Psalms 82:1--84:12 
ContextA psalm of Asaph.
82:1 God stands in 2 the assembly of El; 3
in the midst of the gods 4 he renders judgment. 5
82:2 He says, 6 “How long will you make unjust legal decisions
and show favoritism to the wicked? 7 (Selah)
82:3 Defend the cause of the poor and the fatherless! 8
Vindicate the oppressed and suffering!
82:4 Rescue the poor and needy!
Deliver them from the power 9 of the wicked!
82:5 They 10 neither know nor understand.
They stumble 11 around in the dark,
while all the foundations of the earth crumble. 12
82:6 I thought, 13 ‘You are gods;
all of you are sons of the Most High.’ 14
82:7 Yet you will die like mortals; 15
you will fall like all the other rulers.” 16
82:8 Rise up, O God, and execute judgment on the earth!
For you own 17 all the nations.
A song, a psalm of Asaph.
83:1 O God, do not be silent!
Do not ignore us! 19 Do not be inactive, O God!
83:2 For look, your enemies are making a commotion;
those who hate you are hostile. 20
83:3 They carefully plot 21 against your people,
and make plans to harm 22 the ones you cherish. 23
83:4 They say, “Come on, let’s annihilate them so they are no longer a nation! 24
Then the name of Israel will be remembered no more.”
83:5 Yes, 25 they devise a unified strategy; 26
they form an alliance 27 against you.
83:6 It includes 28 the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
Moab and the Hagrites, 29
83:7 Gebal, 30 Ammon, and Amalek,
Philistia and the inhabitants of Tyre. 31
83:8 Even Assyria has allied with them,
lending its strength to the descendants of Lot. 32 (Selah)
83:9 Do to them as you did to Midian 33 –
as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the Kishon River! 34
83:10 They were destroyed at Endor; 35
their corpses were like manure 36 on the ground.
83:11 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, 37
and all their rulers like Zebah and Zalmunna, 38
83:12 who said, 39 “Let’s take over 40 the pastures of God!”
83:13 O my God, make them like dead thistles, 41
like dead weeds blown away by 42 the wind!
83:14 Like the fire that burns down the forest,
or the flames that consume the mountainsides, 43
83:15 chase them with your gale winds,
and terrify 44 them with your windstorm.
83:16 Cover 45 their faces with shame,
so they might seek 46 you, 47 O Lord.
83:17 May they be humiliated and continually terrified! 48
May they die in shame! 49
83:18 Then they will know 50 that you alone are the Lord, 51
the sovereign king 52 over all the earth.
For the music director; according to the gittith style; 54 written by the Korahites, a psalm.
84:1 How lovely is the place where you live, 55
O Lord who rules over all! 56
84:2 I desperately want to be 57
in the courts of the Lord’s temple. 58
My heart and my entire being 59 shout for joy
to the living God.
84:3 Even the birds find a home there,
and the swallow 60 builds a nest,
where she can protect her young 61
near your altars, O Lord who rules over all,
my king and my God.
84:4 How blessed 62 are those who live in your temple
and praise you continually! (Selah)
84:5 How blessed are those who 63 find their strength in you,
and long to travel the roads that lead to your temple! 64
84:6 As they pass through the Baca Valley, 65
he provides a spring for them. 66
The rain 67 even covers it with pools of water. 68
84:7 They are sustained as they travel along; 69
each one appears 70 before God in Zion.
84:8 O Lord, sovereign God, 71
hear my prayer!
Listen, O God of Jacob! (Selah)
84:9 O God, take notice of our shield! 72
Show concern for your chosen king! 73
84:10 Certainly 74 spending just one day in your temple courts is better
than spending a thousand elsewhere. 75
I would rather stand at the entrance 76 to the temple of my God
than live 77 in the tents of the wicked.
84:11 For the Lord God is our sovereign protector. 78
The Lord bestows favor 79 and honor;
he withholds no good thing from those who have integrity. 80
84:12 O Lord who rules over all, 81
how blessed are those who trust in you! 82
1 sn Psalm 82. The psalmist pictures God standing in the “assembly of El” where he accuses the “gods” of failing to promote justice on earth. God pronounces sentence upon them, announcing that they will die like men. Having witnessed the scene, the psalmist then asks God to establish his just rule over the earth.
