Psalms 82:3-8

82:3 Defend the cause of the poor and the fatherless! ¹ 

Vindicate the oppressed and suffering!

82:4 Rescue the poor and needy!

Deliver them from the power ²  of the wicked!

82:5 They ³  neither know nor understand.

They stumble ⁴  around in the dark,

while all the foundations of the earth crumble. ⁵ 

82:6 I thought, ⁶  ‘You are gods;

all of you are sons of the Most High.’ ⁷ 

82:7 Yet you will die like mortals; ⁸ 

you will fall like all the other rulers.” ⁹ 

82:8 Rise up, O God, and execute judgment on the earth!

For you own ¹⁰  all the nations.

[82:3]  ¹ tn The Hebrew noun יָתוֹם (yatom) refers to one who has lost his father (not necessarily his mother, see Ps 109:9). Because they were so vulnerable and were frequently exploited, fatherless children are often mentioned as epitomizing the oppressed (see Pss 10:14; 68:5; 94:6; 146:9; as well as Job 6:27; 22:9; 24:3, 9; 29:12; 31:17, 21).

[82:4]  ² tn Heb “hand.”

[82:5]  ³ sn Having addressed the defendants, God now speaks to those who are observing the trial, referring to the gods in the third person.

[82:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “walk.” The Hitpael stem indicates iterative action, picturing these ignorant “judges” as stumbling around in the darkness.

[82:5]  ⁵ sn These gods, though responsible for justice, neglect their duty. Their self-imposed ignorance (which the psalmist compares to stumbling around in the dark) results in widespread injustice, which threatens the social order of the world (the meaning of the phrase all the foundations of the earth crumble).

[82:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “said.”

[82:6]  ⁷ sn Normally in the OT the title Most High belongs to the God of Israel, but in this context, where the mythological overtones are so strong, it probably refers to the Canaanite high god El (see v. 1, as well as Isa 14:13).

[82:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “men.” The point in the context is mortality, however, not maleness.

[82:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “like one of the rulers.” The comparison does not necessarily imply that they are not rulers. The expression “like one of” can sometimes mean “as one of” (Gen 49:16; Obad 11) or “as any other of” (Judg 16:7, 11).

[82:8]  ¹⁰ tn The translation assumes that the Qal of נָחַל (nakhal) here means “to own; to possess,” and that the imperfect emphasizes a general truth. Another option is to translate the verb as future, “for you will take possession of all the nations” (cf. NIV “all the nations are your inheritance”).