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צַדִּיק

righteous

also: just, lawful fuller range ↓

H6662 Strong's Hebrew
tsaddîyq Transliteration
/tsad-deek'/ Pronunciation
Usage in the Hebrew Bible 206 appearances

Compare with another word →

About this entry

At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.

The Hebrew adjective צדיק centers on the idea of “righteous.” Alongside “righteous” the lexicon also lists “just” and “lawful” — part of its full sense range. The Hebrew Bible uses it across 197 verses — common. Proverbs dominates its distribution — 66 of 197 verses. Its earliest occurrence is Genesis 6:9. For the data behind this summary, explore the sense tree and the renderings breakdown below.

Gloss history

Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship

Strong's · 1890
just
Modern gloss
righteous
Strong's 1890 sometimes compressed multiple senses — or homonymous roots — under one number, and used 19th-century English phrasing that no longer carries the same connotation. The modern gloss reflects current BDB scholarship; open the Lexicon Entry tab for the full sense breakdown. Download share card

About this word

Strong's H6662 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.

These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →

197
distinct verses
The word appears in 197 distinct verses.
25 / 39
OT books
The word appears in 25 of 39 Old Testament books.
Genesis 6:9
first appearance
The earliest occurrence is in Genesis 6:9.
Malachi 3:18
last appearance
The latest occurrence is in Malachi 3:18.
#232
by frequency
Top 250 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 232 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).

View all 197 occurrences in the concordance →


Most concentrated in

By section of the Old Testament

  • Pentateuch 15 · 8%
  • Historical 11 · 6%
  • Wisdom 130 · 66%
  • Prophets 41 · 21%

By traditional corpus

Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 197 distinct verses.

  • Writings (Ketuvim) 138 verses · 70%
  • Prophets (Nevi'im) 44 verses · 22%
  • Torah (Pentateuch) 15 verses · 8%

How translations render this word

Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).

  • King James Version: Righteous 122×, Just 31×, Is righteous 6×
  • American Standard Version: Righteous 127×, Is righteous 9×, Just 8×
  • Berean Standard Bible: Righteous 132×, Righteous man 20×, Is righteous 6×
  • unfoldingWord Literal Text: Righteous 146×, One 22×, Righteous one 13×

King James Version Public Domain

Renders H6662 across 206 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Righteous” 122×
  • “Just” 31×
  • “Is righteous” 6×
  • “Thou art righteous” 3×
  • “Ye righteous” 3×
  • “Be just” 2×
  • “Let the righteous” 2×
  • “Shall the righteous” 2×
  • “Thee the righteous” 2×

Plus 33 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.

American Standard Version Public Domain

Renders H6662 across 208 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Righteous” 127×
  • “Is righteous” 9×
  • “Just” 8×
  • “Shall the righteous” 3×
  • “Ye righteous” 3×
  • “Is a righteous” 2×
  • “Let the righteous” 2×
  • “Man” 2×
  • “Thee the righteous” 2×
  • “Thou art righteous” 2×
  • “Upright” 2×

Plus 46 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.

Berean Standard Bible Public Domain

Renders H6662 across 205 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Righteous” 132×
  • “Righteous man” 20×
  • “Is righteous” 6×
  • “Righteous ones” 6×
  • “Innocent” 4×
  • “Righteous one” 4×
  • “Are innocent” 2×
  • “Are righteous” 2×
  • “Both the righteous” 2×
  • “Let the righteous” 2×
  • “More righteous” 2×

Plus 23 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.

unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Renders H6662 across 242 tagged occurrences — most commonly:

  • “Righteous” 146×
  • “One” 22×
  • “Righteous one” 13×
  • “Are righteous” 7×
  • “Is righteous” 7×
  • “Righteous ones” 5×
  • “Righteous person” 4×
  • “Just” 3×
  • “Man” 3×
  • “Person” 3×
  • “Are” 2×
  • “Ones” 2×

Plus other, less common renderings. Plus 21 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.


11 senses and sub-senses in the full BDB

What do BDB’s symbols mean?

BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:

Symbol Meaning
𝔊 the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX)
𝔙 the Vulgate (the Latin translation)
𝔖 the Syriac version (the Peshitta)
𝔗 the Targum (the Aramaic translation)
ψ the Psalms
√ root (the underlying root or stem)
‖ parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel)
† the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited

The 11 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.

