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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 82:1 - 82:1
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God comes forward and makes Himself heard first of all as censuring and admonishing. The “congregation of God” is, as in Num 27:17; Num 31:16; Jos 22:16., “the congregation of (the sons of) Israel,” which God has purchased from among the nations (Psa 74:2), and upon which as its Lawgiver He has set His divine impress. The psalmist and seer sees Elohim standing in this congregation of God. The part. Niph. (as in Isa 3:13) denotes not so much the suddenness and unpreparedness, as, rather, the statue-like immobility and terrifying designfulness of His appearance. Within the range of the congregation of God this holds good of the elohim. The right over life and death, with which the administration of justice cannot dispense, is a prerogative of God. From the time of Gen 9:6, however, He has transferred the execution of this prerogative to mankind, and instituted in mankind an office wielding the sword of justice, which also exists in His theocratic congregation, but here has His positive law as the basis of its continuance and as the rule of its action. Everywhere among men, but here pre-eminently, those in authority are God's delegates and the bearers of His image, and therefore as His representatives are also themselves called elohim, “gods” (which the lxx in Exo 21:6 renders τὸ κριτήριον τοῦ Θεοῦ, and the Targums here, as in Exo 22:7-8, Exo 22:27 uniformly, דַּיָּנַיָּא). The God who has conferred this exercise of power upon these subordinate elohim, without their resigning it of themselves, now sits in judgment in their midst. יִשְׁפֹּט of that which takes place before the mind's eye of the psalmist. How long, He asks, will ye judge unjustly? שָׁפַט עָוֶל is equivalent to עָשָׂה עָוֶל בַּמִּשְׁפָּט, Lev 19:15, Lev 19:35 (the opposite is שָׁפַט מֵישָׁרִים, Psa 58:2). How long will ye accept the countenance of the wicked, i.e., incline to accept, regard, favour the person of the wicked? The music, which here becomes forte, gives intensity to the terrible sternness (das Niederdonnernde) of the divine question, which seeks to bring the “gods” of the earth to their right mind. Then follow admonitions to do that which they have hitherto left undone. They are to cause the benefit of the administration of justice to tend to the advantage of the defenceless, of the destitute, and of the helpless, upon whom God the Lawgiver especially keeps His eye. The word רָשׁ (רָאשׁ), of which there is no evidence until within the time of David and Solomon, is synonymous with אֶבְיֹון. דל with ויתום is pointed דָל, and with ואביון, on account of the closer notional union, דַל (as in Psa 72:13). They are words which are frequently repeated in the prophets, foremost in Isaiah (Isa 1:17), with which is enjoined upon those invested with the dignity of the law, and with jurisdiction, justice towards those who cannot and will not themselves obtain their rights by violence.