They don’t know, neither do they understand. They walk back and forth in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken.
Parallel translations
- KJV They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.
- BSB They do not know or understand; they wander in the darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
- NKJV They do not know, nor do they understand; They walk about in darkness; All the foundations of the earth are unstable.
- NASB ¶They do not know nor do they understand; They walk around in darkness; All the foundations of the earth are shaken.
- NLT But these oppressors know nothing; they are so ignorant! They wander about in darkness, while the whole world is shaken to the core.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The unjust rulers know nothing and walk in darkness, so the earth's foundations are shaken. Injustice in leadership destabilizes the whole created order.
Overview
The corrupt judges are spiritually blind, stumbling in moral darkness, and their failure has cosmic consequences as society's foundations totter. When those entrusted with justice abandon it, the moral order God established is undermined. This shows how deeply God ties the stability of the world to righteous rule.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Ps 11:3If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?
- Prov 2:13who forsake the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;
- Rom 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;
- Mic 3:1I said, “Please listen, you heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: Isn’t it for you to know justice?
- Ps 14:4Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and don’t call on Yahweh?
- 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 darkness doesn’t know where he is going.
- Prov 1:29because they hated knowledge, and didn’t choose the fear of Yahweh.
- 1 Jn 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.
- 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.
- Ps 53:4Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and don’t call on God?
- 2 Tim 2:19However God’s firm foundation stands, having this seal, “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let every one who names the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness.”
- Isa 5:7For the vineyard of Yahweh of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression; for righteousness, but, behold, a cry of distress.
- Isa 59:9Therefore is justice far from us, and righteousness doesn’t overtake us. We look for light, but see darkness; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity.
- Ps 75:3The earth and all its inhabitants quake. I firmly hold its pillars. Selah.
- Eccl 3:16Moreover I saw under the sun, in the place of justice, that wickedness was there; and in the place of righteousness, that wickedness was there.
- Eccl 2:14The wise man’s eyes are in his head, and the fool walks in darkness — and yet I perceived that one event happens to them all.
- Prov 4:19The way of the wicked is like darkness. They don’t know what they stumble over.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 82:5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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