mišpāṭ

Semantic range

1. 1a legal decision or verdict
2. 2the process of judging; a case
3. 3justice as a standard
4. 4one's due, one's rightful claim

Mišpāṭ covers the whole judicial field — the case, the verdict, the standard, and the entitlement. Micah 6:8 asks for it first: "to do justly [mišpāṭ], and to love mercy [ḥesed], and to walk humbly with thy God." Justice and covenant loyalty are held together, not traded off.

That tension is exactly the problem Alma 42 takes up: how mercy can be extended without robbing justice. The Hebrew pairing suggests the answer was never a compromise between two forces but a single character in which both are complete — which is what the Atonement demonstrates (Alma 42:15).

See also

• צְדָקָהṣədāqāh
• תּוֹרָהtôrāh
• כָּפַרkāphar