Hebrew Word Study on Righteous

A detailed Summary of Hebrew Word Study on Righteous

The Hebrew word for righteousness is Tsedaqah.Tsedaqah is a noun in the feminine form; the masculine form of the word is tsedeq. To most scholars, the words are interchangeable. However, A. Jepsen contends that tsedeq means, "right order" and that tsedaqah is the idea of "human well being" or "right behavior." Since it more often used interchangeably, that is how it is taken in this paper. However, the passages that were taken into account for this paper used tsedaqah only. The stem attached to Tsedaqah is a verb (קרצ), which means "to be righteous," "to be just," to "be in the right," or "to be straight." To most commentators, "to be straight" appears to be the most accurate definition. In later Jewish writings, tsedaqah is most often used as a term of ethical conduct.

All three versions of the word (the stem, the feminine form, and the masculine form) have a variety of ways in which they are applied. For example, in Isaiah 46:12 and in Micah 7:9 it means "deliverance." Isaiah 5:23 defines it as "right." In other Biblical books outside the eighth century prophets, tsedaqah is used as "vindication", "saving deeds", "saving help", "righteous help", "salvation", "equity", "uprightness"

The current tendency of thought is that righteousness is both changing and unchanging. That what is right for one person may not be right for someone else. Culture, religion, and humanism all have different ideas of righteousness. Many today believe; it is the desire to do what is right, but with the idea that "rightness" changes . For example, Robin Hood's giving to the poor is righteous to the recipient of his gift; but the owner of the empty money purse would see him as unrighteous; sometimes one appears righteous simply because all the facts are not known. Present day concepts of what is right differ greatly from those of the Old Testament Hebrews. It seems that today the Jewish community accepts tsedaqah to mean charity. They take the literal aspect of the prophet's call to take care of the widows and the needy as a command to give time and monetary funds faithfully. Tracy R. Rich states that, "The word "charity" suggests benevolence and generosity, a magnanimous act by the wealthy and powerful for the benefit of the poor and needy. In Judaism, giving to the poor is not viewed as a generous, magnanimous act; it is simply an act of justice and righteousness, the performance of a duty, giving the poor their due." While this view is not necessarily wrong, tsedaqah has to be more than giving to the needy. It must be giving to the needy because of a desire to do what is right according to God's commands. Righteousness is not picking one part of the covenantal charges and discarding the rest. Righteousness is the honoring of all of the guidelines. Righteousness is gained through careful worship and obedience to the Lord and then to the community. Tsedaqah is still important to the Jews and it should be just as important to Christian believers. We should be continually seeking to honor Christ in our behavior, in our attitudes, in our marriages, in our relationships with our children and then in our communities. Our lifestyles should be that of the Hebrews that honored God first with their hearts and then in their actions. Righteousness comes from an attitude of the heart, not from actions. Actions are just the outward evidence of thoughts on the inside. God created us with the will to do right, we are the ones that choose to ignore this prompting of the heart that turns us from righteousness to unrighteousness. When we sin, we break the relationship we have with our creator. We turn from him. He remains constant and righteous. He honors the covenant always, even when His people do not.

Righteousness in the Old Testament is best understood from the Hebraic concept of the word. Some Christian scholars think of righteousness in the Old Testament as a call to a legalistic religious system rather than to a compassionate reli

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Approximate Word count = 1847
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

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