This prophetic conception of the Divine righteous- ness receives a remarkable expansion in the hands of DeuteroLsaiali. The most suggestive passage is 45'""-' ' Not in secret have I spoken, in a place of the land of darkness ; I have not said to the seed of Jacob, Seek lue in the waste. I, J", speak righteousness, proclaim uprightness ... A right- eous God and a Saviour (i-yioi p^s Vx) there is not e.\cept me' (cf. v." ' rigliteousness is gone forth from my mouth, — a word that shall not return'; and 63' ' I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save '). Here two things are to be noted : first, that righteousness is a feature not merely of J"'s judicial action, but of His whole manner of reveal- ing Him.self in history ; and, secondly, tliat beyond the universal moral order of the world it embraces a redemptive purpose, which, however, is ultimately coextensive with the destiny of mankind. Tlie fundamental thought would seem to be the trust- worthiness and self-consistency of J"'s character, — Hie being ever true to His own nature and purpose, — and along with that His straightforwardness in the revelation of that purpose to Israel. In the same profound ethical sense tlie words are used in 41'° 42* 45" : the upholding of Israel, the election of the ideal servant, and the raising up of Cyrus, are all moments in one comprehensive purpose of salvation which J", in virtue of His rigliteousness, steadily pursues to its glorious issue. t Elsewhere than in
• Aipxpressionii of the righteous will of J", the precepts of the Iaw are iiometinies spoken of aa themselves 'righteous* (Dt i», P» 19», and olten in Ps 119). So in Dt 3310, and perhaps elsewhere (Ps 6» 11(>« etc.), the righteousness of J" means that which He requires of man, or that which la prescribc<l in the Iviw. .Some writers have thought it strange that this Divine altribut« is nowhere mentioned in the Pent, in connexion with the Mosaic legislation, which, from one point of view, might •eem the most signal exhihition of J"'s righteousness in the whole history of Israel. The explanation probably lies in the essentially prophetic character of the conception referred to in the text above, liy the prophets the term is applied not to the legi.«latlvc activity of J", but to His dealings in providince.
I Of. also 4'22i "J" waa pleased, for his righteousness' sake, to magnifv revelation,' etc. Uss signiflcjint, but still notoworthv. »«< IM 43», where the terms are applied to predict'ons aa verified by the event.
Deutero-Isaiah, this precise sense of righteousnesa is rarely met with in OT (see Zee 8', Nch 9', and those passages in the Psalms where righteousness is parallel to faithfulness). Its indirect influence, however, has been very great, as appears from the remarkable way in wliich the Psalmists emphasize the gracious aspect of the attribute (see below).
The teaching of Deutero-Isaiah on this subject stands some- what ap;irt from the rest of the OT, and represents a standpoint hardly reached by subsequent writers. Righteousness appears to be conceived as a moral attribute expressing what J"'8 character is in itself, apart from Uis legal relations with men ; and it is dithcult to trace a connexion between this view of righteousness and the commoner forensic conceptions about to be considered. Smend describes it as ' die Zuverhissigkeit mit der er sich als der Heifer Israels beweist '{/ie^.-ye*"cA.- 394 ; cf. 1st ed. 4-1 If.), and seems to derive it from the idea of J"'s being in the right in His controversy with Israel (see (a) below). Dahnan treats it simply as a manifestation of judicial righteous- nes.< on the part of Uod ((6) below). Were it not hazardous to depart (rum the forensic usage which is so prevalent in Hebrew, one mi;:ht be tempted to suppose that we have here to do with an independent development of the notion parallel to what ia found in Arabic.
For the most part, however, the idea of Divine righteousness is based on legal analogies applied to the relation between J" on tlie one hand and Israel or mankind on the other. Here, again, there are two cases to be distinguished, (a) Not infrequently, in the prophets and elsewhere, J" appears as the plaintiff' in a \e''al action, pressing His suit against Israel, and calling for the judgment of .an ideal tribunal (Is 1'* 43-', Mic G^ etc.). When in this connexion the word ' righteous ' is emploj'ed of J", it denotes that He is in ike Wg'/iY and His adversary in the wrong in the controversy between them. The adj. has this sense in the mouth of Pharaoh, Ex 9-'' ('J" is in the right,' etc.). It is so u.sed also in the following passages, where the righteousness of J" is acknowledged lu the punishment of Israel's sin: La l'«, Ezr 'J'», Neh 9-^, 2 Ch 12«, Du 9". Similarly, niji? in Dn 9'- '«, mpys in 1 S 12', Mic 6» ; * and the verb in Ps 51* ('that thou mayest be in the right in thy sentence'). By an extension of meaning parallel to what we have alre.idy noted in the secular sphere, this sense of rigliteousness might readily pass over into that of ethical perfection ; and there are a few instances where the word is possibly to be so understood ; cf. again Zeph 3', Dt 32*, Zee 8^ ; also Neh 9', Ps 145' etc.