📖 Biblical Definition
To "plead the cause" is to bring legal contention on behalf of another — to act as the spoken advocate in the courtroom. In Scripture, the LORD pleads the cause of the oppressed: "Plead my cause, O LORD, with them that strive with me" (Psalm 35:1); "The LORD will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them" (Proverbs 22:23). And the saints are called to plead the cause of those who cannot plead their own: "Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction. Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy" (Proverbs 31:8-9; cf. Isaiah 1:17). Christian advocacy is courtroom-shaped.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
To bring legal contention on behalf of another.
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To bring a legal contention on behalf of someone unable to defend themselves; to advocate. The Hebrew rib is courtroom-vocabulary — YHWH brings cases, pronounces verdicts, executes judgment. The saint's call to plead the cause of the fatherless and widow is participation in the LORD's own courtroom advocacy.
📖 Key Scripture
Isaiah 1:17 — "Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow."
Proverbs 31:8-9 — "Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction. Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy."
Psalm 35:1 — "Plead my cause, O LORD, with them that strive with me: fight against them that fight against me."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Either reduced to vague advocacy or co-opted for whatever cause is currently fashionable; the specific Mosaic structure (widow, orphan, sojourner, oppressed) gets blurred.
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Modern social-justice rhetoric uses "pleading the cause" loosely — for anyone declared a cause-needing-pleader by the moment's politics. Scripture's pleading is for specific named categories: the fatherless, the widow, the sojourner, the oppressed, the poor.
Recover the precision: the LORD has named the cases; the saint advocates for the named cases. Not whatever cause is fashionable, but the cases the LORD Himself has placed in His courtroom.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Hebrew rib; Greek krinō.
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['Hebrew', 'H7378', 'rib', 'to contend, plead a case']
['Hebrew', 'H1779', 'din', 'to judge, plead']
Usage
"Plead the cause of the fatherless and widow."
"Open thy mouth for the dumb."
"The LORD pleads our cause; we plead theirs."