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Psalm 82:5

They don’t know, neither do they understand. They walk back and forth in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken.

3“Defend the weak, the poor, and the fatherless. Maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.
4Rescue the weak and needy. Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.”
5They don’t know, neither do they understand. They walk back and forth in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken.
6I said, “You are gods, all of you are sons of the Most High.
7Nevertheless you shall die like men, and fall like one of the rulers.”
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← Psalm 82:4Psalm 82:6 →
Notice

Shaken foundations make the failure to understand a matter of shared danger, coming just after God's commands to defend people who lack protection.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

What connection do you see between the command to defend the weak and the earth's shaken foundations?

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Where have you seen a failure to understand put people with little power at risk?

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What might walking back and forth in darkness suggest about activity without understanding?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

12 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.

This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Psalm 11:3If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?Both passages describe threatened foundations, with Psalm 11 asking what the righteous can do when those foundations are destroyed.
Proverbs 2:13who forsake the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness,Both passages describe walking in darkness; Proverbs identifies this path with abandoning uprightness.
Romans 1:28Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting;Both passages connect a lack of knowledge with wrongdoing; Romans also describes God's judgment on those who refuse to know him.
Micah 3:1I said, “Please listen, you heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: Isn’t it for you to know justice?Micah asks rulers whether they should know justice; Psalm 82 describes failed understanding after commands to defend the weak.
1 John 2:9He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in the darkness even until now.Both use darkness to describe a moral condition; John identifies hatred of a brother as darkness despite claims to light.
Psalm 46:2Therefore we won’t be afraid, though the earth changes, though the mountains are shaken into the heart of the seas;Both picture the earth shaken, though Psalm 46 expresses freedom from fear while Psalm 82 describes failed understanding.
Proverbs 1:29because they hated knowledge, and didn’t choose the fear of the LORD.Both texts describe people without knowledge; Proverbs names their hatred of knowledge and refusal to fear the LORD.
John 3:19This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their works were evil.Both connect darkness with moral failure; John names a preference for darkness because people's works were evil.
John 12:35Jesus therefore said to them, “Yet a little while the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, that darkness doesn’t overtake you. He who walks in the …Both connect walking in darkness with a lack of knowledge; Jesus describes someone who does not know where he is going.
Psalm 14:4Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and don’t call on the LORD?Both connect a lack of knowledge with harm to others, with Psalm 14 picturing evildoers consuming God's people like bread.
1 John 2:11But he who hates his brother is in the darkness, and walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.Both describe walking in darkness without understanding; John names hatred of a brother as the cause of blindness.
Psalm 14:2The LORD looked down from heaven on the children of men, to see if there were any who understood, who sought after God.Understanding is central to both: Psalm 82 declares its absence, while Psalm 14 describes God's search for people who understand.
Where this verse fits

Injustice and anger. leadership weight. sermon or Bible study notes.

What the Bible says about anger →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Read Psalm 82:3–5 and underline whom God commands them to defend

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Encouragement

The shaken foundations receive no quick repair in these words. Yet God's demand remains clear: those charged with defending the weak are answerable to him for their failure.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 82:5. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

Keep goingPsalm 82 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).