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Psalm 82 has long resisted a consensus regarding its genre. While some scholars have noted that the psalm's language overlaps with that of the complaint genre, several features of the psalm appear to complicate that reading. As a result, the framework of the divine council is frequently given interpretive priority, which has resulted in a variety of solutions to the psalm's several interpretive difficulties and has also contributed to a general reluctance to consider the psalm within the literary context of the psalms of Asaph. I argue that the psalm's interpretive difficulties are best resolved by understanding the psalm as a complaint, specifically a complaint put into the mouth of YHWH and addressed to the gods of the nations-a "gods-complaint." This reading provides a new interpretive framework that may help resolve important questions related to the psalm's compositional background, rhetorical function, and theological influence.
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The unique mythological themes of Ps 82 have long compelled scholars to consider it apart from the other psalms of the Asaph collection.1 For many, the interaction with other divine beings, the possible distinction between YHWH and El, and possible links with the northern tradition have suggested a very early date of composition.2 This would set the psalm apart from Pss 74 and 79, which appear to mention the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and are often dated to the exilic or postexilic periods.3 Indeed, Ps 82 is frequently interrogated in isolation from the rest of the psalms and by scholars interested primarily in what the psalm may reveal regarding much earlier Israelite conceptualizations of the divine council and of YHWH and El.4 These scholars largely consider the divine council typescene to be the most salient literary framework, with the psalm's likely liturgical setting providing a functional backdrop.5
On the other hand, Ps 82 aligns well with the themes of the Asaphite collection, and the terminology in the psalm overlaps significantly with that of the other Asaphite psalms. Form-critical analyses have largely been confined to commentaries and monographs focused on individual collections of psalms, but even there scholars have posited a wide variety of genres, including "prophetic liturgy," "prophetic oracle," "report of trial," and even "a peculiar mixing of psalm and oracle, where...