May he judge Your people with righteousness and Your afflicted with justice.
Parallel translations
- WEB He will judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice.
- KJV He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment.
- NKJV He will judge Your people with righteousness, And Your poor with justice.
- NASB May he judge Your people with righteousness And Your afflicted with justice.
- NLT Help him judge your people in the right way; let the poor always be treated fairly.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The king will judge God's people with righteousness and defend the poor with justice.
Overview
The prayer envisions a ruler who upholds the cause of the afflicted and judges fairly. Care for the poor is a defining mark of godly kingship throughout Scripture. No earthly king fully achieved this, but Jesus, who proclaimed good news to the poor and will judge in perfect righteousness, fulfills it completely (Luke 4:18; Isaiah 11:4).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Isa 32:1Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule with justice.
- Ps 72:12–14For he will deliver the needy who cry out and the afflicted who have no helper.
- Isa 32:17The work of righteousness will be peace; the service of righteousness will be quiet confidence forever.
- Isa 9:7Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from that time and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will accomplish this.
- Job 34:19who is not partial to princes and does not favor rich over poor? For they are all the work of His hands.
- 1 Kgs 3:5–10One night at Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream, and God said, “Ask, and I will give it to you!”
- Ps 12:5“For the cause of the oppressed and for the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says the LORD. “I will bring safety to him who yearns.”
- Ps 82:3–4Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; uphold the rights of the afflicted and oppressed.
- Isa 11:2–5The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him—the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the LORD.
- Rev 19:11Then I saw heaven standing open, and there before me was a white horse. And its rider is called Faithful and True. With righteousness He judges and wages war.
- Ps 45:6–7Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever, and justice is the scepter of Your kingdom.
- Jer 33:15In those days and at that time I will cause to sprout for David a righteous Branch, and He will administer justice and righteousness in the land.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 72:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.