Tzadik (ṣdq / ṣādı̂q) or Tzedek indicates that there is righteousness and justification or justice. When we have it about tzedek, we think of the quality or state of being morally correct and justifiable. Some consider it synonymous with “rightness” or being “upright”. In a basic sense, the Hebrew term ṣdq and Greek term dikaioún imply “relation to a norm” or “covenant” or “power” or “order.”
In Hebrew, we talk about the quality of being found right or innocent. Its related nominal and verbal forms have also the basic meaning of someone or something proven true, especially in a legal context, someone to be “innocent” or “good”. In the Scriptures, we do find the description of a good king (Isa. 32: 1) or a fair partner or neighbour (Amos 5: 6–7). But the scope of righteousness is much wider than judicial procedures and embraces the whole covenanted life of the people under God.
“ Behold, a king will reign in righteousness and princes will rule in justice.”
(Isaiah 32:1 TLV)“Seek ADONAI, and live— lest He rush like fire through the house of Joseph. Yes, it will devour Bethel, with no one to quench it.
You who turn justice to wormwood threw righteousness to the ground.”
(Amos 5:6–7 TLV)
There is a certain general parallelism of development between ṣdq and dikaioún language. Legal uses develop for both (Ps. 9:4[MT 5]; Isa. 5:7), a sense of “proper order, proper comportment” (ṣeḏeq-ṣĕḏēqâ and mišpāṭ, “righteousness and justice”; doing the “right” thing); and hence an ethical sense (Ps. 15).
“When my enemies turn back, they stumble and perish before You.”
(Psalm 9:4 TLV)“ For the vineyard of ADONAI-Tzva’ot is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah the planting of His delight. He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed, for righteousness, but behold, a cry!”
(Isaiah 5:7 TLV)
God is righteous because he observes His covenant, which is righteous, delivering Israel from enemies and offering hope for the future.
“ So Pharaoh sent, called for Moses and Aaron and said to them, “I have sinned this time. ADONAI is righteous, while I and my people are wicked.”
(Exodus 9:27 TLV)“The Rock—blameless is His work. Indeed, all His ways are just. God of faithfulness without iniquity, righteous and upright is He.”
(Deuteronomy 32:4 TLV)“What great nation is there that has statutes and ordinances that are righteous—like all of this Torah that I am setting before you today?”
(Deuteronomy 4:8 TLV)“ “Behold, days are coming” —it is a declaration of ADONAI— “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He will reign as king wisely, and execute justice and righteousness in the land.
In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell in safely; and this is His Name by which He will be called: ADONAI our righteousness.”
(Jeremiah 23:5–6 TLV)“By Myself I have sworn— the word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness, and is irrevocable: that to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear.
They will say of Me, ‘Only in ADONAI is righteousness and strength.’ All who have raged against Him will come to Him and be put to shame.”
(Isaiah 45:23–24 TLV)
We can find righteous people like Noah, David, Samuel a.o.:
“ These are the genealogies of Noah. Noah was a righteous man. He was blameless among his generation. Noah continually walked with God.”
(Genesis 6:9 TLV)“ “Suppose there is a dispute between people and they approach the court, the judges hear their case, and declare one righteous and the other guilty.”
(Deuteronomy 25:1 TLV)“ David reigned over all Israel, and David executed justice and righteousness for all his people.”
(2 Samuel 8:15 TLV)“ ADONAI rewarded me for my righteousness. For the cleanness of my hands He repaid me.”
(2 Samuel 22:21 TLV)“ Solomon said: “You have shown my father Your servant David great lovingkindness, as he walked before You in truth, righteousness and uprightness of heart toward You. Indeed, You have kept this great lovingkindness for him by giving him a son to sit on his throne, as it is today.”
(1 Kings 3:6 TLV)
Also, matters, things, nations, actions, and decisions can be righteous:
“ “Judges and officers you are to appoint within all your gates that ADONAI your God is giving you, according to your tribes; and they are to judge the people with righteous judgment.
You are not to twist justice—you must not show partiality or take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and distorts the words of the righteous.”
