They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.
Parallel translations
- WEB They don’t know, neither do they understand. They walk back and forth in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken.
- 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 be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
- Prov 2:13Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;
- Rom 1:28And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
- Mic 3:1And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment?
- Ps 14:4Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the LORD.
- John 12:35Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.
- Prov 1:29For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:
- 1 Jn 2:11But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.
- John 3:19And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
- Ps 53:4Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread: they have not called upon God.
- 2 Tim 2:19Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
- Isa 5:7For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.
- Isa 59:9Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.
- Ps 75:3The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I bear up the pillars of it. Selah.
- Eccl 3:16And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.
- Eccl 2:14The wise man’s eyes are in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness: and I myself perceived also that one event happeneth to them all.
- Prov 4:19The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.
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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