves, nurtures, redeems, and defends his people. What made Israel unique was that the Lord became their God and father through his covenant with Abraham, establishing a full set of reciprocal expectations to do as God does.
The Scriptures often uses marriage to describe God’s covenant with His people. God is the husband, and Israel is the wife. Marriage is a good example of hesed. It emphasizes the deep commitment, loyalty, sacrificial love, and obligations, which are sometimes uneven, of this Hebrew idea.
President Nelson said: “Hesed is a unique term describing a covenant relationship in which both parties are bound to be loyal and faithful to each other. A celestial marriage is such a covenant relationship. A husband and wife make a covenant with God and with each other to be loyal and faithful to each other” (Liahona, Oct 2022).
Kerry Muhlestein observed: “My wife is a wonderful person. I think she loves everyone. No matter who they are or what they have done, she loves them. That is as it should be. Yet I hope that she loves me in a different way than she loves everyone else. We have bound ourselves to each other and, as a result, we have given our hearts to each other in a different way. This has caused us to yoke ourselves to each other, to go through life and its labors and experiences together. The bond we have entered into with each other and our resulting loyalty to each other have created a different kind of love. That seems to also be the case between God and anyone who is willing to covenant with Him. He offers this different kind of love to all, but it is actually extended only to those who have chosen to create a different kind of relationship with Him.
“This loyal love means that God will always keep working with His covenant people. It means that when they stray, He will do whatever it takes to bring them back. It might be that they respond easily to His pleadings to return. In other circumstances, He may have to bring them back the hard way. Regardless, God will loyally and lovingly extend merciful chances to those for whom He has hesed.
“On a personal level, there can be no more comforting doctrine. Once we have made a covenant with God, our relationship with Him changes and becomes much closer, much more tightly knit. Further, we can rest sure in the knowledge that He will never tire in His efforts to help us, and we will never exhaust His patience and mercy with us. He will work with us forever, and His mercy for us will never end. This is a beautiful, powerful, and comforting knowledge. You have a special place in God’s heart. He will never give up on you!
“There is great comfort in understanding God’s hesed toward those who covenant with Him. How blessed we are to be able to partake of the Abrahamic covenant! The safety that covenant extends to us is a protective bubble, a promise that God will never stop working with us. The covenant path to protection extends God’s shield over us as a covenant people, and to each one of us as a covenant person. God’s hesed for those in the covenant is our shield and our buckler. Hesed is one reason the covenant path is the path to protection. This is a sure protection, for surely God will prevail” (God Will Prevail).
Hesed, God’s covenant love, is the reason we build temples and perform ordinances
President Russell M. Nelson
Hesed and the Book of Mormon
Though it is an English translation, the Book of Mormon reflects Old Testament hesed culture. Nelson Glueck’s classic study identified God’s hesed with Jehovah’s covenantal relationship with his followers, characterized by loyalty, mutual aid, and reciprocal love. This relationship is rooted in justice, righteousness, faithfulness, and loyalty, and God’s hesed is gracious, deriving from his oath, promise, or covenant.
Hesed refers to a set of righteous expectations that apply to covenant relationships, both with God and with other people. This is what makes a covenant, creating mutual rights and obligations. King Benjamin’s great address reflects hesed’s kinship. “I would that ye should take upon you the name of Christ” (Mosiah 5:8) and be called “the children of Christ” (Mosiah 5:7). Alma’s classic sermon in Mosiah 18 to bear one another’s burdens, mourn with those that mourn; and comfort those that stand in need of comfort perfectly describes hesed.
Another characteristic of hesed is its emphasis on acts of deliverance, whether physical or spiritual. God’s hesed delivered Israel from Egypt, and for individuals, it means deliverance from enemies, trouble, and even hell. This also includes forgiveness of sins through divine hesed. Nephi begins his record by emphasizing that God would help covenant keepers “even unto the power of deliverance” (1 Nephi 1:20).
A key aspect of hesed is kinship. In ancient Israel the duty of redemption was through a go’el (kinsman redeemer), who would act to avenge, redeem property, or marry a kinsman’s widow (such as Boaz and Ruth). The Book of Mormon clearly portrays Christ taking on this role as a kinsman redeemer, eternally redeeming his people from death and hell through his Atonement.
An Illustration
At its heart, hesed signifies a faithful, mutual help among people bound by a covenantal relationship. It’s the foundation of a Zion people.
“The men with one group of relief wagons, not yet met by the emigrants, concluded from their long delay in appearing that the rear companies of the emigration had perished in the snow, and were for turning back to Salt Lake; but Ephraim K. Hanks, commonly known as “Eph Hanks,” who was connected with the mail carrying service, was determined to ascertain the fate of the emigrants, and accordingly mounted one team horse, and leading another, rode on alone. He met the emigrants while yet on the Sweetwater. He had killed a buffalo—two of them, in fact—and cutting the meat into strips, packed it on the horse he was leading; and this with other buffalo he had killed after joining the company, materially added to the meat supply.
“By the time South Pass was reached, enough relief teams had arrived to allow some passing on to help the wagon trains still further back, and at the same time admit of all the emigrants riding in the wagons. The journey now was more rapid. By the 21st of November Green river was reached. On the 28th the company camped on the Weber. Meantime other parties had been at work keeping the road open over the mountain passes east of Salt Lake City. By this time the relief wagons numbered one hundred and four, and the emigrants were welcomed by throngs of people into Salt Lake City, where they arrived on Sunday, the 30th of November.
Every relief that shelter, and food, and clothing, and kindness, and devoted attention could bring to these belated emigrants was accorded them. The usual Sunday morning services were in progress at the “Old Tabernacle” when President Young learned of the approach of Martin’s company to the city. In dismissing the congregation that the people might meet the emigrants and care for them, he said:
“‘When those persons arrive, I do not want to see them put into houses by themselves. I want to have them distributed in this city among the families that have good, comfortable houses; and I wish the sisters now before me, and all who know how and can, to nurse and wait upon the newcomers, and prudently administer medicine and food to them. . . . The afternoon meeting will be omitted, for I wish the sisters to go home and prepare to give those who have just arrived a mouthful of something to eat, and to wash them, and nurse them up. . . . Prayer is good, but when (as on this occasion) baked potatoes, and pudding, and milk are needed, prayer will not supply their place. Give every duty its proper time and place. . . . I want you to understand that I desire this people to nurse them up; we want you to receive them as your own children, and to have the same feelings for them. . . . Now that the most of them are here, we will continue our labors of love until they are able to take care of themselves, and we will receive the blessing. You need not be distrustful about that, for the Lord will bless this people’” (B. H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 4:99–101).