  • 1. just, righteous, in government:
    • a. of Davidic king 2 S 23:3; צֶמַח Je 23:5; Zc 9:9 (‖ victorious). e.g. 2 Samuel 23:3
    • b. of judges, Ez 23:45; Pr 29:2 (v. Toy; Kau questions this meaning in all these). e.g. Ezekiel 23:45
    • c. of law, מִשְׁפָּטִים צ׳ Dt 4:8. e.g. Deuteronomy 4:8
    • d. of God Dt 32:4 ψ 119:137; 129:4; Jb 34:17, opp. Pharaoh Ex 9:27 (J); in discrimination Je 12:1; Zp 3:5 ψ 7:10, 12; 11:7; condemnation 2 Ch 12:6; Dn 9:14 La 1:18; Ezr 9:15; Ne 9:33; redemption Is 45:21 ψ 116:5; keeping promises Ne 9:8; in all his ways ψ 145:17. e.g. Deuteronomy 32:4
  • 2. just in one’s cause, right: Ex 23:7, 8 (E) Dt 16:19; 25:1; 1 K 8:32 = 2 Ch 6:23, Is 5:23; 29:21; Jb 32:1; 36:7; Pr 17:15, 26; 18:5, 17; 24:24; Am 2:6; 5:12; Hb 1:4, 13; right in law, not under penalty 2 S 4:11; 1 K 2:32; innocent of specif. offence 2 K 10:9; c. מְן comp. 1 S 24:18. e.g. Exodus 23:7
  • 3. just, righteous, in conduct and character:
    • a. towards God Gn 7:1; 18:23, 24(×2), 25(×2), 26, 28 (J) 20:4 (E), Hb 2:4; Mal 3:18. e.g. Genesis 7:1
    • b. in gen., ethically: ψ 5:13; 7:10; 11:3, 5 + 21 times ψψ (+ infr.), Pr 2:20; 3:33; 4:18; 9:9 + 56 times Pr, Ec 3:17 + 7 times Ec, Is 3:10; 57:1(×2); Je 20:12; La 4:13 Ez 3:20, 21(×2) + 12 times Ez, Ho 14:10; ‖ תמים Gn 6:9 (P) Jb 12:4; ‖ נָקִי Jb 17:9; 22:19; 27:17 ψ 94:21; ‖ יִשְׁרֵי לֵב ψ 32:11; 64:11; 97:11. e.g. Psalms 5:13
  • 4. righteous, as justified and vindicated by י׳, especially servant of י׳ Is 53:11, so his people, usually pl. Is 60:21 ψ 33:1 + 8 times ψψ (v. also supr.); אָהֳלֵי צ׳ 118:15 tents of the righteous; גּוֹרַל צ׳ 125:3; עֲדַת צ׳ 1:5; דֶּרֶךְ צ׳ v 6; sg. coll. 34:20, 22; 75:11; Is 24:16; 26:7(×2); גּוֹי צַדִּיק v 2 (‖ שֹׁמֵר אֱמֻנִים). e.g. Isaiah 53:11
  • 5. right, correct, Is 41:26 (cf. אֱמֶת 43:9); lawful שְׁבִי צ׳ 49:24 EV; but read עָרִיץ. e.g. Isaiah 41:26

Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.


Word origin

adj. just, righteous;—abs. צ׳ Gn 6:9 +; pl. צַדִּיקִים Ex 23:8 +, etc.;—

— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.

Derived from צדק (tsâdaq) (H6663) — to be righteous.

Part of speech: Adjective TWOT: 1879c


Jastrow Dictionary

A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.

צְדֵיק

  • , v. צְדַק

צַדִּיק

  • virtuous, just, pious man. Ab. I, 2 שמעון הצ׳ Simon the Just. Ber. 7ᵃ צ׳ וטוב לו צ׳ בן צ׳ a righteous man faring well is a righteous man and the son of a righteous man, opp. רשע; a. v. fr.—Gen. R. s. 49 לא את הוא צַדִּיקוֹ של עולם art not thou, (Lord) the righteous one of the world? Yoma 37ᵃ (ref. to Prov. X, 7) בשעה … צ׳ עולמים וכ׳ when I mention the righteous (ruler) of worlds, give ye blessing.—Pl. צַדִּיקִים. Ber. 18ᵃ (ref. to Koh. IX, 5) אלו צ׳ שבמיתתן וכ׳ this refers to the righteous who are called living even when they are dead. Gen. R. l. c., v. נִבְלָא II; a. fr.—Fem. צַדֶּקֶת. Meg. 10ᵇ אסתר הצ׳ Esther the pious. Gen. R. s. 48 אותה הצ׳ that pious woman (Sarah). Gen. R. s. 63 הצ׳ הזו that pious woman (Rebecca); a. fr.—Pl. צַדִּיקוֹת. Cant. R. to I, 4 הצדיקים והצ׳ the righteous men and women; a. e. e.g. Proverbs 10:7

צַדִּיק ²

  • Targ. Ps. XXXVII, 21. Ib. V, 13 Ms. (ed. pl.). Ib. XI, 7; a. fr.—Pl. צַדִּיקִין, צַדִּיקַיָּא, צַדִּיקֵי. Ib. I, 5. Ib. XIV, 5; a. fr.—Ber. 61ᵇ לא איברי … או לצ׳ גמירי the world has been created only for the wholly wicked or for the wholly righteous (to be enjoyed). Succ. 45ᵇ, v. פְּחִית; a. fr.—Fem. צַדִּיקְתָּא. Targ. Esth. II, 7 (ed. Vien. צַדֶּקְתָּא).—Pl. צַדִּיקָתָא. Targ. Ps. LXVIII, 26. Targ. Esth. II, 9 (Levy Targ. Dict, quotes צְדַקְתָּן).

