Words · Hebrew Words · Lesson 3, word 3 of 5
מִשְׁפָּטmishpat
Judgment and justice: deciding rightly and setting right.
Why this word is here. Paired with tsedaqah throughout the prophets; the phrase 'justice and righteousness' is mishpat and tsedaqah in Hebrew dress.
What it means
From the verb shapat, to judge or govern. The lexicon range: judgment (the act of deciding a case, the court, the process, the sentence, its execution), justice and right as attributes of God and people, ordinance, a legal decision, a person's right or due, and even custom or proper manner.
Mishpat is therefore not only punishment. It is the whole business of deciding rightly: hearing a case, weighing it truly, and giving each party what is due, which for the widow, orphan and stranger in Israel's law means protection.
Where you meet it
He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:8 (BSB)
Anchor verse 'What does the LORD require of you but to do justice (mishpat), to love kindness (hesed), and to walk humbly with your God?' Mishpat is something done, not only believed.
But let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Amos 5:24 (BSB)
'Let justice (mishpat) roll down like waters.' Amos pictures mishpat as a river Israel has dammed.
For I have chosen him, so that he will command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, in order that the LORD may bring upon Abraham what He has promised.
Genesis 18:19 (BSB)
God says of Abraham that his household will keep 'the way of the LORD by doing what is right (tsedaqah) and just (mishpat)'. The BSB renders the pair 'right and just'; the two nouns are the Bible's standard pair for a rightly ordered life.
Why it matters
Mishpat explains why the Bible's God cares about courtrooms, weights, wages and widows. Justice is not an import into the faith from politics; it is one of the oldest words for what God does and what he requires. It also steadies judgment language: God's mishpat is decision based on truth, aimed at setting things right.
Watch out
The over-claim narrows mishpat to 'retribution, God punishing sin'. Punishment is inside the range (sentence and execution are listed), but so are a litigant's due, an ordinance, and plain custom. In many texts mishpat is closer to 'the right order God establishes' than to 'penalty'. Translating every occurrence as doom misreads books like Psalms, where the psalmist can long for God's judgments.
In this lesson
- yada (יָדַע): To know by experience, recognise and acknowledge.
- tsedeq / tsedaqah (צֶדֶק): Rightness and righteousness, in court, kingdom and character.
- qadosh (קָדוֹשׁ): Holy: set apart as belonging to God.
- berit (בְּרִית): A covenant: a pledged, binding relationship.
Sources
- Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon (BDB, 1906)
- Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible / STEP Hebrew data
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