What Does Isaiah 5:23 Mean?
Who align the wicked for a bribe, and take the alignment of the aligned one from him!
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!THE KEY
One Hebrew root names both sides of the verdict: the judges call the wicked aligned, then strip alignment from the aligned.
THE MEANING
When reward buys a verdict, wrongdoing is publicly called right and the righteous person is stripped of their standing. The harm moves in both directions: the wicked is cleared while the one who stands rightly is denied justice.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A favorable verdict cannot make wrongdoing right, and losing a public verdict does not make the righteous person crooked.
THE ROOT
מַצְדִּיקֵי
maṣdîqê
GROWS FROM
צדק
ṣ-d-q
To be right or just; to stand in alignment.
“align” in this verse is maṣdîqê. “Justify,” “righteousness,” and “righteous” all grow from צדק. The verse shows the same alignment being manipulated in opposite directions: judges declare the wicked right for a reward, then remove the righteous person’s standing.
ALSO GROWS
hiṣdîq: Declare right or just; justify.
הִצְדִּיק
This is the verdict-making form of the root, showing that the judges’ act is a public declaration of rightness.
ṣĕdāqāh: Righteousness or justice.
צְדָקָה
The same root names the justice the judges take away, tying the false verdict directly to the loss it causes.
ṣaddîq: A righteous or just person.
צַדִּיק
This names the person whose standing is stripped; the root links their character to the justice the verdict denies.
THE PATTERN
When judgment bends to reward or partiality, it can call wrongdoing right and deny justice to the righteous.
You shall not bend judgment. You shall not recognize faces, nor take a bribe, for the bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the aligned.He who aligns the wicked, and he who convicts the aligned one, both are loathed by the LORD.Are you not then divided within yourselves, and have become judges of evil reckonings?THE THREAD
And he leaned his weight on the LORD, and he counted it to him as alignment.“Righteousness” here and in Isaiah comes from the same root, צדק. Isaiah shows human judges bending that standing for reward; Genesis places righteousness in relation to trust rather than a price paid for a verdict.
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