Mishpat | Not judgment. Justice for the Vulnerable.

Mishpat. Your Bible probably calls it judgment, and that translation isn't wrong; it's just incomplete. In Hebrew, mishpat comes from the root shafat, meaning "to judge, to govern, to set right." It appears over 400 times in the Old Testament, and throughout Torah and the Prophets, the verdict it describes lands in favor of the vulnerable, the widow, the orphan, the immigrant, the one with no leverage to make their case heard.

This week, we look at what gets lost when judgment drowns out justice: why even our language for vulnerable people comes loaded with suspicion, how "hate the sin, love the sinner" borrows the form of judgment while skipping everything mishpat actually demands, and what it looks like when the church hands down verdicts on LGBTQ people and women preachers while insisting it isn't judging anyone. That's mishpat running backward, and we can do better.

Key references: Exodus 21:1 - 24:18, Exodus 23:6, Deuteronomy 24:17, Isaiah 1:17, Psalm 82:3, Amos 5:24, Matthew 23:23, Micah 6:8, 

Episodes related to this episode:

• S1 E3: Church, Race, and Justice: 3 Words Nobody Wants in the Same Sentence
• S2 E20: Weapons Down: What God Requires for a Faith at War with Itself
• S3 E8: Starting in the Rubble: Reconciliation That Holds
• S3 E10: Back Porch Mercy: What Faithful Looks Like on a Tuesday

Theology Unleashed is a summer series of short Greek and Hebrew word studies from Jesus, Justice + Mercy. Justice-rooted, seminary-informed, and considerably less scripted than usual. Dogs present.

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Transcript

Kristen A. Brock (00:01)

Welcome to Theology Unleashed, a summer series from Jesus, Justice, and Mercy. I'm Kristen, and this summer we're doing short Greek and Hebrew word studies, justice-rooted and seminary-informed, with my very theologically gifted dogs. Together, let's go unleash something.

Hey, my friend, welcome back to week two of Jesus, Justice, and Mercy's Summer Series, Theology Unleashed. Feeling like that's kind of a mouthful. But today's word is Mishpat. And you may have heard it called judgment, and that's where I'm gonna start. But I'm also gonna push back on that. Meanwhile, while we had our group meeting working on this this week, the dogs were trying to convince me that they fell under the category of vulnerable people in the Bible.

And they were lobbying unsuccessfully for more justice in how many times they got treats today. That did not go as they would have hoped, but for now, I think I'll keep them on staff. Nevertheless, this word Mishpat comes from the Hebrew word shafat, which is a root word there. It's to judge, to govern, to set right. And I'm gonna talk about that in a minute. But Mishpat shows up well over four hundred times across the Hebrew Bible. 

It's one of the most repeated justice words in the Old Testament. Your Bible probably translates it as judgment. And for most of us, that word conjures up courtroom justice, doom, judgment day scenarios, God keeping score on us personally, or keeping score on the people who we think are sinners. But the same Hebrew word gets translated as " justice in other passages.

Interestingly, translators split this one Hebrew concept or word into two English words in different verses, which tends to hide or distract from the fact that it was always the same idea. The whole idea of how translators come up with things is something I should probably tackle at some point as well.

But again, just like last week, the translation is not wrong. It's just incomplete. Judgment drags that word toward courtroom doom and personal sin accounting. And for most people, that's their entire relationship with the word. What happens is that most of us feel the judgment sense of this word as something to dread or avoid, not something we're invited into, which for Mishpat is really an active restorative equity that cares for the vulnerable. 

So back to that root shafat, to judge, govern, set right. It frequently implies discerning between right and wrong, resolving disputes, executing justice, and delivering a verdict. The King James Version translates the words four hundred and twenty plus appearances as judgment only a little over two-thirds of the time. The rest come out as manner. 

Custom, due, right, ordinance. And that's not an accident. There's a whole section of Torah literally called Mishpatim. It's found in Exodus 21:1-24:18, right after the Ten Commandments. Mishpatim was the foundation of Jewish civil and ethical laws, and it's not a list of punishments. It's the day-to-day rules for living rightly with each other, the humane treatment of people.

