Matthew Poole and continuators on Psalms 82:7

7. But ye shall die like men , and fall like one of the princes .

But let not this make you insolent and secure; for though you are gods by name and office, yet still you are mortal men, you must die and give up your account to me your superior Lord and Governor; and you shall die and fall by the hands of my Justice, if you persist in your unjust and ungodly courses.

Or, like ordinary men, as the Hebrew word, Adam, sometimes signifies, as it doth Psal. 49. 2. If it be objected, that there Adam is opposed to I[illegible: 1+ letters]h, which notes persons of an higher rank; in like manner it is here opposed to the same sort of men, who are here called gods.

So the sence is, You (who are esteemed by your selves and others, gods upon earth) shall fall, (or die, as he said in the former branch: falling being oft put for dying, with this addition that it notes not an ordinary, but a violent and judicial death, as Exod. 19. 21. Ier. 39. 18. Hos. 5. 5.) like one (or, like other, or others, as this very word is rendred, Iudg. 16. 7, 11. which also is expounded there, Verse 17. like every or any) of the princes (i. e.) as other unrighteous or tyrannical Rulers have done in all foregoing Ages, and still do, your eyes seeing it; even in like manner shall you, to whom now I speak, fall and perish, if you do not learn by their Examples. But these words are by some late Learned Interpreters translated otherwise, and that very agreeably to the Hebrew words and accents, And you, O ye princes (or, you that are princes, before called gods) shall fall like one or like every or any of them, (i. e.) of the ordinary men last mentioned. So there is onely an Ellipsis of the Pronoun, which is frequent in the Hebrew Language. Or, shall fall together, as this word is translated, Ezra 2. 64. and 3. 9. or alike, as it is rendred, Eccles. 11. 6. in like manner, to wit, as ordinary men do. Your god-head shall be taken away from you, and your death shall shew you to be but mortal men as others are.