What Does Psalm 82:2 Mean?
How long do you judge crookedness, and lift up the faces of the wicked? Selah.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.THE KEY
In Hebrew, favoring the wicked is pictured as lifting their faces into standing and honor.
THE MEANING
The question lands wherever judgment is being tilted while the guilty are raised in favor. Its “How long” makes the distortion a present, continuing condition: those tasked with judging are elevating the faces of the wicked.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the claim that a judgment stays impartial while the judge grants the wicked special standing; the verse treats that favor as part of the injustice itself.
THE ROOT
תִּשְׂאוּ
tisa'u
GROWS FROM
נשא
nasa
Lift, carry, bear.
“lift up the faces of” in this verse is tisa'u. The verse uses נשא (nasa, lift or carry) where the KJV says “accept,” and its object is the faces of the wicked. The image is of judges raising those faces into regard and standing, showing partiality as an elevation enacted through judgment.
ALSO GROWS
nasa: To lift, carry, or bear.
נָשָׂא
This is the verb behind the verse’s image: the judges lift the faces of the wicked.
massa: A load or burden.
מַשָּׂא
The same root can describe what is carried; here the judges carry the wicked into favor.
nesi'ah: A lifting or raising.
נְשִׂיאָה
This noun makes the upward movement explicit: accepting the wicked is pictured as raising them.
תִּשְׁפְּטוּ
tishpetu
GROWS FROM
שפט
sh-p-t
Judge or decide a case.
“do you judge” in this verse is tishpetu. The verb for judging belongs to the same family as מִשְׁפָּט (mishpat, judgment or justice), the order a judge is meant to enact. The question exposes a fracture within judgment itself: a ruling can be made while justice is being denied.
ALSO GROWS
shofet: A judge or one who decides a case.
שֹׁפֵט
This names the person whose judgment the verse challenges.
mishpat: Judgment, justice, or legal order.
מִשְׁפָּט
This branch links the act of judging to the just order that the verse says is being bent.
THE PATTERN
Justice is corrupted when judgment gives people standing through partial favor.
You shall do no crookedness in judgment; you shall not lift up the face of the bowed down, nor adorn the face of the great; but in alignment shall you judge the one beside you.You shall not bend judgment. You shall not recognize faces, nor take a bribe, for the bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the aligned.But if you receive faces, you miss the mark, and are exposed by the instruction as those who step across.THE THREAD
You shall do no crookedness in judgment; you shall not lift up the face of the bowed down, nor adorn the face of the great; but in alignment shall you judge the one beside you.Leviticus forbids the same lift-the-face gesture in judgment, extending the warning to both the poor and the mighty. It makes Psalm 82’s accusation concrete: the wicked are being raised into favor through the very act of judging.
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