Dominic Bnonn Tennant (the B is silent)

Psalm 82

1

A Psalm of Asaph.
God posteth1 ‹himself› in the assembly of God,2
In the inwards3 of the gods he judgeth:

2

Until when shall ye judge unjustly,4
And the face of the wicked bear? Selah

3

Judge ‹for› the small5 and ·the fatherless,
The wretched and poor, do them righteousness,6

4

Rescue the small and ·the wanting,
From the hand of the bad deliver them.7

5

They know not and do not distinguish,
In darkness they go8 ‹on›;9
Tottered, all the foundations of the land.10

6

I—I have said, gods are ye,
And sons of the Most-Ascended,11 all of you,

7

Yet surely as Adam12 ye shall die,
And as one of the principals fall.

8

Rise, God, judge the land,
For thou shalt inherit in all the nations.

Footnotes

  1. posteth. Trad. “stands,” but this term has both a more religious and more official connotation, being used frequently of standing pillars, garrisons, and officers. Its head is Genesis 18:2, in which the three angels are described as being posted opposite Abraham; and an especially notable early use is also Genesis 28:12–13, where the stairway to heaven is posted on the land, and Yahweh is posted upon/over it. ↩

  2. assembly of God. Or “great assembly,” or “assembly of the mighty” or “assembly of El.” The Hebrew el could be a superlative, or could be the name of the Canaanite high god if the psalm is intended polemically: dt ilm is an Ugaritic cognate of adat el here, and refers essentially to the gathering of the pagan pantheon. None of these options are mutually exclusive. ↩

  3. inwards. Trad. “among,” “in the midst,” but this is a distinctly more concrete and intimate metaphor. God is right inside the gods, sifting the entrails of their corporate body. ↩

  4. unjustly. More correctly “injustice,” but in English this would sound like the gods were condemning injustice, rather than that their judgments were injustice. ↩

  5. small. Trad. “poor,” and that is the connotation, being frequently contrasted with “rich” (e.g., Ex 30:15); but dal properly means small or feeble, and may refer not merely to one’s bank account, but to any aspect of one’s stature, whether figurative or physical (Gen 41:19; 2 Sam 3:1 etc). ↩

  6. do them righteousness. Or “declare righteous,” i.e., vindicate. However, this treads close to implying a negation of Leviticus 19:15, so I have leaned toward the present translation. ↩

  7. deliver them. Or “pull them out.” ↩

  8. go. Or “walk.” ↩

  9. go on. The hitpael stem indicates ongoing or repeated action rather than merely going once. Hence Young, “in darkness they walk habitually.” ↩

  10. Tottered, all the foundations of the land. The verb is in the yiqtol, like “go on” in the previous verset, suggesting ongoing rather than completed action, but we cannot merely say that the land totters, for it is being made to totter. ↩

  11. Most-Ascended. Trad. “Most High,” but elyon is from the root meaning to ascend, and given that the chief atoning sacrifice of the OT is the olah, “ascension,” the religious significance of this connection is hard to overstate. ↩

  12. Adam. Trad. “man,” but this is not ish, but the generic adam. See the note on Genesis 1#26. ↩