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12 who said,[a] “Let’s take over[b] the pastures of God.”
13 O my God, make them like dead thistles,[c]
like dead weeds blown away by[d] the wind.
14 Like the fire that burns down the forest,
or the flames that consume the mountainsides,[e]

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Footnotes

  1. Psalm 83:12 tn The translation assumes that “Zebah and Zalmunna” are the antecedents of the relative pronoun (“who [said]”). Another option is to take “their nobles…all their rulers” as the antecedent and to translate, “those who say.”
  2. Psalm 83:12 tn Heb “let’s take possession for ourselves.”
  3. Psalm 83:13 tn Or “tumbleweed.” The Hebrew noun גַּלְגַּל (galgal) refers to a “wheel” or, metaphorically, to a whirling wind (see Ps 77:18). If taken in the latter sense here, one could understand the term as a metonymical reference to dust blown by a whirlwind (cf. NRSV “like whirling dust”). However, HALOT 190 s.v. II גַּלְגַּל understands the noun as a homonym referring to a “dead thistle” here and in Isa 17:13. The parallel line, which refers to קַשׁ (qash, “chaff”), favors this interpretation.
  4. Psalm 83:13 tn Heb “before.”
  5. Psalm 83:14 sn The imagery of fire and flames suggests unrelenting, destructive judgment.

12 who said, “Let us take possession(A)
    of the pasturelands of God.”

13 Make them like tumbleweed, my God,
    like chaff(B) before the wind.
14 As fire consumes the forest
    or a flame sets the mountains ablaze,(C)

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