Psalms 83

God, do not keep quiet. Do not say nothing. Do not sit still, God.

1Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God.

2Look at how your enemies are making an uproar. The people who hate you have lifted their heads in defiance.

2For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.

3They are making sly plans against your people. They are plotting against the ones you keep safe.

3They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.

Note"Hidden ones" translates a Hebrew word meaning treasured, stored away, kept safe, the sense is of something valuable a person hides for protection, not of people who are concealed or secretive.

4They have said, "Come on, let us wipe them out so they are no longer a nation. Then no one will remember the name of Israel again."

4They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.

5They have talked it over and they all agree. They have made an alliance against you.

5For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:

6There are the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, and Moab and the Hagrites,

6The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes;

Note"Tabernacles" here just means tents, the KJV word does not refer to the portable sanctuary of Israel, but to the dwellings of nomadic peoples. The nations listed in verses 6-8 ring Israel on every side. Edom lay to the south-east, descended from Esau, Jacob's brother. The Ishmaelites were desert tribes traced back to Ishmael, Abraham's son by Hagar. Moab lay east of the Dead Sea. The Hagrites (KJV "Hagarenes") were a nomadic people east of the Jordan, their name also linked to Hagar.

7and Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek, and Philistia along with the people who live in Tyre.

7Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre;

NoteGebal was probably a district south of the Dead Sea (not the Phoenician port of the same name). Ammon lay east of the Jordan, north of Moab. The Amalekites were a nomadic desert people, Israel's traditional enemies from the time of the exodus. The Philistines occupied the coastal plain to the west; Tyre was a wealthy Phoenician trading city on the coast to the north. The list spans centuries of Israel's enemies and no single historical war is known that involved all of them at once.

8Assyria has joined them too. They have given strength to the descendants of Lot. Selah.

8Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah.

Note"Assur" is Assyria, the great empire to the north-east. "Holpen" is the old past participle of "help." The "children of Lot" are Moab and Ammon, whose ancestry is traced to Lot, Abraham's nephew (Genesis 19), so the line names two of the allies already listed by a family term. "Selah" is a term of unknown meaning found throughout the Psalms, probably a musical or performance direction, a pause, or a change in the accompaniment.

9Do to them what you did to the Midianites, and what you did to Sisera and Jabin at the Kishon River.

9Do unto them as unto the Midianites; as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison:

NoteTwo victories from Israel's past, both recounted in the book of Judges. Gideon routed the Midianites, a raiding desert people, with a tiny force (Judges 7). Sisera was the general of Jabin, a Canaanite king; his chariot army was destroyed at the Kishon, a river running across the Jezreel valley that floods in the rainy season and bogs down wheels (Judges 4-5).

10They were destroyed at Endor. They became like manure spread on the ground.

10Which perished at Endor: they became as dung for the earth.

NoteEndor was a village near the battlefield in the Jezreel valley. To be left unburied on open ground, treated like manure spread over a field, was the most complete disgrace a defeated army could suffer in this culture.

11Make their leading men end up like Oreb and Zeeb. Make all their rulers end up like Zebah and Zalmunna.

11Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb: yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna:

NoteFour Midianite leaders killed in Gideon's campaign, Oreb and Zeeb were captured chiefs (Judges 7:25), Zebah and Zalmunna the two kings Gideon pursued and executed (Judges 8).

12They were the ones who said, "Let us take God's pasturelands and make them our own."

12Who said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession.

NoteThe Hebrew word can mean either "pastures" or "dwellings," and translators divide over it, hence the KJV's "houses of God" against the modern "pasturelands." Either way the phrase means the land of Israel itself, seen as grazing ground or property belonging to God, which the invaders propose to seize.

13My God, blow them along like a tumbleweed, like dry straw scattered by the wind.

13O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind.

NoteThe KJV's "wheel" translates a Hebrew word for something that whirls or rolls; it is generally taken here to mean the dried, rootless plant that the wind bowls across open ground. "Stubble" is the light chaff and broken straw left after threshing, which blows away at the first gust.

14Fire burns up a forest, and a flame sets whole mountains blazing.

14As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire;

15In the same way, chase them down with your windstorm, and terrify them with your storm.

15So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm.

Note"Persecute" in 1611 English simply meant to pursue or chase after; the modern sense of systematic ill-treatment came later.

16Cover their faces with shame, so that they will look for your name, LORD.

16Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O LORD.

NoteIn Hebrew a person's "name" stands for who they are and what they are known to be, so seeking God's name means turning to God himself rather than looking for a word.

17Let them be humiliated and terrified forever. Let them be put to shame and be destroyed,

17Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish:

Note"Confounded" in the KJV means thrown into confusion and publicly disgraced, not merely puzzled.

18so that people will know that you, whose name alone is the LORD, are the Most High over the whole earth.

18That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.

NoteThe Hebrew text here carries the personal name of Israel's God, written with four consonants (YHWH) whose original pronunciation was lost because Jewish readers said "Lord" aloud instead. Combining those consonants with the vowels of the spoken substitute produced the form "Jehovah," which the KJV prints in a handful of places; elsewhere it renders the same name as "LORD" in small capitals. "Most High" (Elyon) is an ancient title for the highest god, claimed here for the God of Israel.