Verse Lens · Concise explanation
Psalms 82:2 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 2. 2How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Psalm 82:2: The line “How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of…” reaches Selah inside “God judges unjust gods or rulers,” marking an ancient pause of uncertain performance.
Read It With
- Psalms 82:1–8
Read Psalms 82:2 with 82:1–8. Read alone, “How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the…” could lose the communal voice, the parallel line or movement it develops, and the psalm's outcome. The complete movement establishes: Within Psalms 82:1–8, the communal voice carries the movement “God judges unjust gods or rulers” as part of “God judges unjust gods or rulers.” Its divine-council-wisdom form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Psalms 82:1–8 opens Psalm 82 with “God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods” and establishes the communal voice and “God judges unjust gods or rulers” movement before later lines develop or answer it. Within that relationship, Psalm 82:2 carries “How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah” into the liturgical marker Selah, creating a pause whose exact performance remains uncertain.
What Remains True
Read “How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the…” as part of the communal voice in “God judges unjust gods or rulers.” Wrong and rage may be named honestly before the LORD, yet judgment remains accountable to justice and never turns another person into disposable prey. The local movement is “God judges unjust gods or rulers.” The unit's reviewed limit is: The identity of the addressed beings is disputed; every responsible option still centers defense of weak people and rejects authoritarian power.
How It Can Shape Life
- Start with the line's work inside “God judges unjust gods or rulers”—Psalm 82:2 carries “How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah” into the liturgical marker Selah, creating a pause whose exact performance remains uncertain. Then let the line “How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the…” make room for protest without dehumanizing anyone; choose safety, truthful evidence, and justice over revenge.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Psalms 82:1–8 — God judges unjust gods or rulersSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Psalms 82:1–8, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Psalms
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ps.xml, OSIS 82:1–8
Open the fixed Hebrew Psalms file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible Notes: Psalms 1-150
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, current official online edition
Supports: Verse-level controls for poetic syntax, imagery, older KJV language, textual issues, headings, and alternatives in Psalms 82:1–8.
Exact location: Official NET Bible Psalm 82 HTML, translator, textual, and study notes attached to Psalms 82:1–8
Open the official NET Psalms notes ↗