K-ʾ-N is the root of things that stand straight. A wall that is plumb, a beam that carries weight without leaning, a scale that reads true: that is the physical picture underneath kina, the word the standard translations flatten into "righteous." Of a person, the glossary's curated sense is exact: upright and just, conforming to what is right, one whose conduct is straight and blameless before God. Not pious performance. Just conduct that doesn't bend.
That is why the Qala rendering keeps reaching for plain phrases: those who do what is right, what is right. English "righteousness" has gone churchy and abstract; kinuta in the Beatitudes is something you can hunger for the way you hunger for bread: the state of things being set straight.
| Form | Pattern | Transliteration | Script | Standard | Qala rendering |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adjective | long-vowel kīn- stem | kina (pl. kine) | כאנא ܟ݁ܺܐܢܳܐ | righteous, just | one who does what is right; righteous |
| Abstract noun | -uta ending | kinuta | כאנותא ܟܐܢܘܬܐ | righteousness | what is right, justice |
| Adverb | -aʾit ending | kinaʾit | — | justly | rightly (lexicon form, not in this corpus) |
| Stem | Force | This root | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peal | simple | kaen | to be firm, right (lexicon; not in this corpus) |
| Ethpeel | simple passive | not attested | — |
| Pael | intensive | not attested | — |
| Ethpaal | intensive passive | not attested | — |
| Aphel | causative | not attested | — |
| Ettaphal | causative passive | not attested | — |
| Shaphel | rare causative | not attested | — |
The family runs quietly through the whole story: Joseph in Matthew 1:19 is "a man who did what was right" (kina), and in John 17:25 Yeshua prays to a "Righteous Father": the same word, turned toward God.
Think of one decision you made today, small is fine. Hold it against a plumb line: was it straight, or did it lean toward comfort, toward being seen, toward getting even? Now notice where the hunger for things being set right lives in your body when you read the news or remember an old injustice. That ache is what this Beatitude blesses. It does not bless having arrived at rightness; it blesses the hunger and thirst for it.
The Hebrew cognate is ken (כֵּן): "right, honest," as when Joseph's brothers protest in Genesis 42:11, "we are honest men" (kenim); it survives in everyday Hebrew ken, "yes, so it is." Within the 75, this root walks beside Q-Sh-Ṭ (straightness, truth, day 48), where kinuta is straightness of conduct and qushta straightness of speech, and beside D-K-Y (purity, tomorrow's root), its inward twin in the Beatitudes. No real English descendants; the resemblance to words like "keen" is accidental.
Take two or three minutes and explain to a friend why "hungering and thirsting for what is right" lands differently than "hungering for righteousness." Use the words kina and kinuta at least once each. Ground it in something specific: a person you know who is simply straight in their dealings, and what it feels like to be around them.