Judicial corruption, charging interest to the poor, and sabbatical years are all part of this. Mishpat was never just one dramatic verdict. It's also just how a society is supposed to function together. It's important to note that the courtroom image is real. Mishpat happens at the city gate, where the elders actually sat to hear cases and hand down verdicts. But check who that verdict is for throughout Torah and the prophets.

The poor, the widow, the orphan, the immigrant, those with no leverage to make their own case heard. You can see this in Exodus 23:6, Deuteronomy 24:17, Psalm 82:3, and Isaiah 1:17. The gavel here isn't coming down on someone; it's coming down for someone, and that distinction is huge.

Mishpat does carry a consequence side. We can call it the retributive piece if you want the fancy word, but it just means somebody's actions get weighed. It's paired just as hard and maybe even more so, with the restorative side, making things right again, repairing what's broken. You can't keep the “somebody's in trouble” half and drop the repair half. If we pair it with last week's Tzedakah, Tzedakah is the relational side, generosity, and equity, doing right by your neighbor. 

Mishpat is the rule-of-law side, actually giving people what they're due. These words are partners, not synonyms, and that's why Amos puts them in the same breath. In the New Testament, Jesus uses the Greek word Krisis in Matthew 23:23. Same concept, different language. “Woe to you, teachers of the law, you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and skip the weightier matters. Justice, mercy, and faithfulness.”

 This is the same pairing Micah named centuries earlier. Jesus aimed it straight at religious leaders who got the small stuff exactly right and missed Mishpat completely. And we're still doing it. That's the translation gap. And it runs deeper than you might think. Even the words we use for vulnerable people aren't neutral. They come loaded, widowed, orphan, single parent, poor. All are supposed to mean this person deserves defense, but somewhere along the way, sympathy turns into suspicion. What did you do to end up here? Where's the other parent? Why isn't there a man in the picture? Sometimes these are subtle, but as a single parent, I often feel this in the church.  

And it doesn't stop there. The unhoused person gets a meal and a side of " Why don't they just get a job?” The immigrant gets welcome the stranger and a follow-up of “but are they legal?” The person with addiction gets prayers, and “they brought this on themselves.” That's the same translation gap, just quieter. The church can say vulnerable and still be quietly deciding who is vulnerable enough to deserve Mishpat and who is only vulnerable because of their own bad choices. 

And then it gets louder, “hate the sin, love the sinner.” Which uses the language of judgment while skipping everything Mishpat actually demands, a real hearing, someone arguing the case for the vulnerable, a verdict that lands in their favor, not against their right to exist. 

When that phrase gets aimed at LGBTQ people, the verdict lands on someone's identity or relationship. It doesn't land on the people doing the excluding. It's the same structure, different language for women preachers.

 “It's not personal, it's just the structure.” “This isn't about her gifting, it's about order.” No one calls it judgment; it's called “design, calling, biblical womanhood.” But the consequence is identical. A door closes, and the person on the other side of it never got to argue her own case. In both cases, the church gets to feel non-judgmental, while the actual structural cost is no women preachers, no gay marriage, no full belonging to the body of believers lands entirely on the person with the least power to contest it. That's Mishpat running backward. 

So Mishpat means noticing who in your own daily life has no one making their case for them right now. Is it a coworker, a neighbor, somebody's kid? And then actually doing something, even something small. Stop treating “I don't want to be judgmental” as the safest spiritual posture you can take. Sometimes silence is just silence wearing humility's clothes. 

I've opened up different pieces of this in older episodes, particularly around Micah 6:8. Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly. And I'll drop all those episodes in the show notes if you want to catch up. But next week, we're gonna pick up the other half of Micah 6:8 and that stubborn covenant love of Hesed.  

So while you're waiting, in the meantime, go find somebody's case to argue this week. It just might make all the difference. 

That is Theology Unleashed. All thirteen episodes live at kristenabrock.com. Get on the email list while you're there. Season four drops in the fall, and you don't want to miss it. Thanks for listening. Jesus, Justice, no apologies.