Psalms 82:3-8

3 (81-3) Judge for the needy and fatherless: do justice to the humble and the poor.
4 (81-4) Rescue the poor; and deliver the needy out of the hand of the sinner.
5 (81-5) They have not known nor understood: they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth shall be moved.
6 (81-6) I have said: You are gods and all of you the sons of the most High.
7 (81-7) But you like men shall die: and shall fall like one of the princes.
8 (81-8) Arise, O God, judge thou the earth: for thou shalt inherit among all the nations.

Psalms 82:3-8 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.

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