Psalms 82:3-8

3 Defend the poor and fatherless; Do justice to the afflicted and needy.

4 Deliver the poor and needy; Free them from the hand of the wicked.

5 They do not know, nor do they understand; They walk about in darkness; All the foundations of the earth are unstable.

6 I said, "You are gods, And all of you are children of the Most High.

7 But you shall die like men, And fall like one of the princes."

8 Arise, O God, judge the earth; For You shall inherit all 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew elohim, mighty ones; that is, the judges