The Old Testament is a collection of books about God’s relationship with humanity (and in particular, with the people of Israel). The way that relationship is expressed is most commonly referred to with the Hebrew word hesed, which the ESV usually translates as “steadfast love.” This theme of the steadfast love of God courses through the entirety of the Old Testament and is one of the main elements that binds together all its disparate genres and styles.

Hesed has a more particular set of meanings than the English word “love” does, especially when applied as an attribute of God. It is related to the word for kindness (and in older translations was often rendered as “lovingkindness”), which indicates that the word does not primarily conceive of love as an affective emotion or an inner state of one’s own feelings, but as an active virtue which reaches out to practical effect in others’ lives. It also carries overtones of faithfulness and loyalty, and thus some English translations render it as “faithful love” or “covenant love.” Essentially, hesed is an active expression of love in the context of an established relationship of complete commitment between two parties.