'Right' in the Bible

A wise man’s heart directs him toward the right, but the foolish man’s heart directs him toward the left.

“Let his left hand be under my headAnd his right hand embrace me.”

“Let his left hand be under my headAnd his right hand embrace me.”

Who justify the wicked for a bribe,And take away the rights of the ones who are in the right!

They slice off what is on the right hand but still are hungry,And they eat what is on the left hand but they are not satisfied;Each of them eats the flesh of his own arm.

‘What right do you have here,And whom do you have here,That you have hewn a tomb for yourself here,You who hew a tomb on the height,You who carve a resting place for yourself in the rock?

Who cause a person to be indicted by a word,And ensnare him who adjudicates at the gate,And defraud the one in the right with meaningless arguments.

Who say to the seers, “You must not see visions”;And to the prophets, “You must not prophesy to us what is right,Speak to us pleasant words,Prophesy illusions.

Your ears will hear a word behind you, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left.

As for a rogue, his weapons are evil;He devises wicked schemesTo destroy the afflicted with slander,Even though the needy one speaks what is right.

‘Do not fear, for I am with you;Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.I will strengthen you, surely I will help you,Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

“For I am the Lord your God, who upholds your right hand,Who says to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you.’

Who has declared this from the beginning, that we might know?Or from former times, that we may say, “He is right!”?Surely there was no one who declared,Surely there was no one who proclaimed,Surely there was no one who heard your words.

“Put Me in remembrance, let us argue our case together;State your cause, that you may be proved right.

He feeds on ashes; a deceived heart has turned him aside. And he cannot deliver himself, nor say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”

Thus says the Lord to Cyrus His anointed,Whom I have taken by the right hand,To subdue nations before himAnd to loose the loins of kings;To open doors before him so that gates will not be shut:

“Surely My hand founded the earth,And My right hand spread out the heavens;When I call to them, they stand together.

“For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left.And your descendants will possess nationsAnd will resettle the desolate cities.

The Lord has sworn by His right hand and by His strong arm,“I will never again give your grain as food for your enemies;Nor will foreigners drink your new wine for which you have labored.”

Who caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses,Who divided the waters before them to make for Himself an everlasting name,

“I have listened and heard,They have spoken what is not right;No man repented of his wickedness,Saying, ‘What have I done?’Everyone turned to his course,Like a horse charging into the battle.

“What right has My beloved in My houseWhen she has done many vile deeds?Can the sacrificial flesh take away from you your disaster,So that you can rejoice?”

“As I live,” declares the Lord, “even though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were a signet ring on My right hand, yet I would pull you off;

For the land is full of adulterers;For the land mourns because of the curse.The pastures of the wilderness have dried up.Their course also is evilAnd their might is not right.

But as for me, behold, I am in your hands; do with me as is good and right in your sight.

‘Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle is coming to you, saying, “Buy for yourself my field which is at Anathoth, for you have the right of redemption to buy it.”’

Then Hanamel my uncle’s son came to me in the court of the guard according to the word of the Lord and said to me, ‘Buy my field, please, that is at Anathoth, which is in the land of Benjamin; for you have the right of possession and the redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.

Although recently you had turned and done what is right in My sight, each man proclaiming release to his neighbor, and you had made a covenant before Me in the house which is called by My name.

“My lord the king, these men have acted wickedly in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet whom they have cast into the cistern; and he will die right where he is because of the famine, for there is no more bread in the city.”

But now, behold, I am freeing you today from the chains which are on your hands. If you would prefer to come with me to Babylon, come along, and I will look after you; but if you would prefer not to come with me to Babylon, never mind. Look, the whole land is before you; go wherever it seems good and right for you to go.”

As Jeremiah was still not going back, he said, “Go on back then to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has appointed over the cities of Judah, and stay with him among the people; or else go anywhere it seems right for you to go.” So the captain of the bodyguard gave him a ration and a gift and let him go.

and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Behold, I am going to send and get Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and I am going to set his throne right over these stones that I have hidden; and he will spread his canopy over them.

In fierce anger He has cut offAll the strength of Israel;He has drawn back His right handFrom before the enemy.And He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fireConsuming round about.

He has bent His bow like an enemy;He has set His right hand like an adversaryAnd slain all that were pleasant to the eye;In the tent of the daughter of ZionHe has poured out His wrath like fire.

As for the form of their faces, each had the face of a man; all four had the face of a lion on the right and the face of a bull on the left, and all four had the face of an eagle.

When you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah; I have assigned it to you for forty days, a day for each year.

Now the cherubim were standing on the right side of the temple when the man entered, and the cloud filled the inner court.

“Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts and have put right before their faces the stumbling block of their iniquity. Should I be consulted by them at all?

