a head person (of any rank or class) · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 49:12 Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish.
Ezekiel 31:14 To the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height, neither shoot up their top among the thick boughs, ne…
Job 21:32 Yet shall he be brought to the grave, and shall remain in the tomb.
Psalms 83:11 Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb: yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna:
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 82:6–end
We have here,
I. Earthly gods abased and brought down, Psa 82:6, Psa 82:7. The dignity of their character is acknowledged (Psa 82:6): I have said, You are gods. They have been honoured with the name and title of gods. God himself called them so in the statute against treasonable words Exo 22:28, Thou shalt not revile the gods. And, if they have this style from the fountain of honour, who can dispute it? But what is man, that he should be thus magnified? He called them gods because unto them the word of God came, so our Saviour expounds it (Joh 10:35); they had a commission from God, and were delegated and appointed by him to be the shields of the earth, the conservators of the public peace,…
But ye shall die like men,.... As men in common do, to whom it is appointed to die, Hebrews 9:27 or as common men, as men in the lowest class of life: the wise man dies as the fool, the king as the peasant, high as the low, rich as the poor; death levels and makes all alike: or as Adam, as the first man, so Jarchi, who was lord of the whole universe; but being in honour, abode not, but became like the beasts that perish; sinning he died, and so all his posterity, even those who have the greatest power and authority on earth; see Psalm 49:2 and not only die a corporeal death, but an eternal one, dying in their sins; as Christ threatened the Jewish rulers, Scribes, and Pharisees, if they belie…
Psalm 82:5-8
5. They know not, neither do they understand: they walk in darkness, although all the foundations of the earth are moved. 6. I have said, Ye are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High. 7. But ye shall die as a man; and ye shall fall, O princes: as one of the people. 8. Arise, O God! Judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.
5 They know not, neither do they understand. [425] After having reminded princes of their duty, the Psalmist complains that his admonition from their infatuation is ineffectual, and that they refuse to receive wholesome instruction; yea, that although the whole world is shaken to its foundations, they, notwithstanding, continue thoughtless an…
The Church Fathers
This Judas, then, to whom it was said through the prophet: "But you, a man of one mind with me, my guide and my acquaintance," fell, though he had been one of those whom Christ took up for the leadership of the Christian people. And see how that which is written, "But you shall die like men, and you shall fall like one of the princes," is referred now to that prince who fell "like lightning from heaven," now to Judas, who, chosen to the princedom of the apostolate and, as it were, established in heaven, and himself, as it were, set beforehand like lightning, fell, going into the ruin of betrayal (against the one chief of the priests, who had been made "forever" a "priest according to the order of Melchizedek") to many chief priests and adversaries of the one high priest, that he might sell for a price him who willed to redeem the whole world from the curse of the law and of all sin, and to redeem us "not with corruptible" money, "but with his own precious blood."
But you shall die like men. You see, then, that he who is a man dies. For God does not die. And Adam, as long as he kept the commandment and was a god, did not die. But after he tasted of the forbidden tree, immediately he died. Finally God says to him: 'On whatever day you taste, you shall die the death.' It has it better in the Hebrew: 'But you shall die like Adam.' Just as he was cast out of paradise, so we too have been cast out. And you shall fall like one of the princes. Since he had said 'all of you sons of the Most High'; one cannot be a son of the Most High, unless he too be most high. I said that you should all be most high, as I am most high. But you shall fall like one of the princes. Since we were most high, therefore we are said to have fallen. Where are they who say that the devil was made a devil? Where are they who say that an evil nature was created by God? According to the Hebrew two things are said here. But you shall die like Adam: just as your father was unwilling to hear the commandment of the Lord, and fell, so you too shall die. Therefore that was said concerning Adam. But this which follows, And you shall fall like one of the princes: who is this one of the princes, who fell? If you should wish to say Adam, it was already said in the earlier verses, But you shall die like Adam. And at the same time see the significance of the word. But you shall die like Adam. Since Adam died, we too die. But the devil, who was a prince, and fell, did not die. For angelic dignity cannot receive death, but only ruin. Therefore he said, you shall fall like one of the princes. 'How is Lucifer fallen, who rose in the morning?' Behold, both here he fell, and there he fell. He fell for this reason, because he always dwelt among the heavenly things. This is he to whom it is said in Ezekiel: 'You are the unsealing of the likeness.' See what he says, the unsealing of the likeness. He did not say, You are the seal of the likeness: but, the unsealing of the likeness. God had sealed you, and had made you like himself: but you afterwards unsealed yourself. After the likeness and image of God you too were formed. Finally it is said in that same prophecy: 'In the midst of the cherubim you were nourished, among the stones of jasper and carbuncle you were in the paradise of God. And you fell,' he says, 'and were wounded from the mountain of the Lord.' This prince…
What now follows in Psa 82:5 is not a parenthetical assertion of the inefficiency with which the divine correction rebounds from the judges and rulers. In connection with this way of taking Psa 82:5, the manner in which the divine language is continued in Psa 82:6 is harsh and unadjusted. God Himself speaks in Psa 82:5 of the judges, but reluctantly alienated from them; and confident of the futility of all attempts to make them better, He tells them their sentence in Psa 82:6. The verbs in Psa 82:5 are designedly without any object: complaint of the widest compass is made over their want of reason and understanding; and ידעו takes the perfect form in like manner to ἐγνώκασι, noverunt, cf.…
The gods (see study notes on 29:1-2; 58:1), like mere mortals, cannot escape the judgment common to human rulers. Jesus quoted from this passage in John 10:34.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 82:7
But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.
But ye shall die like men. What sarcasm it seems! Great as the office made the men, they were still but men, and must die. To every judge this verse is a memento mori! He must leave the bench to stand at the bar, and on the way must put off the ermine to put on the shroud. And fall like one of the princes. Who were usually the first to die: for battle, sedition, and luxury, made greater havoc among the great than among any others. Even as princes have often been cut off by sudden and violent deaths, so should the judges be who forget to do justice. Men usually respect the office of a judge, and do not conspire to slay him, as they…
