Psalms 82:2-8

2 "How long will you judge unjustly, And show partiality to the wicked?" Selah.

3 "Defend the weak, the poor, and the fatherless. Maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.

4 Rescue the weak and needy. Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked."

5 They don't know, neither do they understand. They walk back and forth in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken.

6 I said, "You are gods, All of you are sons of the Most High.

7 Nevertheless you shall die like men, And fall like one of the rulers."

8 Arise, God, judge the earth, For you inherit all of the nations.

Psalms 82:2-8 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 82

\\<>\\. This psalm was written for the use of persons in power, for the instruction of kings and princes, judges and civil magistrates; according to Kimchi, it was written about the times of Jehoshaphat, who appointed new judges throughout the land; those that were before having been very corrupt, to whom he gave a charge agreeably to the purport of this psalm, 2Ch 19:5-7, but it seems rather to be written by Asaph, in the times of David, under a spirit of prophecy, and has respect to the times of Christ, when there was a great corruption among the judges and rulers of the Jews, both civil and ecclesiastic. The Syriac version calls it, "a reproof of the ungodly Jews"; our Lord cites a passage out of it in vindication of himself from their charge of blasphemy, Joh 10:34-36.