(Deuteronomy 16:18–19 TLV)“Peoples they call to the mountain— there they offer righteous sacrifices. For they suckle the abundance of the seas and the hidden treasures of the sand.’”
(Deuteronomy 33:19 TLV)“ “After ADONAI your God has driven them out from before you, do not say in your heart, ‘It is because of my righteousness that ADONAI has brought me in to possess this land.’ It is because of the wickedness of these nations that ADONAI is driving them out from before you.
It is not by your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you are going in to possess their land. Rather, because of the wickedness of these nations, ADONAI your God is driving them out from before you, and in order to keep the word ADONAI swore to your fathers—to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
So you should understand that it is not because of your righteousness that ADONAI your God is giving you this good land to possess—for you are a stiff-necked people.”
(Deuteronomy 9:4–6 TLV)“ For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her righteousness shines out brightly, and her salvation as a blazing torch.
Nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory. You will be called by a new name, which ADONAI’s mouth will bestow.”
(Isaiah 62:1–2 TLV)“Thus says ADONAI: ‘Execute justice and righteousness. Rescue the one who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor. Do not mistreat or do violence to the stranger, the fatherless or the widow. Do not shed innocent blood in this place.”
(Jeremiah 22:3 TLV)
Sometimes human righteousness is seen as a response to or reflection of the divine righteousness or graciousness (Isa. 56.1; 58.8), and essentially it is the acknowledgement of God in the worship of Him alone and in living as He wants (Ezek. 18.5, 9).
“ Thus says ADONAI: “Preserve justice, do righteousness. For My salvation is about to come, and My righteousness to be revealed.”
(Isaiah 56:1 TLV)“Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will spring up speedily. Your righteousness will go before you, the glory of ADONAI as your rear guard.””
(Isaiah 58:8 TLV)“ “Suppose a man is just and does what is lawful and right:”
(Ezekiel 18:5 TLV)
“walks in My laws and keeps My statutes, behaving honestly. Such a person is just—he will surely live.” It is a declaration of ADONAI.”
(Ezekiel 18:9 TLV)
The specific meaning depends on circumstances: for a ruler, it means good government and the deliverance of true judgment (Isa. 32.1; Jer. 23.5); for ordinary people, it means treating one’s neighbour as a covenant partner, neither oppressing nor being oppressed (Amos 5.6–7, 21–4); and for everyone it means keeping God’s will as conveyed in the Torah (Deut. 6.25).
“Seek ADONAI, and live— lest He rush like fire through the house of Joseph. Yes, it will devour Bethel, with no one to quench it.
You who turn justice to wormwood threw righteousness to the ground.”
(Amos 5:6–7 TLV)“ “I hate, I despise your festivals! I take no delight in your sacred assemblies.
Even if you offer me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, nor will I look at peace offerings of your fattened animals.
Take away from Me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the melody of your harps.
But let justice roll like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing torrent.”
(Amos 5:21–24 TLV)
In the Set Apart Scriptures we find that the righteousness of God means that He is a just and reliable judge (Ps. 9.4-5) who keeps his side of the covenant and who thus delivers Israel from her enemies, so that they experience that righteousness as punishment, while Israel experiences it as salvation and vindication (Judg. 5.11). Indeed, in some places, God’s righteousness and salvation are virtually synonymous (Isa. 51.1–3), and from the exile onward we find God’s righteousness as an object of hope (Jer. 23.5; Dan. 9.24).
“When my enemies turn back, they stumble and perish before You.
For You upheld my right and my cause. You sat upon the throne, judging righteously.”
(Psalm 9:4–5 TLV)“Louder than the sound of archers, at the watering places! There let them rehearse the righteous acts of ADONAI, the righteous deeds for His villages in Israel. Then the people of ADONAI went down to the gates.”
(Judges 5:11 TLV)“ “Listen to Me, you who pursue justice, you who seek ADONAI. Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.
Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you. For when I called him, he was but one, then I blessed him and multiplied him.”
For ADONAI will comfort Zion. He will comfort all her waste places. He will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of ADONAI. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and a sound of melody.”
