Justice / misphat (Isaiah 42:1,3,4), judge / shaphat, righteousness /tsedeq

• Misphat (justice) (Isa 42:1,3,4): right order, divine truth, the revelation of God, right principles. Justice expresses righteousness in sound precepts.
• Shaphat (to judge) (Isa 2:4): put things to right.
  
• Tsedeq (righteousness) (Isa 9:7): doing the right thing, right practice. Righteousness embodies holiness in sound precepts.

Misphat (justice) and Tsedeq (righteousness) coming together (Isa 5:7) usually means right practice and right principles (Isa 1:21, 27; 9:7; 16:5; 32:1, 16; 35:5; 59:9).

The Messiah's rule is consistently characterized by the administration of justice (Isa 9:7; 11:3-4; 32:1; 42:1,3,4; Ps 72:1-5; Jer 23:5; 33:15). The term justice (misphat) appears to be a fairly straightforward concept, but interpreters have connected this term with a multitude of ideas:

• the general idea of a custom, manner of behavior,
• a place of judgment,
• a case to be presented for judgment,
• the sentence, decision of a case,
• ordinance, laws, rules of behavior,
• a right, privilege of law,
• true religion,
• religious teaching, the rule of salvation; a royal duty of defending the weak and ordering the total "well-being of the community" based on earlier ideals presented in Isa 2:2-4; 11:1-5.
  

God intends to restore justice when his kingdom is introduced (Isa 1:27; 2:2-4; 4:4; 5:16; 11:1-5; 26:9; 28:6; 30:18; 33:5), and this servant will have a key role in accomplishing this goal (Isa 42:1,3,4).

The Hebrew word/noun translated "justice/judgment" (Isa 42:1,3,4) is מִשְׁפָּט (misphat). In many ways it is the antonym of תֹּהוּ (tohu, tohuw), chaos (Gen 1:3; Isa 24:10; 29:21; 34:11; 40:17, 23; 41:29; 44:9; etc). It is much more than merely legality, as "justice" has come to connote in English. Rather, it has the idea of "right order." This is why it is often paralleled to צֶדֶק (tsedeq), which is usually translated "righteousness," but simply has the idea of "doing the right thing." This means that misphat has a much larger pool of connotations than does the word "justice." To be sure, a world where the innocent are punished and the oppressors go free is a world where misphat is lacking. The word contains everything we think of as "justice," but it contains more than that as well.

The verb "judge" (שָׁפַט - shaphat) has the basic meaning of "making an authoritative pronouncement which decides issues." Likewise its noun misphat points to a society in which such a rule prevails. In Isa 42:1,3,4 misphat is the pronouncement itself, the revelation of the Lord's truth (Dt 5:1). Shaphat, therefore, does not have the meaning of "to condemn," to pass an adverse sentence, but to make whatever decision settles a particular issue -- or all issues (Ps 98:9), to "put things to right."

In Judges when the people disobey they are being beaten down by oppressors. They do not experience the kind of right order that God intended in his world. So in response to repentance and faith God sends a champion who will restore them to the kind of life God intended for them. Thus, misphat is restored in the land. So Isaiah is saying that the coming Messiah will do all that is necessary to restore God's right order on the earth.