Psalms

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Psalm 82

1 A psalm of Asaph. God stands in the assembly of El; in the midst of the gods he renders judgment.⁠ 2 He says, “How long will you make unjust legal decisions and show favoritism to the wicked?⁠ (Selah)⁠ 3 Defend the cause of the poor and the fatherless. Vindicate the oppressed and suffering.⁠ 4 Rescue the poor and needy. Deliver them from the power of the wicked.⁠ 5 They neither know nor understand. They stumble around in the dark, while all the foundations of the earth crumble. 6 I thought, ‘You are gods; all of you are sons of the Most High.’⁠ 7 Yet you will die like mortals; you will fall like all the other rulers.” 8 Rise up, O God, and execute judgment on the earth! For you own all the nations.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Kings 22:19 and Psalm 82:1

Hebrew Bible

Summary

1 Kings 22 and Psalm 82 describe a bureaucratic divine council where God rules with other heavenly beings who make governing decisions. In Kings, the council discusses Ahab’s fate, and in the psalm God judges other gods for ruling unjustly.

Passages

1 Kings 22:19

Hebrew Bible

17 Micaiah said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains like sheep that have no shepherd. Then the Lord said, ‘They have no master. They should go home in peace.’” 18 The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Didn’t I tell you he does not prophesy prosperity for me, but disaster?” 19 Micaiah said, “That being the case, listen to the Lord’s message. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, with all the heavenly assembly standing beside him on his right and on his left. 20 The Lord said, ‘Who will deceive Ahab, so he will attack Ramoth Gilead and die there?’ One said this and another that. 21 Then a spirit stepped forward and stood before the Lord. He said, ‘I will deceive him.’

600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Kings

Psalm 82:1

Hebrew Bible

1 A psalm of Asaph. God stands in the assembly of El; in the midst of the gods he renders judgment. 2 He says, “How long will you make unjust legal decisions and show favoritism to the wicked? (Selah) 3 Defend the cause of the poor and the fatherless. Vindicate the oppressed and suffering. 4 Rescue the poor and needy. Deliver them from the power of the wicked. 5 They neither know nor understand. They stumble around in the dark, while all the foundations of the earth crumble.

600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

References

"... Scholarship on the origin of archangels has identified a number of explanations for their emergence within Hellenistic Judaism. One suggestion is that archangels evolved from earlier, polytheistic Jewish conceptions of the gods considered subordinate to Yahweh. For angels appear to function in ways that are similar to the divine beings of the heavenly council or court of the high God (e.g., Psalm 82:1; 1 Kings 22:19). Such a development fits with the theologically motivated early textual emendations of some biblical references (e.g., in Deuteronomy 32:8, “the sons of [the] God(s)” are appointed over each nation according to 4QDeut, but “angels of God” in the Septuagint) ..."

Deane Galbraith, “The Origin of Archangels: Ideological Mystification of Nobility,” in Class Struggle in the New Testament, ed. Robert J. Myles (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2019), 209–240.

"... One other general observation can be made about certain biblical texts concerned with the divine realm. There are passages in both prose narrative and poetic compositions that quite clearly presuppose a knowledge, on the part of the audience, of a divine realm populated by a monarchical hierarchy of divine beings. (1 Kings 22:19-23; Job 1:6-12; Psalm 82) In some of these texts, the beings on the heavenly plane are quite simply called “gods” (אֱלֹהִים, אֱלִים, בְנֵי אֵלִים). In these passages, especially compositions that must be considered literary or liturgical, it is probably safe to assume that the authors took it for granted that people who heard the productions knew there was a heavenly world populated by the gods ..."

Lowell K. Handy, Among the Host of Heaven: The Syro-Palestinian Pantheon as Bureaucracy (Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1994), 43.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Psalms150 psalms

Compare 1 Kings 22:19 and Psalm 82:1

Summary

Passages

1 Kings 22:19

Psalm 82:1

References

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