2 tn Or “presides over.”
3 tn The phrase עֲדַת אֵל (’adat ’el, “assembly of El”) appears only here in the OT. (1) Some understand “El” to refer to God himself. In this case he is pictured presiding over his own heavenly assembly. (2) Others take אֵל as a superlative here (“God stands in the great assembly”), as in Pss 36:6 and 80:10. (3) The present translation assumes this is a reference to the Canaanite high god El, who presided over the Canaanite divine assembly. (See Isa 14:13, where El’s assembly is called “the stars of El.”) In the Ugaritic myths the phrase ’dt ’ilm refers to the “assembly of the gods,” who congregate in King Kirtu’s house, where Baal asks El to bless Kirtu’s house (see G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 91). If the Canaanite divine assembly is referred to here in Ps 82:1, then the psalm must be understood as a bold polemic against Canaanite religion. Israel’s God invades El’s assembly, denounces its gods as failing to uphold justice, and announces their coming demise. For an interpretation of the psalm along these lines, see W. VanGemeren, “Psalms,” EBC 5:533-36.
4 sn The present translation assumes that the Hebrew term אֱלֹהִים (’elohim, “gods”) here refers to the pagan gods who supposedly comprise El’s assembly according to Canaanite religion. Those who reject the polemical view of the psalm prefer to see the referent as human judges or rulers (אֱלֹהִים sometimes refers to officials appointed by God, see Exod 21:6; 22:8-9; Ps 45:6) or as angelic beings (אֱלֹהִים sometimes refers to angelic beings, see Gen 3:5; Ps 8:5).
5 sn The picture of God rendering judgment among the gods clearly depicts his sovereign authority as universal king (see v. 8, where the psalmist boldly affirms this truth).
6 tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation to indicate that the following speech is God’s judicial decision (see v. 1).
7 tn Heb “and the face of the wicked lift up.”
8 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).
9 tn Heb “hand.”
10 sn Having addressed the defendants, God now speaks to those who are observing the trial, referring to the gods in the third person.
11 tn Heb “walk.” The Hitpael stem indicates iterative action, picturing these ignorant “judges” as stumbling around in the darkness.
12 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).
13 tn Heb “said.”
14 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).
15 tn Heb “men.” The point in the context is mortality, however, not maleness.
sn You will die like mortals. For the concept of a god losing immortality and dying, see Isa 14:12-15, which alludes to a pagan myth in which the petty god “Shining One, son of the Dawn,” is hurled into Sheol for his hubris.
16 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).
17 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”).
18 sn Psalm 83. The psalmist asks God to deliver Israel from the attacks of foreign nations. Recalling how God defeated Israel’s enemies in the days of Deborah and Gideon, he prays that the hostile nations would be humiliated.
19 tn Heb “do not be deaf.”
20 tn Heb “lift up [their] head[s].” The phrase “lift up [the] head” here means “to threaten; to be hostile,” as in Judg 8:28.
21 tn Heb “they make crafty a plot.”
22 tn Heb “and consult together against.”
23 tn The passive participle of the Hebrew verb צָפַן (tsafan, “to hide”) is used here in the sense of “treasured; cherished.”
24 tn Heb “we will cause them to disappear from [being] a nation.”
25 tn Or “for.”
26 tn Heb “they consult [with] a heart together.”
27 tn Heb “cut a covenant.”
28 tn The words “it includes” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
29 sn The Hagrites are also mentioned in 1 Chr 5:10, 19-20.
30 sn Some identify Gebal with the Phoenician coastal city of Byblos (see Ezek 27:9, where the name is spelled differently), though others locate this site south of the Dead Sea (see BDB 148 s.v. גְּבַל; HALOT 174 s.v. גְּבַל).
31 map For location see Map1 A2; Map2 G2; Map4 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.
32 tn Heb “they are an arm for the sons of Lot.” The “arm” is here a symbol of military might.
sn The descendants of Lot were the Moabites and Ammonites.
33 tn Heb “do to them like Midian.”
34 sn The psalmist alludes here to Gideon’s victory over the Midianites (see Judg 7-8) and to Barak’s victory over Jabin’s army, which was led by his general Sisera (Judg 4-5).
