He judges the world with justice; He governs the people with equity.
Parallel translations
- WEB He will judge the world in righteousness. He will administer judgment to the peoples in uprightness.
- KJV And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.
- NKJV He shall judge the world in righteousness, And He shall administer judgment for the peoples in uprightness.
- NASB And He will judge the world in righteousness; He will execute judgment for the peoples fairly.
- NLT He will judge the world with justice and rule the nations with fairness.
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
God will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity. His judgment is perfectly just toward all nations.
Overview
David affirms that God's universal judgment is marked by righteousness and fairness, not favoritism or error. This expectation of a final, equitable judgment of all peoples runs throughout Scripture and is fulfilled in Christ, whom God has appointed to judge the world in righteousness (Acts 17:31).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Ps 96:13before the LORD, for He is coming—He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in His faithfulness.
- Rev 20:12–13And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. And there were open books, and one of them was the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their deeds, as recorded in the books.
- Acts 17:31For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.”
- Ps 98:9before the LORD, for He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity.
- Rom 2:16on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Christ Jesus, as proclaimed by my gospel.
- Rom 2:5–6But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
- Gen 18:25Far be it from You to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Will not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?”
- Ps 99:4The mighty King loves justice. You have established equity; You have exercised justice and righteousness in Jacob.
- Isa 11:4–5but with righteousness He will judge the poor, and with equity He will decide for the lowly of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth and slay the wicked with the breath of His lips.
- Ps 94:15Surely judgment will again be righteous, and all the upright in heart will follow it.
- Ps 50:6And the heavens proclaim His righteousness, for God Himself is Judge. Selah
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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 9:8 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.