Psalms 83:6-16

6 Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites,

7 Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, Philistia and the Tyrians,

8 And now Assyria has joined up, Giving muscle to the gang of Lot.

9 Do to them what you did to Midian, to Sisera and Jabin at Kishon Brook;

10 They came to a bad end at Endor, nothing but dung for the garden.

11 Cut down their leaders as you did Oreb and Zeeb, their princes to nothings like Zebah and Zalmunna,

12 With their empty brags, "We're grabbing it all, grabbing God's gardens for ourselves."

13 My God! I've had it with them! Blow them away! Tumbleweeds in the desert waste,

14 charred sticks in the burned-over ground.

15 Knock the breath right out of them, so they're gasping

16 for breath, gasping, "God."

Psalms 83:6-16 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 83

\\<>\\. This is the last of the psalms that bear the name of Asaph, and some think it was written by him on occasion of David's smiting the Philistines, Moabites, Syrians, Edomites, and others, 2Sa 8:1-14, but these did not conjunctly, but separately, fight with David, and were overcome by him; whereas those this psalm makes mention of were in a confederacy together; and besides, the Tyrians in David's time were in friendship with him; but are here mentioned as joining with others against Israel, Ps 83:7, others are of opinion that this was prophetic delivered out with respect to future times, either to the conspiracy of the enemies of the Jews against them in the times of the Maccabees, ``Now when the nations round about heard that the altar was built and the sanctuary renewed as before, it displeased them very much. &c.'' (1 Maccabees 5:1) or rather to the confederacy of the Moabites, Ammonites, and others, in the times of Jehoshaphat, 2Ch 20:1, so Kimchi, Arama, and the generality of interpreters: perhaps reference is had to the enemies of God's people, from age to age, both in the Old and in the New Testament; R. Obadiah understands it of the war of Gog and Magog.