Therefore speak to them and tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Any man of the house of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart, puts right before his face the stumbling block of his iniquity, and then comes to the prophet, I the Lord will be brought to give him an answer in the matter in view of the multitude of his idols,

For anyone of the house of Israel or of the immigrants who stay in Israel who separates himself from Me, sets up his idols in his heart, puts right before his face the stumbling block of his iniquity, and then comes to the prophet to inquire of Me for himself, I the Lord will be brought to answer him in My own person.

Also bear your disgrace in that you have made judgment favorable for your sisters. Because of your sins in which you acted more abominably than they, they are more in the right than you. Yes, be also ashamed and bear your disgrace, in that you made your sisters appear righteous.

Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not right.’ Hear now, O house of Israel! Is My way not right? Is it not your ways that are not right?

But the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is not right.’ Are My ways not right, O house of Israel? Is it not your ways that are not right?

Show yourself sharp, go to the right; set yourself; go to the left, wherever your edge is appointed.

Into his right hand came the divination, ‘Jerusalem,’ to set battering rams, to open the mouth for slaughter, to lift up the voice with a battle cry, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up ramps, to build a siege wall.

A ruin, a ruin, a ruin, I will make it. This also will be no more until He comes whose right it is, and I will give it to Him.’

“Yet your fellow citizens say, ‘The way of the Lord is not right,’ when it is their own way that is not right.

Yet you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not right.’ O house of Israel, I will judge each of you according to his ways.”

I will strike your bow from your left hand and dash down your arrows from your right hand.

Then he brought me back to the door of the house; and behold, water was flowing from under the threshold of the house toward the east, for the house faced east. And the water was flowing down from under, from the right side of the house, from south of the altar.

I heard the man dressed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, as he raised his right hand and his left toward heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever that it would be for a time, times, and half a time; and as soon as they finish shattering the power of the holy people, all these events will be completed.

Whoever is wise, let him understand these things;Whoever is discerning, let him know them.For the ways of the Lord are right,And the righteous will walk in them,But transgressors will stumble in them.

But they do not know how to do what is right,” declares the Lord, “these who hoard up violence and devastation in their citadels.”

Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?”

“Behold, as for the proud one,His soul is not right within him;But the righteous will live by his faith.

“You will be filled with disgrace rather than honor.Now you yourself drink and expose your own nakedness.The cup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you,And utter disgrace will come upon your glory.

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.

also two olive trees by it, one on the right side of the bowl and the other on its left side.”

Then I said to him, “What are these two olive trees on the right of the lampstand and on its left?”

“Woe to the worthless shepherdWho leaves the flock!A sword will be on his armAnd on his right eye!His arm will be totally witheredAnd his right eye will be blind.”

“In that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot among pieces of wood and a flaming torch among sheaves, so they will consume on the right hand and on the left all the surrounding peoples, while the inhabitants of Jerusalem again dwell on their own sites in Jerusalem.

If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.

But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.

But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,

and to those he said, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ And so they went.

And He said to her, “What do you wish?” She *said to Him, “Command that in Your kingdom these two sons of mine may sit one on Your right and one on Your left.”

He *said to them, “My cup you shall drink; but to sit on My right and on My left, this is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by My Father.”

‘The Lord said to my Lord,“Sit at My right hand,Until I put Your enemies beneath Your feet”’?

so, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door.

and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.

“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

Jesus *said to him, “You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

And after twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand; and they knelt down before Him and mocked Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”

At that time two robbers *were crucified with Him, one on the right and one on the left.

They *came to Jesus and *observed the man who had been demon-possessed sitting down, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the “legion”; and they became frightened.

Immediately she came in a hurry to the king and asked, saying, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”

They said to Him, “Grant that we may sit, one on Your right and one on Your left, in Your glory.”

But to sit on My right or on My left, this is not Mine to give; but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”

The scribe said to Him, “Right, Teacher; You have truly stated that He is One, and there is no one else besides Him;

David himself said in the Holy Spirit,‘The Lord said to my Lord,“Sit at My right hand,Until I put Your enemies beneath Your feet.”’

Even so, you too, when you see these things happening, recognize that He is near, right at the door.

Peter had followed Him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest; and he was sitting with the officers and warming himself at the fire.

And Jesus said, “I am; and you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”

They *crucified two robbers with Him, one on His right and one on His left.

When the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him, saw the way He breathed His last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

Entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe; and they were amazed.

So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.

And an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense.

But not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus.

On another Sabbath He entered the synagogue and was teaching; and there was a man there whose right hand was withered.

The people went out to see what had happened; and they came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting down at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind; and they became frightened.

“And why do you not even on your own initiative judge what is right?

For David himself says in the book of Psalms,‘The Lord said to my Lord,“Sit at My right hand,

And one of them struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his right ear.

But from now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.”

When they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left.

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,

You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am.

Peter *said to Him, “Lord, why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You.”