9
expressed in a settled and constant manner. This understanding of the use of emunah, while
developed from a perusal of its use with relation to humanity, is not absent from passages that
speak of God's faithfulness. Psalm 33:4 states that "all of YHWH's deeds [are done] with
faithfulness," i.e. with complete constancy.
The Translation of emunah in the Septuagint. There are a variety of Greek words that are
used in the Septuagint to translate emunah, but the two most common are aletheia, usually
translated "truth," and pistis, usually rendered "faithfulness" or "faith."
33
The first is far more
common when reference is made to God's faithfulness. There are 25 references to God's emunah
in the OT, and 19 out of the 25 are represented in the Septuagint by the Greek word aletheia.
34
The LXX of Isa. 11:5, which speaks of the faithfulness of the Messiah, the "shoot of Jesse," also
uses aletheia. In the Book of Psalms emunah is used almost exclusively of God (20 out of 22
times), and this results in an almost stereotyped (constant) rendering for that book. The
translation of emunah by pistis is the most frequent when the text is speaking of a person's
faithfulness.
Habakkuk's Intended Meaning. Given the discussion of the force of the word emunah in a
previous section, how should it be understood in Hab. 2:4? A provisional translation might be
"but as for a just person--he will live by his consistency."
35
But such a translation leaves
33
The other equivalents are alethinos (2x); pistos (1x); sterizo (1x); ploutos (1x); axiopistos (1x);
nomos (1x); no equivalent (2x).
34
The other references to God's faithfulness are rendered by pistos (1x); pistis (2x); alethinos
(1x); nomos (1x); and no equivalent (1x).
35
The syntax of the clause is a noun plus contrastive waw that functions as a casus pendens,
followed by a prepositional phrase and a verb. The verb is a qal imperfect 3MS. The noun that is
a casus pendens is resumed by the pronominal suffix in the prepositional phrase. This structure is
emphatic. A more usual structure would simply state "a righteous person will live by