Righteousness is being right with God and doing right by others, and God gives it: “this righteousness from God comes through faith”. In Genesis 18:19, the Hebrew word is tsedaqah (H6666): what is right: right living, fair dealing, justice done. Strong’s gives ‘rightness’, and says it can be about a person’s character or about justice done to others.
Get DeepWordWhat the original says
Behind “what is right” in this verse is the Hebrew word tsedaqah (said tseh-dah-KAH).
It means what is right: right living, fair dealing, justice done. Strong’s gives ‘rightness’, and says it can be about a person’s character or about justice done to others.
This form, tsedaqah, is a noun after the verb ‘to do’: word for word, ‘to do righteousness and justice’. The Berean puts it as “doing what is right and just”.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is ‘righteousness’ 121 times and ‘right’ 13 times, as in this verse:
Word by word
| דֶּרֶךְ | יְהוָה | לַעֲשׂוֹת | צְדָקָה | וּמִשְׁפָּט | לְמַעַן | הָבִיא |
| way of | The LORD | by · doing | righteousness | and · justice | so that | will bring |
Original form
What this tells us
The LORD has visited Abraham, and as the visitors leave, “Abraham walked along with them to see them off” (Genesis 18:16). The LORD asks, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?” (Genesis 18:17). Judgment is coming on Sodom, and God decides to tell Abraham why, because “through him all the nations of the earth will be blessed” (Genesis 18:18). The word behind “what is right” is tsedaqah: what is right, fair and good, the way things ought to be between people and before God. God says why he chose Abraham: so that his family would “keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just.” Righteousness here is not a feeling of being good. It is something a household does, together, day after day. A few verses later Abraham pleads for the city in the same kind of language: “Will not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?” (Genesis 18:25). Righteousness starts with who God is. And three chapters earlier, when Abram trusted God’s promise, “it was credited to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). Before it is something we do, it is something God counts. If ‘righteous’ sounds to you like a word for people who look down on others, notice where it starts here: in a family learning to do what is right and just. What would that look like in yours?
What the original says
Behind the word “righteousness” in this verse is tsedaqah (said tseh-dah-KAH), the word you met in Genesis 18:19.
It is the same word you met in Genesis 18:19: what is right, here meaning right dealing with other people.
This form, utsedaqah, is the noun with ‘and’ joined to the front (וּ): ‘and righteousness’. It answers mishpat, “justice”, at the start of the verse, a pair the prophets use again and again.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is ‘righteousness’ 121 times, as in “The work of righteousness will be peace” (Isaiah 32:17):
Word by word
| וְיִגַּל | כַּמַּיִם | מִשְׁפָּט | וּצְדָקָה | כְּנַחַל | אֵיתָן |
| and · it may roll on | like · water | justice | and · righteousness | like · a wadi | ever-flowing |
Original form
What this tells us
Amos is not a professional prophet. “I was a herdsman and a tender of sycamore-fig trees,” he says (Amos 7:14), sent from the south to the wealthy northern kingdom of Israel. Their worship is busy and loud, and God answers it: “I hate, I despise your feasts! I cannot stand the stench of your solemn assemblies” (Amos 5:21). He will not listen to their songs (Amos 5:23). Then comes this verse. The word for “righteousness” is tsedaqah: what is right, here meaning right dealing with other people. Amos pairs it with justice and pictures both as water: “let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Many streams in that land ran only after the rains. This one is meant never to dry up. Earlier in the same chapter Amos says, “Hate evil and love good; establish justice in the gate” (Amos 5:15). The gate was where disputes were settled and the poor could be heard or ignored. Micah says it in one sentence: “to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). In the prophets, worship and fairness belong together. Righteousness in this verse is not a private matter. It runs out into the street, into how people are paid, treated and heard. Where could it run a little further through your life this week?
What the original says
Behind “our righteous acts” in this verse is tsedaqah again (said tseh-dah-KAH), here in the plural.
It is the same word again, here in the plural: acts of right living, the good things a person has done.