(Isaiah 51:1–3 TLV)
In our rabbinic literature of the Tannaitic period, when oral traditions related to religious law were compiled, righteousness is often specified to mean generosity in general and almsgiving in particular. The oral law or Mishna (Repeated Study) is a code of conduct.
As you could see from the above quotations, there is also a development of the biblical tendency for ‘righteous’ to refer to Israel or a group within Israel, everyone else being at least relatively unrighteous; this may reflect the experience of oppression. In the Dead Sea Scrolls we find the Qumran sect regarding themselves as the only truly righteous. Righteousness is still, however, essentially conformity to the divine ordinances, that is, covenantal obedience. In the Septuagint there is very high consistency in rendering the derivatives of the Hebrew root ṣdq by the Greek dikaiosunē and its cognates, whose semantic field overlaps considerably with that of the Hebrew words.
We must be aware that “justice” is not just a single concept, but that for us the most important meaning is the quality of being right and deserving fair treatment as well as fairness in the way people are treated. In such regard, the New Testament writers use the word for life under the Elohim in the community of followers of Christ. Matthew reserves it also for life under God before Christ came and outside the Christian community. By Matthew and Paul dikaioún that righteousness is not only a divine requirement but also a divine gift, especially in 5.6; 6.33.
““Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
(Matthew 5:6 TLV)“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
(Matthew 6:33 TLV)
Altogether, we can say that when someone behaves or lives in a way that is morally good, they are righteous. There is righteousness or quality or state of being righteous, when there is moral, just, or virtuous behaviour. That way, from the Book of books, we learn we have to be morally good and fair. To do so, we best try to be in alignment with the heavenly rules and statutes Jehovah provided for us.
The tzedek makes the change in a person, him or her taking a certain attitude to others. It entails a willingness to let the own person be moulded by the Hands of God, coming under His righteousness willing to share that righteousness with others. always wanting that good might come over them, and making sure not to do any bad or to bring any injustice over others.
When being in Christ we must live according to his teachings and according to the law Jeshua also followed, which is the Law of God. Connected with Christ and his brethren and sisters, we have to keep to the promise we made before we were baptised, sharing the Good Message of our justification before God.
Living in the realm of God, where tzedek is everywhere, we may trust in him who shall return to the earth and speak justice over all people. In Jeshua we carry with us the hope of being justified, and as such we may already enjoy the blessings of such justification in our present life.
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Additional reading
- Main verses in the Bible telling us Who God is #7 The Stronghold and Rock God a Refuge and strong Shield and Tower
- God does not change
- Scattered, broken, thwarted reflection of God
- God receives us on the basis of our faith (Some View on the World) = God receives us on the basis of our faith (Our World)
- God wants to be gracious to you (Our World) = God wants to be gracious to you (Some View on the World)
- Being aligned with above (Our World) = Being aligned with above (Some View on the World)
- Created in the image of the Elohim to use their likeness properly
- Law and justice very important concepts
- Today’s Thought “God’s salvation shall be for ever, and His righteousness shall not be abolished” (June 26)
- Memorizing wonderfully 14 Psalms 1-84 Delight in the Law of Jehovah God until death
- Memorizing wonderfully 15 Psalms 85-120 Salvation, Mercy, Truth and Righteousness
- Biblical verses about the righteous branch
- Importance of Tikkun olam
- One Passover tradition asking to provide the less fortunate with foods and help
- Today’s thought “Slaves of righteousness” (July 30)
- Is Justification a process?
- Redemption #8 Righteousness by Faith
- Nazarene Commentary Matthew 5:1-12 Nazarene Mountain teachings: Blessed and legal commentaries
- Matthew 6:1-34 – The Nazarene’s Commentary on Leviticus 19:18 Continued 1 Charity and neighbour love
- Through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe
- Talks about freedom, righteousness, impurity and exclusion from the kingdom
- Ability (part 3) Thoughts around Ability
- Act as if everything you think, say and do determines your entire life
- Growth in character
- Kindness
- That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us
Jeshuaisten / Jeshuaists 
Een gedachte over “Justified and connected”