Psalm 82:2

How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(2-4) These verses contain the rebuke addressed by the supreme judge to those abusing the judicial office and function.

(2) How long?—What a terrible severity in this Divine Quousque tandem!

“The gods

Grow angry with your patience; this their care,

And must be yours, that guilty men escape not;

As crimes do grow, justice should rouse itself.”

BEN JONSON.

Judge unjustly.—Literally, judge iniquity. For the opposite expression see Psalm 58:1. Leviticus 19:15, which lays down the great principle of strictly fair and unbribable justice is evidently in the poet’s mind, as is shown by the use of the next clause.

Accept the persons.—Literally, lift up the faces. An expression arising from the Eastern custom of prostration before a king or judge. The accepted suitor is commanded to “lift up his face,” i.e., to arise. (Comp. Proverbs 18:5, and Jehoshaphat’s address to the judges, 2Chronicles 19:7.) This fine sense of the majesty of incorruptible justice attended Israel throughout its history. (See Ecclesiasticus 7:6.)

Benson Commentary

Psalm 82:2. How long will ye judge unjustly? — The psalmist speaks to them in God’s name, and reproves them for their continued unrighteousness in their public administrations; and accept the persons of the wicked — By overlooking the merits of the cause, and giving sentence according to your respect or affection to the person. It appears from Isaiah 1:23, that the courts of justice were very corrupt in Hezekiah’s reign, at which time probably this Psalm was written.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

82:1-5 Magistrates are the mighty in authority for the public good. Magistrates are the ministers of God's providence, for keeping up order and peace, and particularly in punishing evil-doers, and protecting those that do well. Good princes and good judges, who mean well, are under Divine direction; and bad ones, who mean ill, are under Divine restraint. The authority of God is to be submitted to, in those governors whom his providence places over us. But when justice is turned from what is right, no good can be expected. The evil actions of public persons are public mischiefs.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

How long will ye judge unjustly - literally, Judge evil. This is designed, evidently, to denote the prevailing character of the magistrates at the time when the psalm was written. Unhappily such occasions occur very often in the course of human affairs.

And accept the persons of the wicked? - literally, Lift up, or bear, the faces of the wicked. The meaning is, that they showed favor or partiality to wicked people; they did not decide cases according to truth, but were influenced by a regard for particular persons on account of their rank, their position, their wealth, or their relation to themselves. This is a common phrase in the Scriptures to denote favoritism or partiality. Job 34:19; Acts 10:34; Romans 2:11; 1 Peter 1:17; Leviticus 19:15; Deuteronomy 1:17.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2. accept the persons—literally, "lift up the faces," that is, from dejection, or admit to favor and communion, regardless of merit (Le 19:15; Pr 18:5).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The psalmist speaketh to them in God’s name, and reproves them for their continued and resolved unrighteousness in their public administrations.

Accept the persons, by overlooking the merits of the cause, and giving sentence according to your respect or affection to the person.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

How long will ye judge unjustly,.... These are the words not of the psalmist, but of the divine Person that stands in the congregation of the mighty, and judges among the gods; calling the unjust judges to an account, and reproving them for their unrighteous proceedings and perversion of justice, in which they had long continued, and which was an aggravation of their sin; this is very applicable to the rulers and judges of the Jewish nation in the times of Christ, who had long dealt very unjustly, and continued to do so; they judged wrong judgment, or judgment of iniquity, as Aben Ezra renders it, both in civil and ecclesiastical things; their judgment was depraved concerning the law, which they transgressed and made void by adhering to the traditions of the elders; they passed an unrighteous judgment on John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, rejecting his baptism, and calling him a devil; and upon Christ himself, adjudging him to death for crimes he was not guilty of; and upon his followers, whom they cast out of the synagogue; the character of an unjust judge see in Luke 18:2,

and accept the persons of the wicked? gave the cause in favour of them, and against the righteous, because they were rich, or related to them, or had bribes from them, contrary to the law in Deuteronomy 16:19, so the judges among the Jews, in Christ's time, judged according to appearance, the outward circumstances of men, and not righteous judgment, as our Lord suggests, John 7:24.

Selah. See Gill on Psalm 3:2.

Geneva Study Bible

How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the {b} wicked? Selah.

(b) For thieves and murderers find favour in judgment when the cause of the godly cannot be heard.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

2. accept the persons] Or, as R.V., respect the persons, shewing partiality to the rich and powerful. Strict impartiality in the administration of justice is frequently enjoined in the Law. Favouring the poor is condemned as well as favouring the rich. See Exodus 23:2-3; Exodus 23:6-8; Leviticus 19:15; Leviticus 19:35; Deuteronomy 1:17; Deuteronomy 16:18 ff.: cp. Proverbs 18:5; Proverbs 24:23. The music strikes up to emphasise the question, and as it were give time for an answer. But the judges have no defence, and God proceeds to remind them of their duty.

2–4. God speaks, arraigning the judges for injustice and partiality, and bidding them perform their duties faithfully.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 2. - How long will ye judge unjustly? "The cry of the impatient Jehovah" (Cheyne); comp. Exodus 10:3; Exodus 16:28; Numbers 14:11, 27. And accept the persons of the wicked? Accepting men's persons is favouring them unduly on account of their position or outward circumstances. It was strictly forbidden in the Mosaic Law (see Deuteronomy 1:17; Deuteronomy 16:19; Leviticus 19:15). Psalm 82:2

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

God comes forward and makes Himself heard first of all as censuring and admonishing. The "congregation of God" is, as in Numbers 27:17; Numbers 31:16; Joshua 22:16., "the congregation of (the sons of) Israel," which God has purchased from among the nations (Psalm 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 Isaiah 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 Genesis 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 Exodus 21:6 renders τὸ κριτήριον τοῦ Θεοῦ, and the Targums here, as in Exodus 22:7-8, Exodus 22:27 uniformly, דּיּניּא). 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. ישׁפּט of that which takes place before the mind's eye of the psalmist. How long, He asks, will ye judge unjustly? שׁפט עול is equivalent to עשׂה עול בּמּשׁפּט, Leviticus 19:15, Leviticus 19:35 (the opposite is שׁפט מישׁרים, Psalm 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 רשׁ (ראשׁ), of which there is no evidence until within the time of David and Solomon, is synonymous with אביון. דל with ויתום is pointed דל, and with ואביון, on account of the closer notional union, דל (as in Psalm 72:13). They are words which are frequently repeated in the prophets, foremost in Isaiah (Isaiah 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.