Bible word study

Chesed (Strong’s H2617): Meaning in the Bible

Chesed (חֶסֶד) is the Hebrew word numbered H2617 in Strong’s concordance of the Bible. Strong’s defines it as kindness; by implication (towards God) piety; rarely (by opposition) reproof, or (subject.) beauty. In the King James Bible it is translated favour, good deed(-liness, -ness), kindly, (loving-) kindness.

• Original wordחֶסֶד
• Transliterationcheçed
• Pronunciationkheh'-sed
• Part of speechnoun (masculine) (n-m)
• Strong’s numberH2617
• LanguageHebrew

The full Strong’s definition

Derivation. from H2616;

How the King James Bible translates it

Where Chesed appears in the Bible

In the King James Bible’s text tagged with Strong’s numbers, Chesed (H2617) stands behind 248 English renderings in 241 verses across 28 of the 66 books. It is most frequent in Psalms (128), 2 Samuel (12), Genesis (11).

How the King James Bible renders Chesed, by count

• mercy137 of 248 (55 percent)
• kindness40 of 248 (16 percent)
• lovingkindness26 of 248 (10 percent)
• goodness12 of 248 (5 percent)
• mercies12 of 248 (5 percent)
• kindly5 of 248 (2 percent)

Three places to read Chesed

• Genesis 19:19 Behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast shewed unto me in saving my life; and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die:
• Psalms 23:6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
• Psalms 119:64 The earth, O LORD, is full of thy mercy: teach me thy statutes.

Counts are made at build time from the King James text tagged with Strong’s numbers (eBible.org, public domain). Verses are read from the stored King James text, never typed.

And Christ

The Hebrew Scriptures sing of God's steadfast love for a people who kept breaking faith. Christians read the cross as that covenant love carried to its furthest point, love that keeps its promise even when it costs everything.

The lexical data on this page comes from the public-domain Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890), a Hebrew and Greek dictionary keyed to the King James Bible. It is a reference tool, not a settled verdict: no single word decides a doctrine, and meaning is finally shaped by how a word is used in its sentences. Read the passages themselves, prayerfully, and in full.

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