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A song. A Psalm of Asaph

A Plea for Judgment

83 God, do not rest!
    Don’t be silent!
        Don’t stay inactive, God!
See! Your enemies rage;
    those who hate you issue threats.[a]
They plot against[b] your people
    and conspire against your cherished ones.
They say, “Let us go and erase them as a nation
    so the name of Israel will not be remembered anymore.”

Indeed, they shrewdly planned together,
    forming an alliance against you—
the tents of Edom, the Ishmaelites,
    Moab, the Hagrites,
Gebal, Ammon, Amalek, Philistia,
    and the inhabitants of Tyre.
Even Assyria joined them
    to strengthen the descendants of Lot.
Interlude

Deal with them as you did to Midian,[c]
    Sisera, and Jabin at the Kishon Brook.[d]
10 They were destroyed at En-dor
    and became as dung on the ground.
11 Punish their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb,[e]
    and all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,[f]
12 who said, “Let us possess the pastures of God.”

13 God, set them up like dried thistles,
    like straw before the wind.
14 Like a fire burning a forest,
    and a flame setting mountains ablaze.
15 Pursue them with your storm and
    terrify them with your whirlwind.
16 Fill their faces with shame
    until they seek your name, God.
17 Let them be humiliated and terrified permanently
    until they die in shame.[g]
18 Then they will know that you alone—
    whose name is Lord
        are the Most High over all the earth.

Footnotes

  1. Psalm 83:2 Lit. you lift their head
  2. Psalm 83:3 Lit. they make shrewd secret counsel
  3. Psalm 83:9 Cf. Judg 7:1-24
  4. Psalm 83:9 Cf. Judg 4:7, 15, 21-24
  5. Psalm 83:11 Cf. Judg 7:25
  6. Psalm 83:11 Cf. Judg 8:12, 21
  7. Psalm 83:17 Lit. they are abased and destroyed