צְדַק

  • , to be clear, just. Targ. Ps. XIX, 10 צְדִיקוּ Ms. (ed. זכיאו).
    • to justify, do justice to. Ib. LXXXII, 3.—א׳ דינא to acknowledge the justice of divine judgment. Taan. 22ᵇ דקא מַצְדִּיק דינא אנפשיה וכ׳ Ms. M. (ed. מצדיק עליה וכ׳) that he acknowledged the justice of God’s decree over him, saying (Lam. I, 18) &c. e.g. Lamentations 1:18

A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.


Forms in the corpus

The 68 distinct written forms H6662 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.

Form Parsing Example Uses
צַדִּ֑יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Ezekiel 18:5 18
צַדִּ֣יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Ezekiel 21:4 16
צַ֭דִּיק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Proverbs 10:7 15
צַדִּ֥יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Deuteronomy 32:4 12
צַדִּיקִ֣ים Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Job 22:19 12
צַדִּ֖יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Ecclesiastes 7:20 11
צַ֭דִּיקִים Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Proverbs 4:18 9
צַדִּֽיק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Isaiah 29:21 6
צַדִּיק֙ Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Amos 5:12 6
לַ/צַּדִּ֑יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Psalms 37:12 5
צַדִּ֔יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Amos 2:6 5
צַדִּיקִ֑ים Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Psalms 1:6 5
צַדִּיקִ֥ים Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Proverbs 11:9 5
צַדִּיקִֽים Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Exodus 23:8 5
צַ֝דִּיקִ֗ים Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Proverbs 12:3 4
הַ/צַּדִּ֔יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Deuteronomy 25:1 3
וְ֝/צַדִּ֗יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Proverbs 10:25 3
לַ/צַּדִּ֣יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Proverbs 12:21 3
צַ֝דִּ֗יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Proverbs 18:5 3
צַדִּ֛יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Genesis 6:9 3
צַדִּ֤יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Ezekiel 3:20 3
הַ/צַּדִּיק֙ Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Ecclesiastes 3:17 2
וְ֝/צַדִּיקִ֗ים Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Proverbs 28:1 2
צַ֫דִּ֥יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Psalms 5:12 2
צַדִּ֗יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Ezekiel 3:21 2
צַדִּ֪יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Proverbs 24:24 2
צַדִּיקִ֖ם Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Genesis 18:24 2
צַדִּֽיק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Proverbs 14:32 2
הַ/צַּדִּ֗יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Ezekiel 33:12 1
הַ/צַּדִּ֣יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Isaiah 57:1 1
הַ/צַּדִּֽיק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Isaiah 57:1 1
הַ/צַּדִּיקִ֑ים Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Ecclesiastes 8:14 1
הַ/צַּדִּיקִ֖ם Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Genesis 18:24 1
הַ/צַּדִּיקִ֧ים Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Ecclesiastes 9:1 1
הַ/צַּדִּיקִ֨ים Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Psalms 125:3 1
הַ/צַּדִּיקִם֙ Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Genesis 18:28 1
הַֽ/צַּדִּ֫יקִ֥ים Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Psalms 125:3 1
וְ/צַדִּ֑יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Psalms 116:5 1
וְ/צַדִּ֖יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Habakkuk 2:4 1
וְ/צַדִּ֗יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Ezekiel 33:12 1
וְ/צַדִּ֣יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Job 27:17 1
וְ/צַדִּ֥יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Proverbs 21:26 1
וְ/צַדִּֽיק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Psalms 112:4 1
וְ/צַדִּיק֙ Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Exodus 23:7 1
וְ/צַדִּקִים֙ Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Hosea 14:9 1
וְֽ/צַדִּיקִ֗ים Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Plural, Absolute Psalms 68:3 1
כַ/צַּדִּ֖יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Genesis 18:25 1
לְ֝/צַדִּ֗יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Proverbs 9:9 1
לַ/צַּדִּ֔יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Isaiah 24:16 1
לַ/צַּדִּ֖יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Isaiah 26:7 1
לַ/צַּדִּ֤יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Ecclesiastes 9:2 1
לַ/צַּדִּֽיק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Psalms 55:22 1
לַ/צַּדִּיק֙ Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Ezekiel 33:13 1
לַ֝/צַּדִּ֗יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Proverbs 13:22 1
לַ֭/צַּדִּיק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Proverbs 21:15 1
מִ/צַּדִּ֗יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Job 36:7 1
צַדִּ֕יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 2 Samuel 23:3 1
צַדִּ֞יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Daniel 9:14 1
צַדִּ֧יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Ezekiel 18:26 1
צַדִּ֨יק Adjective, Adjective, Masculine, Singular, Absolute Psalms 141:5 1

The 60 most common forms are shown; 8 rarer forms follow in the full concordance.


Same root — word family

Other BDB entries built from the same root as H6662, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.

Derives from

Shares the same root

Proper names from this root

People and places named from this root — a name, not an additional meaning of the word.

Compare all same-root words → Showing 4 of 5 — not the complete family. 1 of the same-root words is a proper name (a person or place). They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.


Septuagint verse parallels

This word appears in 179 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 197 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.

Read these verses in the Septuagint

This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.

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