By Craig D Wescoe 
Translators render the Hebrew word hesed as “lovingkindness,” “steadfast love,” “mercy,” or “covenant loyalty” — and none of them quite fits. The word appears roughly 250 times in the Hebrew Bible and carries the sense of committed, faithful love that acts.
This article will walk through the word’s range of meaning, its most famous occurrences from Ruth to the Psalms, and why a single English equivalent has eluded every translation committee. (Placeholder article — full research to come.)