Psalms 82:2-8

2 How long will you go on judging falsely, having respect for the persons of evil-doers? (Selah.)

3 Give ear to the cause of the poor and the children without fathers; let those who are troubled and in need have their rights.

4 Be the saviour of the poor and those who have nothing: take them out of the hand of the evil-doers.

5 They have no knowledge or sense; they go about in the dark: all the bases of the earth are moved.

6 I said, You are gods; all of you are the sons of the Most High:

7 But you will come to death like men, falling like one of the rulers of the earth.

8 Up! O God, come as judge of the earth; for all the nations are your heritage.

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.