3 Give ear to the cause of the poor and the children without fathers; let those who are troubled and in need have their rights.
To give decision for the child without a father and for the broken-hearted, so that the man of the earth may no longer be feared.
He was judge in the cause of the poor and those in need; then it was well. Was not this to have knowledge of me? says the Lord.
This is what the Lord has said: Do what is right, judging uprightly, and make free from the hands of the cruel one him whose goods have been violently taken away: do no wrong and be not violent to the man from a strange country and the child without a father and the widow, and let not those who have done no wrong be put to death in this place.
Judging uprightly in the cause of the widow and of the child who has no father, and giving food and clothing in his mercy to the man from a strange country.
Your chiefs have gone against the Lord, they have become friends of thieves; every one of them is looking for profit and going after rewards; they do not give right decisions for the child who has no father, and they do not let the cause of the widow come before them.
They have become fat and strong: they have gone far in works of evil: they give no support to the cause of the child without a father, so that they may do well; they do not see that the poor man gets his rights.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 82
Commentary on Psalms 82 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 82
This psalm is calculated for the meridian of princes' courts and courts of justice, not in Israel only, but in other nations; yet it was probably penned primarily for the use of the magistrates of Israel, the great Sanhedrim, and their other elders who were in places of power, and perhaps by David's direction. This psalm is designed to make kings wise, and "to instruct the judges of the earth' (as Psa 2 and 10), to tell them their duty as (2 Sa. 23:3), and to tell them of their faults as Psa 58:1. We have here,
Though magistrates may most closely apply this psalm to themselves, yet we may any of us sing it with understanding when we give glory to God, in singing it, as presiding in all public affairs, providing for the protection of injured innocency, and ready to punish the most powerful injustice, and when we comfort ourselves with a belief of his present government and with the hopes of his future judgment.
A psalm of Asaph.
Psa 82:1-5
We have here,
Psa 82:6-8
We have here,