Word studies · Hebrew · Strong's H6664
צֶדֶק · tsedeq · appears 119 times in the Old Testament
In one line: Being right and dealing rightly, by God's standard.
You shall maintain honest scales and weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
Leviticus 19:36
Tsedeq is righteousness — what is right and true to God's standard, in conduct, in judgment, and in honest dealing.
Tsedeq describes God's own rightness, the just rule expected of kings, and integrity in ordinary transactions — the law requires “just balances, just weights.” It is a relational and social word as much as a moral one: right relationship expressed in right dealing.
Tsedeq comes from tsadaq, to be just or in the right, and its concrete uses are revealing — honest scales, accurate measures, a legally sound verdict. Righteousness in Hebrew is first a matter of conformity to a true standard, before it is a quality of soul.
English “righteousness” sounds inward and slightly pious; the Hebrew keeps a hand on the scales in the marketplace. That is why the prophets can treat rigged weights and neglected widows as the same failure of tsedeq.
Tsedeq (H6664) appears 96 times in the Hebrew Bible, and is applied not only to moral rightness but to honest weights, measures and balances.
God's righteousness is both His own perfection and His saving activity to set things right, which is why the Psalms can plead for rescue on the basis of it. Paul takes up that double sense in Romans: the righteousness of God is revealed, and it justifies the ungodly.
Check one place where your dealings are technically defensible but not straight. Righteousness in Scripture usually shows up in weights and measures before it shows up in feelings.
the right (natural, moral or legal); also (abstractly) equity or (figuratively) prosperity
You must not pervert justice; you must not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the rich; you are to judge your neighbor fairly.
Leviticus 19:15At that time I charged your judges: “Hear the disputes between your brothers, and judge fairly between a man and his brother or a foreign resident.
Deuteronomy 1:16Reconsider; do not be unjust. Reconsider, for my righteousness is at stake.
Job 6:29For the choirmaster. With stringed instruments. A Psalm of David. 1Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved my distress; show me grace and hear my prayer.
Psalm 4:1and for receiving instruction in wise living and in righteousness, justice, and equity.
Proverbs 1:3Furthermore, I saw under the sun that in the place of judgment there is wickedness, and in the place of righteousness there is wickedness.
Ecclesiastes 3:16Press and hold righteousness in any chapter and this study opens on the verse you are reading, with the lexicons, every occurrence and the commentaries beside it. The Bible is free to read.
Scripture quoted from the Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Strong's definitions are public domain. Counts come from The Pillar's own tagged text.