This form, tsidqotenu, is plural with ‘our’ joined to the end: word for word ‘our righteousnesses’, our righteous acts, one by one. The word before it, kol, means ‘all’.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is ‘acts’ 7 times, where the word is plural and means righteous deeds, as here:
Word by word
| כָּל | צִדְקֹתֵינוּ | וַנָּבֶל | כֶּעָלֶה | כֻּלָּנוּ | וַעֲוֹנֵנוּ | כָּרוּחַ |
| all | righteousness · our | and · we have withered | like · leafage | all of · us | and · iniquities · our | like the · wind |
Original form
What this tells us
Isaiah 64 is a prayer from people who know they have gone wrong. It opens with a longing, “If only You would rend the heavens and come down” (Isaiah 64:1), and then admits, “Surely You were angry, for we sinned. How can we be saved if we remain in our sins?” (Isaiah 64:5). The word behind “our righteous acts” is tsedaqah, here in the plural: all the good things we have done, counted one by one. The prayer’s verdict on them is blunt: they “are like filthy rags”. Even the best of what the people had done could not make them clean before God. The prayer does not stop there. Two verses later it turns: “But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand” (Isaiah 64:8). Paul says something close to this: God “saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy” (Titus 3:5). Good deeds still matter; this verse is about what they cannot do, which is make us right with God on their own. If you have been trying to stand before God on your record, this verse is honest about how that goes. The next one points to where to turn: to a Father who is still shaping the clay.
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Download on the App StoreWhat the original says
Behind “Our Righteousness” in this verse is the Hebrew word tsedeq (said TSEH-dek).
It is a close cousin of tsedaqah, from the same root: what is right and just. Strong’s says it can be natural, moral or legal rightness.
This form, tsidqenu, is the word with ‘our’ joined to the end: ‘our righteousness’. It comes straight after the LORD’s name, so the name reads word for word ‘the LORD our righteousness’.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is ‘righteousness’ 61 times and ‘righteous’ 20 times, as in “He guides me in the paths of righteousness” (Psalm 23:3):
Word by word
| לָבֶטַח | וְזֶה | שְּׁמוֹ | אֲשֶׁר | יִקְרְאוֹ | יְהוָה | צִדְקֵנוּ |
| to · security | and · this | name · his | which | anyone will call · him | The LORD | righteousness · our |
Original form
What this tells us
Jeremiah has just condemned the leaders of his day: “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!” (Jeremiah 23:1). Then he looks ahead to a different kind of king: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He will reign wisely as King” (Jeremiah 23:5). The word in the King’s name is tsedeq, a close cousin of tsedaqah: what is right and just. He will be called “The LORD Our Righteousness.” The people’s righteousness will not come from their own effort, or even from a good king alone. The LORD himself will be their righteousness. Ten chapters later Jeremiah gives the same name to the city: “this is the name by which it will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness” (Jeremiah 33:16). Christians have long heard Jesus in this promise of a Branch from David’s line, and Paul writes that Christ Jesus “has become for us wisdom from God: our righteousness, holiness, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30). Jewish readers have looked for this king as a promise still to be fulfilled. If righteousness feels like something you will never manage, this name moves it. It is something the LORD is, and something he offers to be for his people.
What the original says
Behind the word “righteousness” in this verse is the Greek word dikaiosunē (said dee-kai-oh-SOO-nay).
It means righteousness: being right and doing right, before God and with others. Strong’s says it comes from dikaios, ‘just’, and that in Christian use it also means justification.
This form, dikaiosunēn, is the form of a word that something is aimed at: here it is what people hunger and thirst for. The two words before it, peinōntes and dipsōntes, are ‘-ing’ forms: ‘those hungering and thirsting’.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is ‘righteousness’ 82 of its 91 places, as in “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness” (Matthew 5:10):
Word by word
| καὶ | διψῶντες | τὴν | δικαιοσύνην | ὅτι | αὐτοὶ | χορτασθήσονται |
| and | thirsting for | the | righteousness | for | they themselves | will be filled |
Original form
What this tells us
Jesus has gone up on the mountain, and his disciples have come to him (Matthew 5:1). He begins with blessings on people no one would call fortunate: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3), and “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4). Then he blesses the hungry. The word for “righteousness” is dikaiosunē: being right and doing right, before God and with others. Jesus does not bless people who have it all worked out. He blesses “those who hunger and thirst for righteousness”, people who want it the way a hungry person wants bread. And he makes a promise: “for they will be filled.” The psalms know this kind of hunger: “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul longs after You, O God” (Psalm 42:1). Later in the same sermon Jesus says, “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). Christians hear this hunger in different ways: as longing to be made right with God, as longing for justice in the world, and often as both. You may not feel righteous. This verse does not ask whether you feel it. It asks whether you are hungry for it, and promises that the hunger will not be wasted.
