StrongerBible

tsadaq

צָדֵק

HebrewH6663“justify, be righteous, ...”

Appears 41 times · tap a cell to see the verses

Gen 38:26Gen 44:16Exo 23:7Deu 25:12Sa 15:41Ki 8:322Ch 6:23Job 4:17Job 9:2Job 9:15Job 9:20Job 10:15Job 11:2Job 13:18Job 15:14Job 22:3Job 25:4Job 27:5Job 32:2Job 33:12Job 33:32Job 34:5Job 35:7Job 40:8Psa 19:9(10)Psa 51:4(6)Psa 82:3Psa 143:2Pro 17:15Isa 5:23Isa 43:9Isa 43:26Isa 45:25Isa 50:8Isa 53:11Jer 3:11Ezk 16:51Ezk 16:52 (2×)Dan 8:14Dan 12:3
Root family
Names & words formed with this
Word studyResearch-gradetsah-DAHKverb

What tsadaq means

1

to be in the right: to stand righteous, just, or cleared, whether as a settled state of life or as a verdict won in a dispute

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

This is the verb seen from the side of the person whose standing is at stake. Two shades belong together here. One is the steady condition of being a person who is in the right, whose life lines up with what God requires. The other is the moment that condition is recognized: the one who is in the right is proved right, cleared, and vindicated when the matter is tested or contested.

The book of Job presses the first shade to its limit, asking again and again whether any human being can really be in the right when measured against God. Job insists he is; his friends, and finally God, force the question open. The same word then carries the second shade in the courtroom and the prophets: when a charge is laid and answered, the innocent party is shown to be in the right.

The two run together because in Hebrew thought being righteous and being vindicated are not separate worlds. To be in the right is already to have a claim that, fairly heard, will be upheld. The word can name the standing and the recognition of it in one breath.

Nuances

1ato be righteous, to be genuinely in the right before God or in one's conduct
Job 4:17Job 9:2Job 9:15Job 9:20Job 10:15Job 13:18Job 15:14Job 22:3Job 25:4Job 33:12Job 34:5Psa 143:2
1bto be proved right, to be cleared or vindicated when a charge or claim is tested
Gen 38:26Job 40:8Psa 51:4(6)Isa 43:9Isa 43:26Isa 45:25Dan 8:14
2

to put someone in the right: to declare, pronounce, or treat a person as righteous, to acquit and vindicate them

TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong

Here the word turns outward: it is what one person, often a judge, does to another. To do this is to give a verdict, to declare and treat someone as being in the right, to acquit the innocent and uphold their cause. Its opposite is to condemn, and the two are regularly paired as the two halves of a just decision.

God forbids the corrupt version of this act, the clearing of the guilty for a bribe, and condemns judges who do it. The honest version is what God himself does for those who turn to him, and what the suffering servant of Isaiah does for the many. A closely related, sharper use shows up in disputes between parties: to make a case that puts oneself in the right, or to show another to be more in the right by comparison.

The thread holding these together is the act of assigning right standing rather than possessing it. Whether it is a fair courtroom acquittal, a self-justifying argument, or one nation shown up as less guilty than another, the verb names the move that places someone on the right side of the verdict.

Nuances

2ato declare or treat as righteous, to acquit and vindicate a person, the proper act of a just judge
Exo 23:7Deu 25:12Sa 15:41Ki 8:322Ch 6:23Job 27:5Psa 82:3Pro 17:15Isa 5:23Isa 50:8Isa 53:11Dan 12:3
2bto make oneself or another out to be in the right, or to show one party more in the right than another by comparison
Gen 44:16Job 32:2Job 33:32Jer 3:11Ezk 16:51Ezk 16:52 (2×)

What scholars say about tsadaq

The standard lexica agree on the surface range of the verb (be just, be in the right, be vindicated; and in the causative, declare or treat as righteous) while differing over which sense is basic. BDB organizes the root around rightness in conduct, registering vindication and deliverance especially for Isaiah 40 through 66; HALOT absorbs the relational reading, glossing the root as right order and noting the parallel with salvation language in Deutero-Isaiah; DCH refuses theologically loaded glosses and simply records the verb's collocations. The verb's home setting is widely taken to be the law court (the dispute, the verdict), as Mark Seifrid and Charles Lee Irons argue against the older relational consensus of Hermann Cremer, Gerhard von Rad, and Klaus Koch, who read the root as fidelity within a relationship. Klaus Koch's lexicon article defines the verb as being loyal to community and so salvific. The causative forms are paradigmatically forensic and declarative, as in Deuteronomy 25:1 (declare the one in the right to be in the right and the guilty to be guilty).

Where scholars disagree about tsadaq

Scholars disagree over the basic meaning of the whole צדק family, and so of this verb: whether it fundamentally means conformity to a standard tested in a law court (a forensic, distributive reading) or faithfulness to the demands of a relationship (a relational reading).

