In several Bible passages, the two
terms- justice and righteousness are used synonymously (Amos 5:24; Genesis 18:19). Justice was central among the
Israelites because they were very much concerned with social relationship among
themselves as the people covenanted to God, and also among the nation
surrounding them. The Israelite expected God’s justice to be fair because it is
issued by God who was a righteous judge. Those who were appointed to the office
of monarch or judge were expected to reflect God’s holy nature.
The
interrelated concepts of justice and righteousness inform the exhortations and
encouragement communicated by the prophets as they act as intermediaries
between God, king and covenant people. The terms justice and righteousness are
found throughout the prophetic literature of the Old Testament. Although
justice and righteousness often are characterized as legal terms, an overview
of the terms as used within the Prophetic Books indicates that these concepts
are indicative of God’s expectations for his people with regard to every aspect
of society.
These terms are used with reference not only to legal
matters, but also to royal court, worship and community well being. When mishpat (justice) and tsedeq/tsedeqa (righteousness) appear as
word pair, they form a particularly significant hendiadys, pertaining to the
right ordering of society within God’s covenant community. Social justice and
righteousness is one of the most important themes of the prophets, particularly
of the 8th century prophets. Social justice is also the dominating
themes in the message of prophets like Nathan and Elijah.
Justice
The term mishpat (justice) is found in all of the
Major Prophets and Minor Prophets, including Hosea, Joel, Amos, Micah,
Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Zechariah and Malachi. Most frequently, mishpat is translated as justice. It is
also used to describe legal situation. It also includes the concepts of judging
and judgment, rules and ruling, being just and right. It is also a
socio-ethical norm that is used to evaluate or critique social and economic relationship/interaction
within the covenant community and between different social groups (Isaiah 1:11-17; Jeremiah 22:3, 15-16; Amos
5:21-24; Micah 6:6-8).
In the
socio-political and economic context of the prophets, justice could also mean a
healthy humanitarian social relationship, that is, reversal of unhealthy
economic conditions. For the people who were existed on the periphery of the
social structure, care must be taken. Justice has to do with impartial
arbitration, equitable treatment or adherence to an ideal of what is right. In
addition to these, the biblical nuances of justice focus on the highest values
of a right relationship to God and others. It refers to the ideology about
humanitarian and social relationship.
In prophetic books, God is portrayed as
having a special concern for the poor, particularly the widow, the fatherless
and the oppressed. Justice does not solely refer to moral norm, but also refers
to basic Human rights. For this reason, when Prophet Amos refers to the poor as
the righteous, he is referring to their beings on the right with respect to
their dispute with the oppressors over the infringement of their basic rights.
It was therefore natural that the people such as the sojourners who experience
some injustices, and oppressed by the economics, socio-political system and
others, should appeal to God to intervene in order that their right might be
restored.
The
definition of oppression and the circumstances of this phenomenon, regarding
widows, strangers and orphans in ancient Israel are central philosophical and
hermeneutical questions for understanding justice in the prophetic books.
Righteousness
The prophets
attribute righteousness to God and speak of righteousness as a gift from God.
As a spokesperson of the covenant, they admonish the people to seek to do
righteousness as part of their covenant loyalty to God. It covers the idea of a
righteous act on behalf of the oppressed. The righteous God is not only one who
demands strict justice, but the one who saves and rescues (Isaiah 41:2). His people are obliged to act righteously on behalf
of the widow, the orphan and the stranger.
The terms derived from the root tsdq are also found throughout the Prophetic Books. These terms
include the noun forms tsedeq and tsedaqa (righteousness) and the
substantial adjective tsaddiq
(righteous one). The substantial form ‘righteous one’ can refer to God (Isaiah 24:16; Jeremiah 12:1; Zephaniah 3:5),
society (Isaiah 53:11) and individual
humans (Isaiah 26:7; Ezekiel 3:20; Amos
5:12; Habakkuk 2:4). The used of this term to refer both to God and his
people highlights the relational nature of righteousness: even as God is
righteous, so his people are to be righteous. Additionally, even as God is the
arbiter of justice, so his people are to exhibit justice in their relationships
with one another. This is especially important for kings and leaders because
the consequences of their behavior devolve upon their subjects (Jeremiah 22:3; Ezekiel 45:9).
Righteousness in its various iterations is also paralleled in OT text with khesed (goodness/kindness/faithfulness),
the word used to describe the covenant relationship between God and Israelites.
Justice
and Righteousness in Isaiah
The interwoven
themes of justice and righteousness are most prevalent in the book of Isaiah,
as evidenced by the use of both terms throughout the book. The two terms
occurred together 18 times in the book of Isaiah. In his discussion of the
Isaiah text, J. Goldingray notes that justice and right permeate the entire
text. Justice and righteousness are rhetorically significant from the
perspective of the text as a whole. Doing justice and being righteousness are
important concerns both for the prophet and for the original audience. Isaiah’s
confession on behalf of the people repeatedly mentions the failure to maintain
justice and righteousness according to covenant expectation (59:9-11, 15). The role of doing justice
and being righteous within the themes of accusation, restoration and future
faithful leadership through the line of David permeate the message of Isaiah. The
role of doing justice and being righteous finds its way from the book of Isaiah
to the New Testament by way of direct quotations, allusions and echoes of some
of these verses.
Isaiah similarly appeals for justice and rejects worship
that does not produce good relationship and that is devoid of reality. Rituals
and ethical standards should link as such sacrifices without justice is
worthless; justice for the prophets means protection of the underprivileged
members of the society. He links his attack on the sacrificial system at the
Temple in Jerusalem (1:10-14) with an
appeal for justice (16-20). It is not
the blood of sacrificial animals that has to be washed off, but the blood of
innocent victims of injustice and oppression as well (5:7; 59:3 & 7).
