Psalms 83 KJV
A Prayer Against Enemies
About This Psalm
Enemies conspire to destroy Israel. David asks God to deal with them like He dealt with past enemies.
1eep not thou 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 consent: they are confederate against thee:
6 The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
7 Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre;
8 Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah.
9 Do unto them as unto the Midianites; as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison:
10 Which perished at Endor: they became as dung for the earth.
11 Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb: yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna:
12 Who said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession.
13 O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind.
14 As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire;
15 So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm.
16 Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O LORD.
17 Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish:
18 That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.
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Did You Know?
The psalm's petition uniquely concludes by asking that the defeated nations 'know' Yahweh is Most High, framing military judgment as a means toward eventual recognition of Israel's God rather than mere destruction.
Its list of conspirators merges contemporary Iron Age II neighbors with Genesis genealogies, pairing Edomites and Ishmaelites with the otherwise obscure Hagarenes to portray a pan-regional threat rooted in ancestral enmity.
By invoking the precise victories over Sisera, Jabin, Oreb, Zeeb, Zebah, and Zalmunna, the psalm re-actualizes Judges 4-8 and 5, treating those ancient battlefield sites as reusable templates for divine intervention.
The mention of Assur allied with the 'children of Lot' hints at an eighth-century setting when Assyrian expansion could have temporarily aligned with Moabite and Ammonite interests against Judah.
As the final Asaph psalm, it closes the collection (73-83) with an imprecatory national lament that echoes the opening of the grouping, creating an inclusio around themes of divine sovereignty amid apparent divine silence.