Polyglot Bible: Psalms: Psalms 82

This is a scholarly parallel-text comparison presenting what each tradition labels "Psalm 82" (a Psalm of Asaph) across four textual traditions side by side: the Hebrew Masoretic Text (Tanakh), the Greek Septuagint (LXX), the Latin Vulgate, and the English King James Version. The document's most striking revelation is that the four columns do not contain the same poem: the Hebrew/KJV column gives the famous "divine council" psalm in which God stands among lesser divine beings, declares "ye are gods," and sentences them to mortality, while the Septuagint and Vulgate columns contain a completely different psalm — a communal lament listing a coalition of nations (Edom, Ishmael, Moab, Assyria, etc.) conspiring to destroy Israel. This divergence is a direct consequence of the well-known numbering offset between the Hebrew and Greek/Latin psalm traditions, where the LXX and Vulgate number many psalms one digit lower than the Masoretic Text, so their "Psalm 82" is the Hebrew "Psalm 83." The format implicitly argues, or at least vividly illustrates, that citing "Psalm 82" without specifying the textual tradition can mean two entirely different pieces of religious poetry. This would be of direct interest to anyone studying textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible, the history of Bible translation, or debates (e.g., theological arguments from Psalm 82:6 about divine plurality) where the underlying tradition matters enormously.

Polyglot Bible: Psalms: Psalms 82

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