Psalms 83:1-6

Psalm 83

1

A song. A psalm of Asaph.

1 God, don't be silent! Don't be quiet or sit still, God,

2 because—look!—your enemies are growling; those who hate you are acting arrogantly.

3 They concoct crafty plans against your own people; they plot against the people you favor.

4 "Come on," they say, "let's wipe them out as a nation! Let the name Israel be remembered no more!"

5 They plot with a single-minded heart; they make a covenant against you.

6 They are the clans of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites,

Psalms 83:1-6 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.