to judge
sha.phat describes adjudicating disputes and governing as a judge, as well as God’s judgment of persons and conduct.
The attested uses chiefly concern human adjudication: hearing disputes, giving decisions, and acting as judges over a people. The term also describes God’s judgment, including judgment that distinguishes righteous from wicked or brings consequences according to conduct, and Niphal forms portray entering into a judicial case.
Senses in use
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Adjudicating disputes and governing as judges · dominant
Qal forms describe human judges deciding matters and exercising public oversight. In Deuteronomy 1:16 the judges are charged to hear disputes and judge righteously, while in 1 Kings 3:9 the paired infinitives concern judging the people and discerning between good and evil; active participles in 1 Samuel 8:1 and 1 Chronicles 23:4 identify those appointed as judges.
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God’s judicial judgment and its consequences · common
Qal forms present God as judging people or their conduct. In 1 Kings 8:32 the APB renders the clause with declaring the wicked guilty and justifying the righteous, and in Ezekiel 36:19 it renders judgment according to conduct and wanton deeds; Ezekiel 11:10 places the announced judgment at Israel’s border.
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Entering into a judicial case · occasional
Niphal forms frame judgment as a case entered into between parties. In Ezekiel 20:36 the APB renders the comparison as God entering into judgment with the people as with their fathers, and Isaiah 43:26 renders the cohortative clause as an invitation to argue a case together.
In the Anselm Project Bible: Across these verses, the APB commonly uses “judge” and “judges,” while also presenting the activity through phrases such as rendering justice, deciding between persons, and entering into judgment. These expressions reflect the clauses as a whole rather than fixed English equivalents for each form.