'gebideð' - 'gebideð' can mean either ‘await’ or ‘experience’, which suggests two possible interpretations: 1) the solitary man always experiences mercy; or 2) the solitary man always awaits mercy. The former (adopted here) seems to allow for a looser interpretation, whereas the latter (accepted by Muir 2000, p. 503, for example) enforces early on a Christian didactic approach, i.e. this is what will happen.