Compound Names with Jehovah
Jehovah-Tsidkenu (יְהוָה צִדְקֵנוּ)
The LORD Our Righteousness
Description
The prophetic name יְהוָה צִדְקֵנוּ (Jehovah-Tsidkenu), meaning 'the LORD our righteousness,' appears in Jeremiah's oracle concerning the coming Messiah, the righteous Branch of David who would reign as King, executing judgment and justice in the earth. Jeremiah ministered during Judah's final catastrophic decline—a succession of wicked kings (Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, Zedekiah) led the nation to Babylonian exile. Against this backdrop of failed human leadership and comprehensive moral collapse, God promised a future King unlike all who preceded Him: 'Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth' (Jeremiah 23:5).
This coming King's name would be Jehovah-Tsidkenu—'THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS' (Jeremiah 23:6). The name is theologically explosive: it identifies the Messiah with YHWH Himself while declaring that He becomes righteousness for His people. The Hebrew צֶדֶק (tsedeq) and its variant צְדָקָה (tsedaqah) denote conformity to God's standard, moral rightness, vindication, justification—the quality of being and acting in accordance with God's holy character. No mere human possesses this righteousness; Isaiah declared, 'all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags' (Isaiah 64:6). Yet the coming King would not merely possess righteousness but be righteousness for His people—providing what they utterly lacked.The name's structure is significant: יְהוָה (YHWH, the covenant name) + צִדְקֵנוּ (tsidkenu, 'our righteousness'—from צֶדֶק 'righteousness' with the first-person plural possessive suffix). The name declares that YHWH Himself becomes the righteousness of His people. This is imputed righteousness—God's own righteousness reckoned to sinners who possess none of their own. The parallel passage in Jeremiah 33:16 applies a similar name to Jerusalem: 'THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS,' indicating that the city's righteousness derives entirely from her Messiah-King. The contrast with Zedekiah ('righteousness of YHWH'), Judah's final king who proved utterly unrighteous, is deliberate and poignant.
The prophecy promises restoration: 'In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely' (Jeremiah 23:6). Salvation and security would flow not from Israel's righteousness (which was nonexistent) but from their King's righteousness imputed to them. This anticipates the New Testament doctrine of justification: sinners declared righteous not through personal merit but through faith in Christ, who 'was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification' (Romans 4:25). Paul explicitly identifies Christ as Jehovah-Tsidkenu: 'But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption' (1 Corinthians 1:30).
The theological mechanism is substitution and imputation: Christ's perfect obedience to God's law (active righteousness) and His sin-bearing death (passive righteousness satisfying divine justice) provide the righteousness God requires. This righteousness is imputed—credited, reckoned—to believers through faith: 'For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him' (2 Corinthians 5:21). The great exchange: our sin placed on Christ, His righteousness placed on us. Thus Jehovah-Tsidkenu reveals both Christ's deity (He bears the covenant name YHWH) and His saving work (He becomes righteousness for unrighteous sinners). Believers stand before God clothed not in filthy rags of self-righteousness but in Christ's perfect righteousness, the wedding garment without which none enter the King's banquet (Matthew 22:11-12). This is the gospel: 'Christ Jesus... is made unto us... righteousness.'
This coming King's name would be Jehovah-Tsidkenu—'THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS' (Jeremiah 23:6). The name is theologically explosive: it identifies the Messiah with YHWH Himself while declaring that He becomes righteousness for His people. The Hebrew צֶדֶק (tsedeq) and its variant צְדָקָה (tsedaqah) denote conformity to God's standard, moral rightness, vindication, justification—the quality of being and acting in accordance with God's holy character. No mere human possesses this righteousness; Isaiah declared, 'all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags' (Isaiah 64:6). Yet the coming King would not merely possess righteousness but be righteousness for His people—providing what they utterly lacked.The name's structure is significant: יְהוָה (YHWH, the covenant name) + צִדְקֵנוּ (tsidkenu, 'our righteousness'—from צֶדֶק 'righteousness' with the first-person plural possessive suffix). The name declares that YHWH Himself becomes the righteousness of His people. This is imputed righteousness—God's own righteousness reckoned to sinners who possess none of their own. The parallel passage in Jeremiah 33:16 applies a similar name to Jerusalem: 'THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS,' indicating that the city's righteousness derives entirely from her Messiah-King. The contrast with Zedekiah ('righteousness of YHWH'), Judah's final king who proved utterly unrighteous, is deliberate and poignant.
The prophecy promises restoration: 'In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely' (Jeremiah 23:6). Salvation and security would flow not from Israel's righteousness (which was nonexistent) but from their King's righteousness imputed to them. This anticipates the New Testament doctrine of justification: sinners declared righteous not through personal merit but through faith in Christ, who 'was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification' (Romans 4:25). Paul explicitly identifies Christ as Jehovah-Tsidkenu: 'But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption' (1 Corinthians 1:30).
The theological mechanism is substitution and imputation: Christ's perfect obedience to God's law (active righteousness) and His sin-bearing death (passive righteousness satisfying divine justice) provide the righteousness God requires. This righteousness is imputed—credited, reckoned—to believers through faith: 'For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him' (2 Corinthians 5:21). The great exchange: our sin placed on Christ, His righteousness placed on us. Thus Jehovah-Tsidkenu reveals both Christ's deity (He bears the covenant name YHWH) and His saving work (He becomes righteousness for unrighteous sinners). Believers stand before God clothed not in filthy rags of self-righteousness but in Christ's perfect righteousness, the wedding garment without which none enter the King's banquet (Matthew 22:11-12). This is the gospel: 'Christ Jesus... is made unto us... righteousness.'
Key Verses
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: