aman

This is the root idea behind the whole word: something that holds firm and does not give way, so you can lean your weight on it. The same picture covers a person who proves dependable, an office or promise that stands, and a structure fixed solidly in place.

When it describes people it means faithful or trustworthy: a servant, a priest, a witness, or a friend who can be relied on. When it describes God's promises, his covenant love, or a royal house, it means lasting and secure, fixed so firmly that time cannot shake it. When it describes words or testimony it means confirmed and proven true.

These shades are one idea seen from different angles. A faithful person, an enduring promise, and a verified report all share the same quality of being solid and dependable rather than shifting or failing.

When the word is used in a way that calls for action rather than describing a quality, it means to treat someone or something as firm enough to rely on, that is, to believe or to trust. It is the inner counterpart of the root idea: because a person or report is dependable, you put your weight on it.

Most often the object is God himself or his word, and the trust is the response of resting one's confidence in him. It can also mean believing a piece of news or a person's claim, and at times it carries a warning edge: do not be naive and trust just anyone or anything.

The most famous instance is Abram believing the LORD, which is counted to him as righteousness. There the word names the whole posture of taking God at his word and staking one's future on it.

In a small set of uses the word keeps its most concrete form: to hold up and tend a young child, the way a nurse or foster-parent carries and raises one who cannot yet stand on their own. This is the same picture of firm support, here applied to caregiving.

The one who does this is a guardian, foster-father, or nurse, the one whose arms the child is carried in and whose care the child depends on. It is used both literally, of those who reared royal children, and as an image for kings and queens who will one day cradle and provide for God's people.

This caregiving sense is closely tied to the root idea of being firm and dependable: the guardian is the steady support a helpless child leans on entirely.