What Does Romans 9:14 Mean?
What then shall we say? Is there misalignment with God? Let it never be.
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
What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.THE KEY
The word translated “unrighteousness” shares its Greek root with “alignment,” so the question is whether any misalignment belongs to God.
THE MEANING
This verse gives voice to the reader’s hard question: can there be injustice with God? Its answer is emphatic: no misalignment belongs to God. The question remains visible, but the charge is rejected.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
When God’s action is hard to reconcile with my sense of fairness, that difficulty itself proves God is unjust.
THE ROOT
ἀδικία
adikia
GROWS FROM
δίκ- (dik-), from δίκη (dikē)
Right, justice, what is just.
The word ἀδικία (adikia, injustice) places negation around the Greek justice-word: it names what is not right. Its δίκ- word family also gives δικαιοσύνη (dikaiosynē, alignment), making the verse’s question whether misalignment can belong to God.
ALSO GROWS
dikaiosynē: Justice, alignment.
δικαιοσύνη
This related word makes the shared root visible: the question concerns whether God is out of alignment.
dikaios: Just, right.
δίκαιος
It names one characterized by what is right, reinforcing that the verse concerns the nature of justice.
THE PATTERN
Scripture names the possibility of injustice in God’s judgment directly, then affirms that God does not pervert what is right.
He is the Rock; whole is his work, for all his ways are judgment. A God of steadiness, without crookedness, aligned and straight is he.Indeed, God does not act wickedly, nor does the Almighty make judgment crooked.But if our misalignment sets beside the alignment of God, what shall we say? Is God misaligned, who brings down the burning of his anger? I speak as a human speaks.THE THREAD
But if our misalignment sets beside the alignment of God, what shall we say? Is God misaligned, who brings down the burning of his anger? I speak as a human speaks.Romans 3:5 places ἀδικία (adikia, injustice) beside δικαιοσύνη (dikaiosynē, alignment); both belong to the δίκ- (dik-, right/justice) word family. It opens the same question by setting human misalignment beside God’s alignment.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us