What Does Psalm 82:6 Mean?
I have said, You are gods, and all of you are children of the Uppermost.
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
I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.THE KEY
The verse makes godlike standing a received kinship: you are called divine as children of the Most High, not as self-originating powers.
THE MEANING
You are addressed as bearing divine standing and as children of the Most High; your dignity is rooted in belonging. The verse holds that standing in relationship to its source, rather than making it a power you create for yourself.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that being human rules out God-derived dignity.
THE ROOT
בְּנֵי
bənê
GROWS FROM
בנה
bānāh (בָּנָה): to build, establish.
The word for children belongs to the בנה (bānāh, “build”) word family, which also gives Hebrew its language for building a household. Here childship is more than a label: the verse locates identity in a relationship that gives and forms it.
ALSO GROWS
bānāh: to build
בָּנָה
The verb behind the word family makes the verse’s language of children resonate with a life formed in relation to its source.
mivneh: structure, form
מִבְנֶה
This word for a formed structure shares the build-root, adding a sense of belonging to a larger formation.
binyāh: building, construction
בִּנְיָה
The same root names the act of building, bringing the language of formation into the verse’s claim of kinship.
עֶלְיוֹן
ʿelyon
GROWS FROM
עלה
ʿālāh (עָלָה): to go up, ascend, rise.
“Uppermost” in this verse is ʿelyon. The title “Most High” comes from the root for going up: height is expressed as ascent. Calling the addressed ones children of the Most High places their standing in relation to that source, rather than in self-made divinity.
ALSO GROWS
ʿālāh: to go up, ascend
עָלָה
This verb supplies the movement beneath the title “Most High,” giving height the feel of rising.
maʿăleh: ascent, elevation
מַעֲלֶה
This ascent-word shares the root and shows how the language of height also names upward movement.
ʿăliyyāh: ascent, upward movement
עֲלִיָּה
Its upward sense echoes the title’s root and makes “Most High” a relational height, not merely an abstract rank.
אָמַרְתִּי
ʾāmartî
GROWS FROM
אמר
ʾāmar (אָמַר): to say, speak.
The line presents this identity as spoken: “I have said, Ye are gods.” The root’s family of sayings and utterances keeps the emphasis on a declaration that names the addressed ones, rather than a status they claim for themselves.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāmar: to say, speak
אָמַר
This is the verb at the heart of “I have said,” placing the verse’s claim in the speaker’s declaration.
ʾimrāh: utterance, saying
אִמְרָה
This noun from the same root carries the declaration into the realm of spoken words.
maʾămār: saying, declaration
מַאֲמָר
The same root forms a word for a declaration, reinforcing that the verse names an identity through speech.
THE PATTERN
Scripture presents human dignity as both likeness to God and life received from God.
And God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.For in him we live and move and are; as some of your own makers have said, for we are also his offspring.For as many as are led by the breath of God, these are sons of God.THE THREAD
Who climbs the mountain of the LORD? Who stands in his set-apart place?Psalm 24:3 uses יַעֲלֶה (yaʿaleh, “ascend”), from the same root עָלָה (ʿālāh, “go up”) behind עֶלְיוֹן (ʿelyon, “Most High”). Its question turns height into movement toward presence, opening the title “Most High” as a relation to which the verse’s children belong.
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