Psalm 82 question

**eklypised** · December 2nd 2011, 12:04 PM

What was meant by this verse ? How is God judging other gods if theirs just one god. Our is "god" meant as something else?

V1 "God presides in the great assembly;
he renders judgment among the “gods”

**Tanakh Keeper** · December 2nd 2011, 01:04 PM

Your translation is faulty. Verse 1 is correctly translated as "A song of Asaph. G-d stands in the congregation of G-d; in the midst of the judges He will judge."

Basically, G-d's presence manifests in the council of judges; among the judges He renders judgment. In Psalm 82, G-d is admonishing those judges who feign ignorance of the law, dealing unjustly with the pauper or the orphan, while coddling the rich and pocketing their bribes.

Asaph is a Levite singer from 5th centure BCE, who lived through the destruction of the Temple and authored many chapters of the Book of Psalms.

**eklypised** · December 2nd 2011, 04:19 PM

^^Thanks man

**apostoli** · January 13th 2012, 03:28 PM

Tanakh Keeper is imprecise, the Hebrew uses the exact same wording for God & the judges = elohim. So literally God judges the gods... It must be remembered "God' in the OT is not an identity statement but a title. Rarely is YHWH ever called God without qualification eg: my God, our God, God of Israel etc...

מִזְמֹור לְאָסָף אֱֽלֹהִים נִצָּב בַּעֲדַת־אֵל בְּקֶרֶב אֱלֹהִים יִשְׁפֹּֽט׃