Baker Academic

Hesed: The Seed of the Biblical Story

Jennifer M. Matheny

Baker Academic · Biblical Studies
Published May 2026 · ISBN 9781540966681

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From the publisher

In her accessibly written analysis, Matheny engages theologically with the Torah, Prophets, and Writings to trace hesed's relational impact through the Old Testament. Through stories, poems, and songs of broken covenants, war, and exile, Matheny shows how violence and injustice reign when humanity fails to be keepers and doers of Yhwh's hesed, while justice and hope prevail when humanity chooses courageous acts of hesed.

Description adapted from the publisher, Baker Academic.

About the author. Jennifer M. Matheny (PhD, University of Kent) is associate professor of Christian Scriptures at George W. Truett Seminary, Baylor University, in Waco, Texas. She serves as cochair of the biblical studies unit for the Wesleyan Theological Society. Matheny is the author of Illustrated Joshua in Hebrew in the GlossaHouse Illustrated Biblical Texts series, Judges 19-21 and Ruth: Canon as a Voice of Answerability, and Clothing, Dress, and Nudity in the Five Scrolls (forthcoming).

The Theology Shelf note: we'll add our own take once we've read it. For now, this page gathers the publisher's description.

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