RIGHTEOUS — and not first as a moral compliment but as a COURTROOM verdict: the one who is in the right, the party the judge finds for. Its opposite, RASHA, is the guilty party. So Pharaoh's confession is legal language turned on himself: 'Jehovah is the TZADDIQ, and I and my people are the RESHA'IM' (Exodus 9:27) — the sentence a judge pronounces, spoken by the defendant. ⚠️ The same pair carries Abraham's argument at Sodom: 'will you sweep away the RIGHTEOUS with the WICKED?… shall the Judge of all the earth not do justice?' (Genesis 18:23-25). Noah is called a TZADDIQ (Genesis 6:9), and Habakkuk 2:4 — 'the RIGHTEOUS shall live by his faithfulness' — becomes the verse Paul builds Romans on. → first discussed at Exod 9:27