Help him judge your people in the right way; let the poor always be treated fairly.
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.
- BSB May he judge Your people with righteousness and Your afflicted with justice.
- 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.
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 shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in justice.
- Ps 72:12–14For he will deliver the needy when he cries; the poor, who has no helper.
- Isa 32:17The work of righteousness will be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.
- Isa 9:7Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, on David’s throne, and on his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from that time on, even forever. The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will perform this.
- Job 34:19Who doesn’t respect the persons of princes, nor respects the rich more than the poor; for they all are the work of his hands.
- 1 Kgs 3:5–10In Gibeon, Yahweh appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask for what I should give you.”
- Ps 12:5“Because of the oppression of the weak and because of the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says Yahweh; “I will set him in safety from those who malign him.”
- Ps 82:3–4“Defend the weak, the poor, and the fatherless. Maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.
- Isa 11:2–5Yahweh’s Spirit will rest on him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Yahweh.
- Rev 19:11I saw the heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it is called Faithful and True. In righteousness he judges and makes war.
- Ps 45:6–7Your throne, God, is forever and ever. A scepter of equity is the scepter of your kingdom.
- Jer 33:15“In those days, and at that time, I will cause a Branch of righteousness to grow up to David; and he will execute justice and righteousness in the land.
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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.