• Itr. u. jad. Geich.' 109.
t The idea of righteousness as obedience to the written law of God, which bulks so largely in the later writings, appears in Dt 6» ; cf. 24". Zeph 23.
t Cf. the combination of .Iji't with ion (■ Unctneis ') In Ho< 1012 Jer »a.
RIGHTEOUSNESS IX OT
RIGUTEOUSXESS IX OT
275
it when offered by men of immoral life. But the claims of rifj;liteousnes3are absolute, and the nation that will not yield to them, thou<;h it be the chosen people of Israel itself, must perish. Further, this righteousness, being based at once on the nature of man and the nature of God, is universal in its ran^e. It ha-s its witness in the human conscience everywhere (Am 3°), and determines the destiny of other nations as well as of Israel (I' 2* etc.). It is, in short, the moral order of the universe, and the supreme law of J"'s operations in history. (4) As the lack of righteousness is the cause of Israel's destruction, so the presence of it is a constant feature of the Messianic salvation to which the prophets look forward. 'A king shall reign in righteousness, and princes decree justice' (Is 32"). The Messiah's kingdom shall be established in righteousness (9'), and He shall judge the poor in righteousness (IP"), etc. Cf. Jer 22"* 23" 33", Hos ?"(?). Is 1=« 32"'- 33» etc. (5) Kighteousness as a personal attribute of J" is not named by the proi)hets so frequently as one might expect. The atlj. p'^s is not used in this sense till a compara- tively late period (Zeph 3', Jer 12'). Amos never mentions the righteousness of J", though the image of the plumb-line in 7''* shows that the conception was in his mind (cf. Is 28"). Isaiah speaks of a judgment 'overflowing with righteousness' (10--), and of the Holy God as 'sanctifying himself by righteousness' (5"), i.e. showing Himself to be God through the exercise of judicial righteousness. The idea is common to aU the prophets. From the special circumstances in which their work was carried on, they dwell chiefly (if not exclusive!}') on the punitire side of the Divine righteousness, the side whicli it presents to the guilt of Israel (Hos 6°* 10*, Ilab 1'-). Itighteousne.ss, in short, is here equivalent to retribution, althougli retri- bution is not regarded as an end in itself, but only as a step in the carrying out of a redemptive purpose.
The.se appear to be the chief features of the idea of righteousness which is characteristic of the pre- exilic prophets. It is not yet to be called strictly a religious conception, inasmuch as its human side consists of moral qualities displayed by men in their relations to one another, and the righteous- ness of men before God is an idea hardly repre- sented in the luojihcts. But it makes the religious development possible, and some anticipations of that development in the prophetic writings will have to be considered under the next head.
iii. Righteousness in tiie Si'Iieue of Re- ligion.— 'We come now to consider the ditrerent forms as.sumed by the idea of righteousness as expressing relations existing immediately between God and man. These are based on the mono- theistic principle, interi)reted by the help of the forensic categories described above (under i.). J" is the supreme Ruler and Judge of the universe, and His judgments are seen in history or provi- dence, liut the ordinary course of providence could not always be accepted as the final expres- sion of the mind of the .Judge ; it is usually in some great crisis, some decisive interposition of J' felt to be impending, that the ultimate verdict is looked for. Meanwhile nations and men are on their trial, they are severally in the right or in the wrong before God, and in the final day of reckoniu" the issues will be made clear, and the just ill- of the Divine government fully vin<licated. Altliinigh all the elements of this cimception are present in prc-exilic prophecy, the special applica- tions of it now to be dealt with belong mostly to a later period, and are the result of certain currents of thought which come to the surface in the age of
• Rend KS' -nsz 'EE^DI.
the Exile. There are three things to be looked at: the righteousness of Israel ; the righteousness of the individual ; and the righteousness of God.
1. TUE Righteousness of /.9/(.-iJiv..— The ques- tion of I.srael's right against other nations is one little considered bj' the earlier prophets. It was doubtless a factor in the jiopular religion, revealing itself in that eager longing for the day of J" which Amos rebukes (.')"'). From that point of \'ie\v it was a matter of cour.se that J" should maintain the cause and right of His peo])le, and moral ccinsiderations hardlj- entered into the feeling. The projihets, on the other h.ind, were too much concerned to impress on Israel a sense of its utter unrighteousness before God to pay much heed to the violation of right involved m its subjection to nations morally worse than itself. In the 7th cent., however, partly as a consequence of the Deuteronomic reformation, the idea of a righteous Israel begins to exert an influence on prophetic thought (cf. I)t G^). The first prophet to treat the matter expressly from this point of view is Habakkuk (the idea is latent in Nalium), who uses the technical terms p'ls and yj'-i to designate Israel and its heathen oppressors respectively (14.13. ^f 2' : see the Comm.), and appeals to J" to redress the WTon^s suH'ercd by His people. But it was the F.xile tliat brought the question to the front in the prophetic interpretation of history. The Divine sentence had gone forth confirming the moral verdict of the prophets on the nation's past, and the more spiritual part of the people acknow- ledged the just judgment of God in what had be- fallen them (La 1"). But there still remained the promi.se of a glorious future, in which the righteous- ness of J" would be dlsjd.ayed not less than in the judgment now past. Israel, therefore, has a right which, though obscured for the jiresent, is recog- nized by J", and will be vindicated by Him in due time. ^Vherein does this righteousness of Israel consist ?