Speaking of Kings (21:1-23:8) 111formed a superscription to the King Collection (21:11-23:8), just as "To the
prophets" in 23:9 is now a superscription to the Prophet Collection (23:9-
40). Foreign Nation Oracle Collections are similarly introduced ( 46:2; 48: 1;
49:1, 7, 23, 28). The LXX lacks the copulative and reads the lamed as a voca-
tive: ho oikos basileos Iouda ("O house of the king of Judah"), which creates a
redundancy with "(O) house of David" following, and is not the better reading
(pace Stade 1892: 278; Cornill). Aquila and Symm (kai to oiko basileos Iouda)
support the MT.
Hear the word of Yahweh, house of David. Hebrew sim<u ("Hear") is a plural
imperative, indicating that the entire royal house is being addressed, not just
the king. The oracle introduced also contains plural imperatives (v 12: dfnu
... weha$$flu, "Execute ... and rescue").
house of David. Hebrew bet dawid. A common dynastic name for the king-
dom of Judah (2 Sam 3:1, 6; Isa 7:13). The phrase bytdwd ("house of David") in
Aramaic has turned up on a ninth-century B.C. royal inscription from Tell Dan
(Biran and Naveh 1993: 87; CS II 162). Kim]:ii says David is mentioned be-
cause he administered justice and righteousness to all (cf. 2 Sam 8: 15).
Execute justice in the morning, and rescue the robbed from the oppressor's
hand! "Justice" (mispat) in the OT is something you do (5:1; 7:5; Gen 18:25;
1 Kgs 3:28b; Mic 6:8; Ps 9: l 7[Eng 9: 16]). The verb here is dfn, "judge, execute,"
but in 22:3 the royal house is told to "Do justice!" <asu mispat. The same ap-
plies to "righteousness" ($edaqa), a term appearing often with "justice" and
most closely associated with it (4:2; 9:23[Eng 9:24]; 22:3, 13, 15; 23:5 = 33:15;
Ezek 18:5, 21; 33:14, 19; 2 Sam 8:15; I Kgs 10:9). The two terms are often used
interchangeably in the OT. In the earliest books of the OT, mispat has the
meaning of "manner" or "custom" (Gen 40:13; Josh 6:15; Judg 13:12; 1 Sam
2: 13; 27: 11; cf. 0. Booth 1942: 105-7; Snaith 1983: 75-76; Berkovitz 1969: 198-
99). Deriving from the root spt, "to judge," mispat is a judgment determined by
custom or precedent (compare the role of "precedent" in English and Ameri-
can law). Later, mispat comes to mean largely proper administration of law
and justice in the society. Justice in the present oracle refers to equitable and
impartial action by the royal house in conformity with what is legally and mor-
ally right, where what is legally and morally right is defined ultimately by stipu-
lations of the Sinai covenant. With regard to both legal cases and disputes of a
more informal nature, doing justice consists of rendering right and fair deci-
sions of punishment and vindication. In the OT, doing justice has much to do
with eliminating oppression and satisfying the claims of society's poor, needy,
and disenfranchised (22:3; cf. Exod 22:20-21[Eng 22:21-22]; 23:6-7; Isa 1:17;
and Note for 7:5-6). In the absence of promulgated covenant law, justice con-
sists of action conforming to self-evident norms of what is right and proper,
which reverts back to mispat in the older sense of "custom" or "manner." The
covenant people are expected to do justice because Yahweh does justice (Gen
18:25; Deut 32:4; Jer 9:23[24]; Psalms 82 and 146). Yahweh loves justice and
hates robbery, particularly when the latter goes hand in hand with a burnt of-
fering (Isa 61:8).