Justice
and Righteousness in Jeremiah
The themes of justice and righteousness are prevalent in the
book of Jeremiah. The call to turn from false worship and injustice and to
return to right relationship with God is heard throughout the book. He
calls all who entered at the gate of the city, to do mishpat and tsedaqa i.e.
to make it right the wrong done to the oppressed, and to give justice to the
alien, the fatherless and the widow. This
details of what it means to do justice are elaborated upon in his instructions
to the king of Judah (22:3). The
terms justice and righteousness are found across genres in the book of Jeremiah,
evenly divided between prose and poetry. He condemns people, the common people,
priest and prophets alike who are craving for unjust gains as everyone deals
falsely (6:13-14).
Justice
and Righteousness in Ezekiel
The themes of justice and righteousness are significant for
the book of Ezekiel. In this book, Ezekiel is speaking to an audience in exile.
For the exiles, choosing righteousness is seen to be the correct response to
the fall of Jerusalem. A detailed list is given in 18:7-8, no idol worship, not oppressing others, no robbery, taking
care of the hungry and the poor, not charging interest, not committing
iniquity, executing justice in the court, following God’s statutes and
ordinances.
Justice
and Righteousness in Minor Prophets
The themes of
justice and righteousness are important to several of the Minor Prophets. The
terms justice and righteousness appear in 7 (Hosea, Amos, Micah, Habakkuk,
Zephaniah, Zechariah and Malachi) of the 12 books. The terms are used
individually in each book at least once in each book. Amos, Hosea and Habakkuk
used the word pair which emphasizes the right ordering of society within the
covenant community.
Hosea targeted
idolatry for his criticism (8:4ff).
The faithlessness which he recognized in his people, their disloyalty to the
Lord, their harlotry (4:10; 6:10, 17-19)
should be understood as example of devotion to material things. Yahweh takes
the initiatives so as to bring Israel back to him. He will remove the Baals,
i.e., false worship, make a covenant, and abolished disorder. He will act
toward Israel according to his Proper, loyal, Merciful and constant way of
acting, and Israel, experiencing his steadfast love, will respond with mishpat and tsedeq.
Amos begins by
comparing the social justices in Israel (2:6ff)
with, among other things, the atrocities of the Ammonites (1:13), and appeals for a revolutionary shift of emphasis towards
justice and righteousness, away from ritualism (5:24). He is known as the prophet of social justice, he denounced
any religiosity which is devoid of justice in the day to day life of the
people. He emphasized the importance of justice done to the people,
particularly to the poor over against the practice of religious pietism and
ritualism. He accused of people who with their utmost best and regularity
practiced regular observance of all forms of worship such as religious
festivals and assemblies and making music and songs that do not contain
reality. In Amos, righteousness is the order that God’s rules over creation
through his acts and bring harmony, peace and joy. He accused the leaders who
having abandoned the royal ideal by their utter disregards for justice and
righteousness.
Micah calls on the people to look back and
experience Yahweh’s saving acts in history (6:5).
He stresses the vanity of worship
and sacrifices done without justice, love and righteousness. He combines the
three virtues when he appraises the requirements of God to human beings viz.
justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God (6:7-8).
Materialism constitutes one of the prophet’s major concerns.
There are many attacks on the idle rich: property-owners who join house to
house (Isaiah 5:8; Micah 2:2),
squeezing out peasants; men who live of drunkenness (Isaiah 5:11-12; 28:1, 7-8; Joel 1:5) and self-indulgence at the
expense of the poor jewelry that money can buy (Isaiah 3:6-23; Amos 4:1).
All these
demonstrate that the nature of justice and righteousness was seen as
multifaceted, and the expectation for just and righteous behavior was rooted
firmly in the realities of Israel’s religious, political and social life. The
prophets explored the multifaceted nature of justice and righteousness at the
cosmological and human levels. The Creator, God himself is the model and
origination point both for being just and righteousness. By extension, God’s
people who were called to be holy as God is holy. They were expected to conduct
themselves with justice and righteousness in all spheres of life.
For the
Israelites, proper worship and effective community leadership were the expected
manifestations of a flourishing relationship between God and his people.
However, this was not always the case. In many instances failure to uphold the
standards set forth elsewhere in Scripture gave grounds for God’s just
judgment. Often times what is known from the prophets about justice in the
social sphere is defined not in positive terms but rather by descriptions of social
injustice: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Amos decry those who would oppress the
poor and neglect the widow and orphan (Isaiah
1:17; Jeremiah 22:3; Ezekiel 18; Amos 5:4-8). By implication, true social
justice would include speaking for the poor and caring for the widow and
orphan. Sacrifice without justice is therefore worthless. These actions were
the purview of king and leader. Failure on the part of king and leader would
constitute grounds for God’s judgment on king, leader and people alike.
Justice
(mishpat) and righteousness (tsedaqa/tsedeq) are highly important
for the message of the prophets. A just and righteous God asks nothing less
than that his people do justice and be righteous. The two terms often occurs
together, they are components of ethical and moral standards which should
characterize the religiosity of the people. Regularity in various religious
practices and worship is in vain in God’s sight, the Prophets denounced faith
and its practices which do not contain justice and righteousness.
References
Boda,
Mark J. and J. Gordon McConville, eds. Dictionary of the Old Testament Prophets.
Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press Academic, 2012.
Hnuni,
R. L. The People of God in the Old
Testament. New Delhi: Lakshi Publishers and Distributors, 2012.
Sawyer,
John F. A. Prophecy and the Biblical
Prophets, Revised Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.
The New Interpreter’s Dictionary
of the Bible, Volume 3 & 4.
Nashville: Abington Press, 2008.
VanGemeren,
Willem. Interpreting the Prophetic Word.
Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1990.
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