Psalms 82:4

Psa 82:4 Deliver the poor and needy: rid [them] out of the hand of the wicked.

Ver. 4. Rid them out of the hand of the wicked] Heb. of the turbulent, who make ado, as the devil doth, and vex others.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4. (Psa 82:4) Deliver the weak and the needy (man), front the hand of wicked (men) free (him). The first verb means originally to suffer or cause to escape; the second to extricate or disembarrass. From the hand of the wicked implies from their power, as actually exercised for coercion. The structure of the sentence may be made more regular by disregarding the pause-accent and attaching the needy to the last clause, and the poor from the hand of the wicked set free.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Not only when they cry for help, but when their cause requireth aid and support.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

(4) The poor and needy.—Better, The miserable (as in Psa_82:8) and poor, a different word from “needy” in Psa_82:3.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4. Rescue the weak and needy:

Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.

Cp. Isa_1:17; Isa_10:1-2. Human authorities are God’s representatives to see that the weak and friendless have justice done them. See Exo_22:22 ff.; Deu_10:17-18; Psa_10:14; Psa_10:18; Mal_3:5 : and comp. the portrait of the ideal ruler in Psa_72:12 ff.; Isa_11:3-4.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Deliver the poor and needy,.... From his adversary and oppressor, who is mightier than he, and draws him to the judgment seat; when it is not in his power to defend himself against him, and get out of his hands, unless a righteous judge will show a regard to him and his cause; and sometimes even an unjust judge, through importunity, will do this, as everyone ought, and every righteous one will:

rid them out of the hand of the wicked; this was what the poor widow importuned the unjust judge for, and obtained, Luk 18:3.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Deliver the poor and needy - That is, Deliver them from the power and the arts of those who would oppress and wrong them. This would not be showing them partiality; it would be simply doing them justice.

Rid them out of the hand of the wicked - Deliver, or Rescue them from their hands; that is, from their attempts to oppress and wrong them.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

These he recommends to the special care and protection of magistrates, because such are commonly neglected and crushed by men in higher place and power, and they are unable to right themselves.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 4. Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked. Break the nets of the man catchers, the legal toils, the bonds, the securities, with which cunning men capture and continue to hold in bondage the poor and the embarrassed. It is a brave thing when a judge can liberate a victim like a fly from the spider's web, and a horrible case when magistrate and plunderer are in league. Law has too often been an instrument for vengeance in the hand of unscrupulous men, an instrument as deadly as poison or the dagger. It is for the judge to prevent such villainy.

Whole Psalm. Asaph, who has written so much in the previous Psalms of the coming of Christ in the flesh, now speaks of his second coming to judgment. Josephus Maria Thomasius. 1649-1713.

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

4. Deliver… rid—The charge given in Psa_82:3 has relation to ordinary suits; this to cases of persecution and oppression. In those they were to pronounce justice; in these snatch the victims of avarice and malice out of the clutch of their tormentors. The two words are different, but they both have relation, not simply to arbitrative justice, but to power also—the interference of the strong arm of legal protection.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Deliver the poor and needy. The poor were terribly oppressed, and needed "deliverance". (see Job_29:12 Isa_1:17 Isa_3:14, 15 58:6 Mic_3:2, Mic_3:3) Rid them out of the hand of the wicked; or, rescue them.

The national peril in the mal-administration of justice.

This subject is illustrated by the rebellion of Absalom. That rebellion would not have been possible if the confidence of the people had not been lost by David"s neglect of the judgment seat. Absalom gained favour by craftily saying, "Oh that I were made judge in the land, that every man which hath any suit or cause might come unto me, and I would do him justice!". (2Sa_15:4) Those who search into the causes of great national revolutions find they have always to take account of the influence on the people of unfaithfulness in the judges, and lost public confidence that the right can be obtained. This is true of Western nations, but it is more true of Eastern nations, who know of justice as the decision of an official, rather than as the execution of a recognized and written law. Solomon gained public confidence by a wise and quick-witted judgment. He in part lost public confidence by high-handed dealing with the people"s complaints. The prophets, in their complaints of the special evils of their times, give prominence to the injustice of the judges, and their neglect of the causes of the poor. Still no crimes are supposed to undermine more swiftly the public confidence, and produce more social mischief, than those committed by mercenary judges, who give decisions in view of their own interests, rather than on the basis of what is just and right.

1. Men look for a standard of righteousness higher than they can reach themselves. They are taught to look for that standard in the impartial public judges and magistrates. If they find themselves disappointed in them, they readily get the feeling that there is no standard right, and then they lose the check upon their own wilful, self-pleasing doings. Public justice is found to be the necessary foundation and buttress of public morality.

2. National life loses its inspiring example when the king, the magistrate, and the official are found to do unjust things. Nations, as well as individuals, must make their ideals, and realize them, or think they realize them, in some individuals. Kings ought to be to their people realized ideals, and so living examples. And in the more limited spheres, so should the judges be. A man easily goes to ruin when he finds his realized ideal fail him. And so does a nation. There seems to be no right when there is no public right; no right in its high places. Nations are rightly severe on all judges who dishonour the seat of judgment. R.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.