35 sn Endor is not mentioned in the accounts of Gideon’s or Barak’s victories, but both battles took place in the general vicinity of the town. (See Y. Aharoni and M. Avi-Yonah, The Macmillan Bible Atlas, 46, 54.) Because Sisera and Jabin are mentioned in v. 9b, many understand them to be the subject of the verbs in v. 10, though they relate v. 10 to Gideon’s victory, which is referred to in v. 9a, 11. (See, for example, Y. Aharoni, The Land of the Bible, 263.)
36 tn Heb “they were manure.” In addition to this passage, corpses are compared to manure in 2 Kgs 9:37; Jer 8:2; 9:21; 16:4; 25:33.
37 sn Oreb and Zeeb were the generals of the Midianite army that was defeated by Gideon. The Ephraimites captured and executed both of them and sent their heads to Gideon (Judg 7:24-25).
38 sn Zebah and Zalmunna were the Midianite kings. Gideon captured them and executed them (Judg 8:1-21).
39 tn The translation assumes that “Zebah and Zalmunna” are the antecedents of the relative pronoun (“who [said]”). Another option is to take “their nobles…all their rulers” as the antecedent and to translate, “those who say.”
40 tn Heb “let’s take possession for ourselves.”
41 tn Or “tumbleweed.” The Hebrew noun גַּלְגַּל (galgal) refers to a “wheel” or, metaphorically, to a whirling wind (see Ps 77:18). If taken in the latter sense here, one could understand the term as a metonymical reference to dust blown by a whirlwind (cf. NRSV “like whirling dust”). However, HALOT 190 s.v. II גַּלְגַּל understands the noun as a homonym referring to a “dead thistle” here and in Isa 17:13. The parallel line, which refers to קַשׁ (qash, “chaff”), favors this interpretation.
42 tn Heb “before.”
43 sn The imagery of fire and flames suggests unrelenting, destructive judgment.
44 tn The two imperfect verbal forms in v. 15 express the psalmist’s wish or prayer.
45 tn Heb “fill.”
46 tn After the preceding imperative, the prefixed verbal form with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose or result (“then they will seek”).
47 tn Heb “your name,” which stands here for God’s person.
48 tn Heb “and may they be terrified to perpetuity.” The Hebrew expression עֲדֵי־עַד (’adey-’ad, “to perpetuity”) can mean “forevermore” (see Pss 92:7; 132:12, 14), but here it may be used hyperbolically, for the psalmist asks that the experience of judgment might lead the nations to recognize (v. 18) and even to seek (v. 16) God.
49 tn Heb “may they be ashamed and perish.” The four prefixed verbal forms in this verse are understood as jussives. The psalmist concludes his prayer with an imprecation, calling severe judgment down on his enemies. The strong language of the imprecation seems to run contrary to the positive outcome of divine judgment envisioned in v. 16b. Perhaps the language of v. 17 is overstated for effect. Another option is that v. 16b expresses an ideal, while the strong imprecation of vv. 17-18 anticipates reality. It would be nice if the defeated nations actually pursued a relationship with God, but if judgment does not bring them to that point, the psalmist asks that they be annihilated so that they might at least be forced to acknowledge God’s power.
50 tn After the preceding jussives (v. 17), the prefixed verbal form with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose (“so that they may know”) or result.
51 tn Heb “that you, your name [is] the
52 tn Traditionally “the Most High.”
53 sn Psalm 84. The psalmist expresses his desire to be in God’s presence in the Jerusalem temple, for the Lord is the protector of his people.
54 tn The precise meaning of the Hebrew term הַגִּתִּית (haggittit) is uncertain; it probably refers to a musical style or instrument.
55 tn Or “your dwelling place[s].” The plural form of the noun may indicate degree or quality; this is the
56 tn Traditionally, “
57 tn Heb “my soul longs, it even pines for.”
58 tn Heb “the courts of the
59 tn Heb “my flesh,” which stands for his whole person and being.
60 tn The word translated “swallow” occurs only here and in Prov 26:2.
61 tn Heb “even a bird finds a home, and a swallow a nest for herself, [in] which she places her young.”
sn The psalmist here romanticizes the temple as a place of refuge and safety. As he thinks of the birds nesting near its roof, he envisions them finding protection in God’s presence.
