What Does Zechariah 7:9 Mean in the King James?
Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother:
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Truthful judgment, faithful love, and compassion are not competing ideals here; they are one practice directed toward another person.
THE MEANING
Your judgment and your treatment of another person belong together. Truth here carries the feel of reliability; faithful love and compassion are how that truth becomes trustworthy between you and your brother.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that justice must become cold to stay truthful, or that compassion requires looking away from what is true.
THE ROOT
אֱמֶת
emet
GROWS FROM
א־מ־ן
ʾ-m-n
Firm, steady, reliable.
The judgment called true carries the sense of being firm and dependable, not merely factually correct. Its placement beside faithful love and compassion makes trustworthiness part of how judgment meets another person.
ALSO GROWS
emunah: Trust, steadiness.
אֱמוּנָה
This related word shows the root’s firmness as something a person can lean on.
amen: Amen; a word of confirmation.
אָמֵן
Its use to affirm what is sure echoes the root’s sense of reliability.
חֶסֶד
chesed
GROWS FROM
ח־ס־ד
ḥ-s-d
Faithful love; loyal, steadfast kindness.
The word rendered mercy carries the sense of faithful love. Its related forms describe both a faithful person and an act of loyal kindness, so this love takes shape in how one person treats another.
ALSO GROWS
chasid: A faithful or loyal person.
חָסִיד
This branch describes someone characterized by the same faithful love named in the verse.
hitḥassed: To act in kindness or loyalty.
הִתְחַסֵּד
This verbal form makes the root’s faithful love an action rather than an abstract feeling.
רַחֲמִים
rachamim
GROWS FROM
ר־ח־ם
r-ḥ-m
Compassion, tender care.
“compassions” in this verse is rachamim. The root has a close kinship with the Hebrew word for womb, giving compassion an embodied sense of protective tenderness. Here that tenderness is directed toward one’s brother alongside truthful judgment and faithful love.
ALSO GROWS
rechem: Womb.
רֶחֶם
This related word makes visible the root’s association with intimate, protective care.
rachum: Compassionate.
רַחוּם
This adjective carries the root’s tenderness as a quality of the one who shows compassion.
THE PATTERN
Truthful judgment is held together with faithful love and compassion as concrete practices in relationship.
Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.THE THREAD
He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?The word rendered “mercy” in both verses is חֶסֶד (chesed), faithful love. Micah pairs loving that faithful love with doing justice; Zechariah places it directly between brothers, alongside truthful judgment and compassion.
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