What the original says
Behind “this righteousness” in this verse is dikaiosunē (said dee-kai-oh-SOO-nay), the word you met in Matthew 5:6.
It is the same word you met in Matthew 5:6. Here it is God’s righteousness, given to people.
This form, dikaiosunē, is the plain naming form, and it opens the verse. The next word is theou, ‘of God’: word for word ‘righteousness of God’. The Berean puts it as “this righteousness from God”.
Romans uses this word more than any other book of the Bible. In the Berean it is almost always ‘righteousness’, as in “the gospel reveals the righteousness of God that comes by faith from start to finish” (Romans 1:17):
Word by word
| δικαιοσύνη | δὲ | θεοῦ | διὰ | πίστεως |
| righteousness | now | of God | through | faith |
Original form
What this tells us
Paul has spent nearly three chapters showing that everyone, Jew and Gentile alike, has gone wrong. “Therefore no one will be justified in His sight by works of the law” (Romans 3:20). Then he turns: “But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, as attested by the Law and the Prophets” (Romans 3:21). This verse says how it reaches people. The word is dikaiosunē again, and here it is God’s own righteousness, given to people: “this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” It is not earned by keeping the law. It comes through trusting Jesus, and it comes to everyone who does: “There is no distinction.” The next verses say why there is no distinction: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace” (Romans 3:23–24). Christians describe how this works in different words, some stressing a righteousness counted to us, others a righteousness worked in us, many holding both; all agree it is God’s gift. Think of a debt paid by someone else: the account is clear, and the relationship can begin again. If you have been trying to become right with God by trying harder, this verse offers another way in. It is the same way in as for everyone else: through faith in Jesus.
What the original says
Behind “the righteousness” in this verse is dikaiosunē (said dee-kai-oh-SOO-nay) once more.
It is the same word: righteousness, being in the right with God.
Here it is the plain naming form again, after the verb genōmetha, ‘we might become’: word for word ‘we might become righteousness of God in him’.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is ‘righteousness’ 82 times. Peter uses it too: “so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24):
Word by word
| ἵνα | ἡμεῖς | γενώμεθα | δικαιοσύνη | θεοῦ | ἐν | αὐτῷ |
| so that | we ourselves | may become | righteousness | of God | in | him |
Original form
What this tells us
Paul has been writing about a new start: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). He calls himself an ambassador with one message: “Be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20). This verse is the reason that message can be given at all. The word is dikaiosunē: righteousness, being in the right with God. Paul describes an exchange: “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” Jesus takes what is ours, and in him we receive what is his. Peter writes in the same spirit: “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24). Isaiah pictures it as clothing: “He has clothed me with garments of salvation and wrapped me in a robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10). Christians explain this exchange in different words, but they agree that it is a gift, received in Christ, not a reward earned. When you look at yourself, you may see mostly what is wrong. This verse says what God gives you in Christ: not a record of your sin, but his righteousness.
Behind "righteousness" are 7 different words
Your English Bible says "righteousness" 268 times. Behind it stand several Hebrew and Greek words:
Reflect
Read it as yours
Paul wrote this sentence about what God does for people in Christ. Read it slowly, as if your name were in it:
Name it
Where are you hungry for things to be made right, in your own life or around you? Write it down. Jesus says those who “hunger and thirst for righteousness” will be filled.
Carry with you
Where could you do one right and fair thing this week, not to earn anything, but because you have been made right with God?