  • contestedForensic / distributive: the verb's home is the law court; being in the right means having a claim that a fair hearing upholds, measured against a real norm; Mark A. Seifrid, "Righteousness Language in the Hebrew Scriptures and Early Judaism," in Justification and Variegated Nomism, vol. 1 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2001), 415-442; Charles Lee Irons, The Righteousness of God, WUNT II/386 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2015)
  • contestedRelational: being in the right means fulfilling the demands of a relationship, so that God's righteousness is by definition saving rather than punitive; Hermann Cremer, Die paulinische Rechtfertigungslehre im Zusammenhange ihrer geschichtlichen Voraussetzungen (Gütersloh: Bertelsmann, 1899); Gerhard von Rad, Old Testament Theology, trans. D. M. G. Stalker (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1962), 1:370-383
In-depth research

This is a research paper, so it may be hard to read without scholarly background. It is useful if you want to dig even deeper into this word.

Sources

  • Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and C. A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Oxford: Clarendon, 1906), 841b-843blexicon
  • Ludwig Koehler, Walter Baumgartner, and J. J. Stamm, The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, trans. M. E. J. Richardson (Leiden: Brill, 1994-2000), 3:1003-1007lexicon
  • David J. A. Clines, ed., The Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, vol. 7 (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2010), s.v. צדקlexicon
  • H. Ringgren and B. Johnson, "צדק ṣādaq," in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, vol. 12 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003), 239-264theological-dictionary
  • Klaus Koch, "צדק ṣdq gemeinschaftstreu/heilvoll sein," in Theologisches Handwörterbuch zum Alten Testament, vol. 2 (München: Kaiser, 1976), cols. 507-530theological-dictionary
  • David J. Reimer, "צדק," in New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis, ed. W. A. VanGemeren (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997), 3:744-769theological-dictionary
  • Mark A. Seifrid, "Righteousness Language in the Hebrew Scriptures and Early Judaism," in Justification and Variegated Nomism, vol. 1, ed. D. A. Carson, P. T. O'Brien, and M. A. Seifrid, WUNT II/140 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2001), 415-442monograph
  • Charles Lee Irons, The Righteousness of God: A Lexical Examination of the Covenant-Faithfulness Interpretation, WUNT II/386 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2015)monograph

AI-generated word study · claude-opus-4-8

All attested forms of צָדֵק

qal imperfect 3ms

יִצְדַּק, יִצְדָּק, יִּצְדַּק

Job 15:14, Psa 143:2, Job 4:17, Job 11:2, Job 9:2, Job 25:4

piel infinitive-construct construct

צַדְּק, צַדְּקֶ, צַדֶּקְתֵּ

Job 32:2, Job 33:32, Ezk 16:52

qal jussive 2ms

תִּצְדָּק, תִּצְדַּק

Job 40:8, Isa 43:26, Psa 51:4

hiphil imperfect 1cs

אַצְדִּיק

Exo 23:7, Job 27:5

hiphil infinitive-construct construct

הַצְדִּיק

1Ki 8:32, 2Ch 6:23

hiphil participle m p construct

מַצְדִּיקֵי

Isa 5:23, Dan 12:3

qal imperfect 1cs

אֶצְדָּק

Job 9:20, Job 13:18

qal perfect 1cs

צָדַקְתִּי

Job 9:15, Job 34:5

qal perfect 2ms

צָדַקְתָּ

Job 33:12, Job 35:7

hiphil consecutive-perfect 1cs

וְהִצְדַּקְתִּי

2Sa 15:4

hiphil consecutive-perfect 3cp

וְהִצְדִּיקוּ

Deu 25:1

hiphil imperative 2mp

הַצְדִּיקוּ

Psa 82:3

hiphil imperfect 3ms

יַצְדִּיק

Isa 53:11

hiphil participle m s absolute

מַצְדִּיק

Pro 17:15

hiphil participle m s construct

מַצְדִּיקִ

Isa 50:8

hithpael imperfect 1cp

נִּצְטַדָּק

Gen 44:16

niphal consecutive-perfect 3ms

וְנִצְדַּק

Dan 8:14

piel consecutive-imperfect 2fs

וַתְּצַדְּקִי

Ezk 16:51

piel perfect 3fs

צִדְּקָה

Jer 3:11

qal conjunctive-imperfect 3mp

וְיִצְדָּקוּ

Isa 43:9

qal consecutive-perfect 1cs

וְצָדַקְתִּי

Job 10:15

qal imperfect 2ms

תִצְדָּק

Job 22:3

qal imperfect 3fp

תִּצְדַּקְנָה

Ezk 16:52

qal imperfect 3mp

יִצְדְּקוּ

Isa 45:25

qal perfect 3cp

צָדְקוּ

Psa 19:9

qal perfect 3fs

צָדְקָה

Gen 38:26