A contest (personal or legal)
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H7379 is a Hebrew noun for dispute, controversy, legal case, grievance, or strife. Exodus 23:6 commands Israel not to deny justice to the poor in a lawsuit, placing disputed claims under impartial covenant judgment.
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Full entry for רִיב (H7379) · Open the biblical lexicon
H7379 is a Hebrew noun for dispute, controversy, legal case, grievance, or strife. Exodus 23:6 commands Israel not to deny justice to the poor in a lawsuit, placing disputed claims under impartial covenant judgment.
The BSB source-word alignment has 62 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include my cause (4), strife (4), dispute (3), my case (3), their case (3).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 13:7. Its strongest book concentrations include Proverbs (12), Psalms (7), Jeremiah (6), Deuteronomy (5).
H7379 is a Hebrew noun for dispute, controversy, legal case, grievance, or strife. Exodus 23:6 commands Israel not to deny justice to the poor in a lawsuit, placing disputed claims under impartial covenant judgment. Deuteronomy 25:1 directs parties in a dispute to court so the innocent may be acquitted and the guilty condemned. Hosea 4:1 announces that the Lord has a case against the land because truth, faithful love, and knowledge of God are absent.
Elsewhere the word names quarrels over resources, pleas before a judge, arguments, national conflict, and a cause entrusted to God. H7379 opens access to justice, evidence, advocacy, conflict, and divine indictment. It corrects communities that treat every grievance as divisive and also corrects the assumption that bringing a charge, speaking confidently, or gaining a crowd already proves the case.
H7379 names conflict in personal, communal, legal, and prophetic forms. It can be a quarrel, a party's cause, a formal lawsuit, or the Lord's covenant case. Procedures, evidence, parties, and outcome determine its moral character.
You shall not deny justice to the poor in their lawsuits.
Covenant law forbids denying justice to a poor person in a lawsuit, requiring impartial treatment rather than status-based dismissal.
If there is a dispute between men, they are to go to court to be judged, so that the innocent may be acquitted and the guilty condemned.
A dispute is brought for judgment so innocence and guilt are determined rather than settled by private retaliation.
Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel, for the Lord has a case against the people of the land: “There is no truth, no loving devotion, and no knowledge of God in the land!
The Lord brings a covenant case against a land marked by missing truth, faithful love, and knowledge of God.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Legal dispute or personal conflict; often involves God as judge mediating between contending parties.
Legal dispute or personal conflict; often involves God as judge mediating between contending parties.
a contest (personal or legal) BDB: strife Usage: adversary, cause, chiding, contend(-tion), controversy, multitude (from the margin), pleading, strife, strive(-ing), suit.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 61 lexical occurrence verses.
Defines prophetic speech as formal covenant litigation.Hosea 4:1-3
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H7379 treats conflict as morally serious without pretending every dispute is the same. Covenant law creates venues where competing claims can be heard and warns against distorting justice for either wealth or poverty. The goal is not the appearance of peace but a truthful judgment that protects the innocent and addresses guilt. Hosea's covenant case shows that God examines a whole community's absence of truth and faithful love, including patterns that ordinary institutions may normalize.
Churches often fear grievances because investigation can be costly and reputations can change. Yet suppressing a complaint gives informal power to the already powerful. Faithful process preserves records, separates pastoral care from fact-finding, avoids retaliation, hears relevant witnesses, and uses qualified independent review when leaders are implicated.
Some conflicts can be mediated; allegations of abuse, crime, or danger require safeguarding and lawful reporting. Entrusting a cause to God does not forbid appropriate earthly action. It rejects vengeance while sustaining truth, justice, patience, and hope.
Exod.23.6
H7379 is a masculine noun that can denote strife, controversy, a grievance, a lawsuit, or the cause pleaded by a party. Legal and prophetic settings emphasize a case brought for judgment, while wisdom and narrative texts may emphasize quarrel or discord.
Jesus commands truthful reconciliation and warns against contempt, while the apostles require impartiality, multiple witnesses in specified cases, and wise adjudication. The New Testament also leaves public authorities responsible for justice and does not authorize private vengeance.