Psalms 83:1-10

1 <> Keep Thou not silence, O God; hold not Thy peace, and be not still, O God.

2 For lo, Thine enemies make a tumult, and they that hate Thee have lifted up the head.

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

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

5 For they have consulted together with one accord; they are confederate against Thee:

6 the tabernacles of Edom and the Ishmaelites, of Moab and the Hagarites,

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

8 Assyria also has joined with them; they have helped the children of Lot. Selah

9 Do unto them as unto the Midianites, as to Sisera, as to Jabin at the Brook of Kishon,

10 who perished at Endor; they became as dung for the earth.

Psalms 83:1-10 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.