judgment: the deciding of a legal case, whether the verdict handed down or the rightful cause brought for decision.
This word covers the courtroom side of justice. It can name the act of handing down a verdict, the legal claim a person brings, or the quarrel that puts two parties before a judge. The three hang together: wherever a wrong needs settling, this one word covers both the process and its result.
Its most memorable use is for the cause of the powerless. Again and again Proverbs, the Psalms, and the prophets measure a ruler or a whole society by whether they take up the cause of the poor, the fatherless, and the widow. Here the word is not an abstract ideal but a particular person's rightful claim that someone in authority is bound to uphold.
It can also name the dispute itself. In one proverb, driving out a mocker makes the quarreling stop; in Deuteronomy it is one of the hard categories of case sent up to the central court. Whether the setting is a formal trial or an everyday squabble, the word points to a matter that calls for a decision.
It runs close to the broader word for justice, מִשְׁפָּט, which often stands beside it in poetry. The difference is one of focus: this word fixes on a specific case and its verdict, while the broader word reaches out to justice as a whole standard or ordinance.