Ezekiel 45:8

45:8 of the land. This will be his property in Israel. My princes will no longer oppress my people, but the land will be allotted to the house of Israel according to their tribes.

Psalms 72:2-4

72:2 Then he will judge ¹  your people fairly,

and your oppressed ones ²  equitably.

72:3 The mountains will bring news of peace to the people,

and the hills will announce justice. ³ 

72:4 He will defend ⁴  the oppressed among the people;

he will deliver ⁵  the children ⁶  of the poor

and crush the oppressor.

Psalms 78:72

78:72 David ⁷  cared for them with pure motives; ⁸ 

he led them with skill. ⁹ 

Isaiah 11:3-4

11:3 He will take delight in obeying the Lord. ¹⁰ 

He will not judge by mere appearances, ¹¹ 

or make decisions on the basis of hearsay. ¹² 

11:4 He will treat the poor fairly, ¹³ 

and make right decisions ¹⁴  for the downtrodden of the earth. ¹⁵ 

He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, ¹⁶ 

and order the wicked to be executed. ¹⁷ 

Isaiah 32:1-2

Justice and Wisdom Will Prevail

32:1 Look, a king will promote fairness; ¹⁸ 

officials will promote justice. ¹⁹ 

32:2 Each of them ²⁰  will be like a shelter from the wind

and a refuge from a rainstorm;

like streams of water in a dry region

and like the shade of a large cliff in a parched land.

Jeremiah 23:5-6

23:5 “I, the Lord, promise ²¹  that a new time will certainly come ²² 

when I will raise up for them a righteous branch, ²³  a descendant of David.

He will rule over them with wisdom and understanding ²⁴ 

and will do what is just and right in the land. ²⁵ 

23:6 Under his rule ²⁶  Judah will enjoy safety ²⁷ 

and Israel will live in security. ²⁸ 

This is the name he will go by:

‘The Lord has provided us with justice.’ ²⁹ 

[72:2]  ¹ tn The prefixed verbal form appears to be an imperfect, not a jussive.

[72:2]  ² sn These people are called God’s oppressed ones because he is their defender (see Pss 9:12, 18; 10:12; 12:5).

[72:3]  ³ tn Heb “[the] mountains will bear peace to the people, and [the] hills with justice.” The personified mountains and hills probably represent messengers who will sweep over the land announcing the king’s just decrees and policies. See Isa 52:7 and C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs, Psalms (ICC), 2:133.

[72:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “judge [for].”

[72:4]  ⁵ tn The prefixed verbal form appears to be an imperfect, not a jussive.

[72:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “sons.”

[78:72]  ⁷ tn Heb “He”; the referent (David, God’s chosen king, mentioned in v. 70) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[78:72]  ⁸ tn Heb “and he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart.”

[78:72]  ⁹ tn Heb “and with the understanding of his hands he led them.”

[11:3]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “and his smelling is in the fear of the Lord.” In Amos 5:21 the Hiphil of רוּחַ (ruakh, “smell”) carries the nuance of “smell with delight, get pleasure from.” There the Lord declares that he does not “smell with delight” (i.e., get pleasure from) Israel’s religious assemblies, which probably stand by metonymy for the incense offered during these festivals. In Isa 11:3 there is no sacrificial context to suggest such a use, but it is possible that “the fear of the Lord” is likened to incense. This coming king will get the same kind of delight from obeying (fearing) the Lord, as a deity does in the incense offered by worshipers. Some regard such an explanation as strained in this context, and prefer to omit this line from the text as a virtual dittograph of the preceding statement.

[11:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “by what appears to his eyes”; KJV “after the sight of his eyes”; NIV “by what he sees with his eyes.”

[11:3]  ¹² tn Heb “by what is heard by his ears”; NRSV “by what his ears hear.”

[11:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “with justice” (so NAB) or “with righteousness” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[11:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “make decisions with rectitude”; cf. ASV, NRSV “and decide with equity.”

[11:4]  ¹⁵ tn Or “land” (NAB, NCV, CEV). It is uncertain if the passage is picturing universal dominion or focusing on the king’s rule over his covenant people. The reference to God’s “holy mountain” in v. 9 and the description of renewed Israelite conquests in v. 14 suggest the latter, though v. 10 seems to refer to a universal kingdom (see 2:2-4).

[11:4]  ¹⁶ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “and he will strike the earth with the scepter of his mouth.” Some have suggested that in this context אֶרֶץ (’erets, “earth”) as an object of judgment seems too broad in scope. The parallelism is tighter if one emends the word to ץ(י)עָרִ (’arits, “potentate, tyrant”). The phrase “scepter of his mouth” refers to the royal (note “scepter”) decrees that he proclaims with his mouth. Because these decrees will have authority and power (see v. 2) behind them, they can be described as “striking” the tyrants down. Nevertheless, the MT reading may not need emending. Isaiah refers to the entire “earth” as the object of God’s judgment in several places without specifying the wicked as the object of the judgment (Isa 24:17-21; 26:9, 21; 28:22; cf. 13:11).

[11:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and by the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked.” The “breath of his lips” refers to his speech, specifically in this context his official decrees that the wicked oppressors be eliminated from his realm. See the preceding note.

[32:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “will reign according to fairness.”

[32:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “will rule according to justice.”

[32:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “a man,” but אִישׁ (’ish) probably refers here to “each” of the officials mentioned in the previous verse.

[23:5]  ²¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[23:5]  ²² tn Heb “Behold the days are coming.”

[23:5]  ²³ tn Heb “a righteous sprig to David” or “a righteous shoot” (NAB).

[23:5]  ²⁴ tn Heb “he will reign as king and act wisely.” This is another example of the use of two verbs joined by “and” where one becomes the adverbial modifier of the other (hendiadys). For the nuance of the verb “act wisely” rather than “prosper” see Amos 5:13; Ps 2:10 (cf. BDB 968 s.v. שָׂכַל Hiph.5).

[23:5]  ²⁵ sn This has been the constant emphasis in this section. See 22:3 for the demand, 22:15 for its fulfillment, and 22:13 for its abuse. The ideal king would follow in the footsteps of his illustrious ancestor David (2 Sam 8:15) who set this forth as an ideal for his dynasty (2 Sam 23:3) and prayed for it to be true of his son Solomon (Ps 72:1-2).

[23:6]  ²⁶ tn Heb “In his days [= during the time he rules].”

[23:6]  ²⁷ tn Parallelism and context (cf. v. 4) suggest this nuance for the word often translated “be saved.” For this nuance elsewhere see Ps 119:117; Prov 28:18 for the verb (יָשַׁע [yasha’] in the Niphal); and Ps 12:6; Job 5:4, 11 for the related noun (יֶשַׁע, yesha’).

[23:6]  ²⁸ sn It should be noted that this brief oracle of deliverance implies the reunification of Israel and Judah under the future Davidic ruler. Jeremiah has already spoken about this reunification earlier in 3:18 and will have more to say about it in 30:3; 31:27, 31. This same ideal was espoused in the prophecies of Hosea (1:10-11 [2:1-2 HT]), Isaiah (11:1-4, 10-12), and Ezekiel (37:15-28) all of which have messianic and eschatological significance.

[23:6]  ²⁹ tn Heb “his name will be called ‘The Lord our righteousness’.”