צַדִּיק
righteous
also: just, lawful fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Adjective
- A word that describes or qualifies a noun.
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Every verse where H6662 appears in the Book of Job — 7 distinct verses. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Job
- Job 12:4 צַדִּ֥יק adj Adjective ms I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor, I, who called on God, and he answered. The just, the blameless man is a joke.
- Job 17:9 צַדִּ֣יק adj Adjective ms Yet shall the righteous hold on his way. He who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger.
- Job 22:19 צַדִּיקִ֣ים adj Adjective mp The righteous see it, and are glad; The innocent ridicule them,
- Job 27:17 וְ/צַדִּ֣יק conj + Adjective Adjective ms He may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, And the innocent shall divide the silver.
- Job 32:1 צַדִּ֣יק adj Adjective ms So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.
- Job 34:17 צַדִּ֖יק adj Adjective ms Shall even one who hates justice govern? Will you condemn him who is righteous and mighty?--
- Job 36:7 מִ/צַּדִּ֗יק prep + Adjective Adjective ms He doesn't withdraw his eyes from the righteous, But with kings on the throne, He sets them forever, and they are exalted.
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
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.
- #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 →
By section of the Old Testament
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:
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:
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:
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:
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.
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
- Genesis 6:9
- Exodus 9:27
- Deuteronomy 4:8
- 1 Samuel 24:17
- 2 Samuel 4:11
- 1 Kings 2:32
- 2 Kings 10:9
- 2 Chronicles 6:23
- Ezra 9:15
- Job 12:4
- Psalms 1:5
- Proverbs 2:20
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.
