Bible Lexicons

Girdlestone's Synonyms of the Old TestamentGirdlestone's OT Synonyms

Trust

Passing from the idea of faith to that of trust, a few exceptional renderings in the A. V. may be noted in the first instance in Psalms 22:8, 'He trusted on the Lord,' the word galal, 'to roll,' is used in Job 35:14, 'Trust thou in him,' the word is chul (חול ), 'stay thou (or 'wait thou') up on him.' Yachal (יחל ), to hope, occurs in Job 13:15, 'Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him ;' and Isaiah 51:5, ' on mine arm shall they trust.'

Chasah (חסה ), to flee for refuge, is rendered 'trust' in the A. V in above thirty passages, out of which number twenty-four occur in the Psalms. It is often used where God is compared to a rock or a shield, or where the saint is described as taking refuge 'under the shadow of his wings.' It is used in Psalms 2:12, 'Blessed are all they that put their trust in him;' where we are taught that the son affords that same kind of shelter or protection which the Father gives. Compare Psalms 34:8, where the same words are applied to Jehovah . The word is also used in Psalms 118:8, 'It is better to trust in the Lord than to put any confidence in man;' in Isaiah 14:32; Isaiah 57:13, and Zephaniah 3:12.

The most general word, however, to express trust is bathach (בטח ), to confide in, or lean upon. [Dr. Sayce says that this rout is replaced in Assyrian by takalu, e.g ina tukulli Assuri, ' in reliance on Assur.'] Here it is to be remarked that, though we are in the habit of speaking of faith and trust as the same thing, the Hebrew has two distinct words for them, and so has the LXX. Whilst aman answers to πιστεύω, to believe, or realise, bathach, to trust, is never so rendered, nor is the substantive derived from it ever rendered πίστις. for the verb we generally find ἐλπίζω, to hope, πείθομαι, to be persuaded; and for the noun we have ἐλπίς, hope. The man who believes God is he who, having received a revelation from Him, realises it, and acts up on it as true. The man who trusts God is he who casts all his hopes for the present and future on God. It is the former quality, not the latter, that God regards as a condition of justification. Faith must precede hope, because a hope for the future which is not grounded up on a present acceptance with God is no hope; and a sense of acceptance which is not accompanied with a living, working faith is an unreality.