62 tn The Hebrew noun is an abstract plural. The word often refers metonymically to the happiness that God-given security and prosperity produce (see v. 12 and Pss 1:1; 2:12; 34:9; 41:1; 65:4; 89:15; 106:3; 112:1; 127:5; 128:1; 144:15).
63 tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man.” Hebrew literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The principle stated here was certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender or age. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender and age specific “man” with the plural “those.” The individual referred to in v. 5a is representative of followers of God, as the use of plural forms in vv. 5b-7 indicates.
64 tn Heb “roads [are] in their heart[s].” The roads are here those that lead to Zion (see v. 7).
65 tn The translation assumes that the Hebrew phrase עֵמֶק הַבָּכָא (’emeq habbakha’) is the name of an otherwise unknown arid valley through which pilgrims to Jerusalem passed. The term בָּכָא (bakha’) may be the name of a particular type of plant or shrub that grew in this valley. O. Borowski (Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 130) suggests it is the black mulberry. Some take the phrase as purely metaphorical and relate בָּכָא to the root בָּכָה (bakhah, “to weep”). In this case one might translate, “the valley of weeping” or “the valley of affliction.”
66 tc The MT reads “a spring they make it,” but this makes little sense. Many medieval Hebrew
67 tn This rare word may refer to the early (or autumn) rains (see Joel 2:23).
68 tc The MT reads בְּרָכוֹת (bÿrakhot, “blessings”) but the preceding reference to a “spring” favors an emendation to בְּרֵכוֹת (bÿrekhot, “pools”).
sn Pools of water. Because water is so necessary for life, it makes an apt symbol for divine favor and blessing. As the pilgrims traveled to Jerusalem, God provided for their physical needs and gave them a token of his favor and of the blessings awaiting them at the temple.
69 tn Heb “they go from strength to strength.” The phrase “from strength to strength” occurs only here in the OT. With a verb of motion, the expression “from [common noun] to [same common noun]” normally suggests movement from one point to another or through successive points (see Num 36:7; 1 Chr 16:20; 17:5; Ps 105:13; Jer 25:32). Ps 84:7 may be emphasizing that the pilgrims move successively from one “place of strength” to another as they travel toward Jerusalem. All along the way they find adequate provisions and renewed energy for the trip.
70 tn The psalmist returns to the singular (see v. 5a), which he uses in either a representative or distributive (“each one” ) sense.
71 tn Heb “
72 tn The phrase “our shield” refers metaphorically to the Davidic king, who, as God’s vice-regent, was the human protector of the people. Note the parallelism with “your anointed one” here and with “our king” in Ps 89:18.
73 tn Heb “look [on] the face of your anointed one.” The Hebrew phrase מְשִׁיחֶךָ (mÿshikhekha, “your anointed one”) refers here to the Davidic king (see Pss 2:2; 18:50; 20:6; 28:8; 89:38, 51; 132:10, 17).
74 tn Or “for.”
75 tn Heb “better is a day in your courts than a thousand [spent elsewhere].”
76 tn Heb “I choose being at the entrance of the house of my God over living in the tents of the wicked.” The verb סָפַף (safaf) appears only here in the OT; it is derived from the noun סַף (saf, “threshold”). Traditionally some have interpreted this as a reference to being a doorkeeper at the temple, though some understand it to mean “lie as a beggar at the entrance to the temple” (see HALOT 765 s.v. ספף).
77 tn The verb דּוּר (dur, “to live”) occurs only here in the OT.
78 tn Heb “[is] a sun and a shield.” The epithet “sun,” though rarely used of Israel’s God in the OT, was a well-attested royal title in the ancient Near East. For several examples from Ugaritic texts, the Amarna letters, and Assyrian royal inscriptions, see R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 131, n. 2.
79 tn Or “grace.”
80 tn Heb “he does not withhold good to those walking in integrity.”
81 tn Traditionally “
82 tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man [who] trusts in you.” Hebrew literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The principle stated here is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender or age. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender and age specific “man” with the plural “those.” The individual referred to here is representative of all followers of God, as the use of the plural form in v. 12b indicates.
