Psalm 82 (NESV) – A Plea for Justice
A Psalm of Asaph.
1 God has taken his place in the divine council;
in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:
2 ‘How long will you judge unjustly
and show partiality to the wicked? Selah
3 Give justice to the weak and the orphan;
maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute.
4 Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.’
5 They have neither knowledge nor understanding,
they walk around in darkness;
all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
6 I say, ‘You are gods,
children of the Most High, all of you;
7 nevertheless, you shall die like mortals,
and fall like any prince.’[a]
8 Rise up, O God, judge the earth;
for all the nations belong to you!
Footnotes
- Psalm 82:7 Or fall as one man, O princes
Michael S. Heiser, “Divine Council,” The Lexham Bible Dictionary, John D. Barry and Lazarus Wentz, eds. (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012). Exported from Logos Bible Software, 10:29 PM December 11, 2013.
- https://www.thedivinecouncil.com/ ***
- https://thedivinecouncil.com/DivineCouncilLBD.pdf
- Elohim as “Gods” in the Old Testament paper by Michael S. Heiser. See the extract in the sub-bullet below.
- Several different entities are referred to as elohim in the OT. Considering this variety provides insight as to how the term should be understood. The Hebrew text of the OT refers to the following as elohim: Yahweh, the God of Israel (over 1000 times); the members of Yahweh’s heavenly council (Psa 82); the gods of foreign nations (1 Kgs 11:33); demons (see note on Deut 32:17); spirits of the human dead (1 Sam 28:13); and angels (see note on Gen 35:7).
