Rightness (abstractly), subjectively ( rectitude ), objectively ( justice ), morally ( virtue ) or figuratively ( prosperity )
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צְדָקָה (ṣĕdāqāh) names righteousness, rightness, justice, vindication, saving acts, or covenant faithfulness. Genesis 15:6 says Abram's trust was counted as righteousness, while Genesis 18:19 joins righteousness to the way Abraham's household practices justice.
Reader summary
Full entry for צְדָקָה (H6666) · Open the biblical lexicon
צְדָקָה (ṣĕdāqāh) names righteousness, rightness, justice, vindication, saving acts, or covenant faithfulness. Genesis 15:6 says Abram's trust was counted as righteousness, while Genesis 18:19 joins righteousness to the way Abraham's household practices justice.
The BSB source-word alignment has 157 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include and righteousness (20), righteousness (18), Your righteousness (9), and right (8), of righteousness (8).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 15:6. Its strongest book concentrations include Isaiah (36), Psalms (34), Ezekiel (20), Proverbs (18).
צְדָקָה (ṣĕdāqāh) names righteousness, rightness, justice, vindication, saving acts, or covenant faithfulness. Genesis 15:6 says Abram's trust was counted as righteousness, while Genesis 18:19 joins righteousness to the way Abraham's household practices justice. Deuteronomy 9:4-6 repeatedly denies that Israel receives the land because of its own righteousness. The noun can therefore name credited rightness, lived conduct, or a disputed claim to merit; the immediate argument controls the sense.
The word is public and relational as well as personal. Returning a poor borrower's pledge before sunset counts as righteousness in Deuteronomy 24:13. Proverbs contrasts righteousness with wealth gained by wickedness, and Amos 5:24 demands righteousness that flows through communal life. Jeremiah 22:3 places it beside justice, rescue from oppression, and protection of the foreigner, orphan, and widow. Ritual or doctrinal language cannot excuse dishonest judgment, exploitation, or neglect of vulnerable neighbors.
God's righteousness may be celebrated as faithful judgment, vindication, or saving action. Judges 5:11 recounts the Lord's righteous acts, Psalm 98:2 pairs revealed righteousness with salvation, Isaiah 46:13 brings righteousness near alongside salvation, and Jeremiah 51:10 calls the restored community to declare what the Lord has done for it. These passages do not make righteousness morally indifferent; they show the righteous God acting faithfully to judge, rescue, restore, and keep his word.
Tsedaqah ranges across credited rightness, righteous conduct, justice, generosity, vindication, and God's saving acts. It is tested in trust, courts, treatment of the poor, public order, worship, judgment, and restoration.
Abram trusts the Lord's promise, and that trust is counted to him as righteousness.
Israel is warned not to credit possession of the land to its own righteousness; the surrounding verses repeat the denial.
Returning a poor person's pledge before nightfall is counted as righteousness before the Lord.
The victory song recounts the Lord's righteous acts and the deeds by which his people were delivered.
Enduring righteousness is associated with generous distribution to the poor, not private respectability alone.
God brings righteousness near in parallel with salvation for Zion, emphasizing faithful saving intervention.
The prophet rejects worship detached from justice and calls for righteousness to become a sustained communal reality.
Royal responsibility joins righteousness to rescue from oppression and protection for vulnerable residents.
The chapter assigns the righteousness of the righteous and the wickedness of the wicked to the responsible person while also calling sinners to turn and live.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Righteousness as both relational right-standing with God and active justice toward others—covenantal wholeness.
Righteousness as both relational right-standing with God and active justice toward others—covenantal wholeness.
rightness (abstractly), subjectively (rectitude), objectively (justice), morally (virtue) or figuratively (prosperity) BDB: righteousness Usage: justice, moderately, right(-eous) (act, -ly, -ness).
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 8 selected witnesses from 159 lexical occurrence verses.
צְדָקָה is built from this root:
Righteousness represents the path that leads to life and protection. Isaiah 32:9-20
Righteous living aligns a person with God's moral order and produces lasting reward. Isaiah 45:14-19
Righteousness represents alignment with God's moral order. Isaiah 46:12-13
Righteousness represents the only true protection against divine judgment. Isaiah 48:17-19
Righteousness determines the direction of a person's life. Isaiah 5:1-7
Righteousness functions as the protective moral alignment that brings deliverance. Isaiah 51:4-8
It highlights God’s moral integrity and faithful action throughout redemptive history. Micah 6:1-5
Identifies the moral transformation produced by the Spirit. Proverbs 10:2
Describes the moral integrity of God’s saving word.
Represents the saving righteousness God brings near.
Represents the moral fruit of heeding God’s commands.
Righteousness defines the character of covenant faithfulness and anticipates the need for a righteous Redeemer.
Affirms the moral and covenant integrity of God’s salvation.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Tsedaqah asks what rightness looks like when trust, power, money, judgment, and neighbor care become concrete. Genesis 15:6 protects grace and trust from self-earned standing, while Deuteronomy 9 rejects national boasting in supposed righteousness. Deuteronomy 24:13 and Psalm 112:9 show that righteous conduct reaches pledges and generosity. Amos and Jeremiah test public worship by justice and protection of vulnerable people.
Isaiah and the Psalms celebrate God's righteousness as faithful saving action. A congregation should therefore resist two reductions: treating righteousness as only inward status, or treating it as a human program detached from God's character, truth, judgment, and mercy. Pastoral use should invite faith, repentance, honest economic practice, impartial judgment, generosity, and hope in God's vindicating action.
Gen.15.6
H6666 is a feminine noun in the righteousness word family. It overlaps H6664 but has its own distribution and can emphasize righteous conduct, credited rightness, vindication, generosity, or saving acts. Parallel terms and local syntax determine the emphasis.
The New Testament cites Genesis 15:6 in justification arguments, quotes Psalm 112:9 in teaching about generosity, and develops the righteousness of God in relation to salvation, judgment, faith, and transformed conduct. Those developments should be traced through their cited passages rather than imposed on every H6666 occurrence.
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Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain