Emunah is the quality of being firm, reliable, and steadfast in one's commitment to God and His covenant. It is first an attribute of God Himself — "great is thy faithfulness [emunah]" (Lamentations 3:23) — and then a quality demanded of His people. Biblical faith is not a leap in the dark or a feeling of confidence; it is covenant fidelity. Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6) — but the Hebrew concept beneath "believed" is not intellectual assent; it is the kind of trust a child has in a father who has never dropped him. Emunah is why Moses' hands were "steady" (Exodus 17:12) — the same word. Faith, in the Hebrew mind, is not floating sentiment but solid ground. A man of emunah is a man you can build on because he will not shift when the weather changes.
FAITH — Belief; the assent of the mind to the truth of what is declared by another, resting on his authority and veracity, without other evidence. In theology, the assent of the mind or understanding to the truth of what God has revealed. The firm belief of God's testimony, and of the truth of the gospel, which influences the will, and leads to an entire reliance on Christ for salvation. Evangelical, justifying faith, is the assent of the mind to the truth of divine revelation, on the authority of God's testimony, accompanied with a cordial assent of the will.
Modern usage has severed "faith" from "faithfulness," turning it into a subjective mental state — "I have faith" means "I feel confident" or worse, "I choose to believe despite the evidence." This is the opposite of emunah. Biblical faith is grounded in the demonstrated faithfulness of God, not in the intensity of human feeling. The modern "faith movement" has turned emunah into a technique — believe hard enough and God must respond. This makes faith a human work that manipulates God rather than a humble trust that receives from Him. Additionally, the divorce of faith from obedience — the idea that one can "have faith" while living in persistent disobedience — is foreign to the Hebrew concept. Emunah is faithfulness that acts, endures, and persists. A faith that produces no corresponding life is not emunah; it is self-deception.
• Habakkuk 2:4 — "The just shall live by his faith [emunah]."
• Lamentations 3:22–23 — "His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness [emunah]."
• Genesis 15:6 — "And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness."
• Psalm 119:86 — "All thy commandments are faithful [emunah]."
• Deuteronomy 32:4 — "A God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he."