Psalms 82:3
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
American King James Version (AKJV)
Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
American Standard Version (ASV)
Judge the poor and fatherless: Do justice to the afflicted and destitute.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
Give ear to the cause of the poor and the children without fathers; let those who are troubled and in need have their rights.
Webster's Revision
Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
World English Bible
"Defend the weak, the poor, and the fatherless. Maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.
English Revised Version (ERV)
Judge the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and destitute.
Clarke's Psalms 82:3 Bible Commentary
Defend the poor - You are their natural protectors under God. They are oppressed: punish their oppressors, however rich or powerful: and deliver them.
Barnes's Psalms 82:3 Bible Commentary
Defend the poor and fatherless - literally, judge; that is, Pronounce just judgment; see that right is done to them. This is required everywhere in the Scriptures. The meaning is not that judgment is to be pronounced in their favor because they are poor, or because they are orphans, for this would be to do what they had just been charged with as in itself wrong, accepting of persons; that is, showing favor on account of condition or rank, rather than on account of a just claim. The idea is, that the poor and the fatherless, having no natural protectors, were likely to be wronged or oppressed; that they had none to defend their claims; and that magistrates, therefore, as if they were their natural protectors, should see that their rights were maintained. See the notes at Isaiah 1:17.
Do justice to the afflicted and needy - See that justice is done them; that they are not wronged by persons of wealth, of power, and of rank. Such care does religion take of those who have no natural guardians. The poor and the needy - the widow and the fatherless - owe to the religion of the Bible a debt which no language can express.