Psalm 83:1-8
New English Translation
Psalm 83[a]
A song, a psalm of Asaph.
83 O God, do not be silent.
Do not ignore us.[b] Do not be inactive, O God.
2 For look, your enemies are making a commotion;
those who hate you are hostile.[c]
3 They carefully plot[d] against your people,
and make plans to harm[e] the ones you cherish.[f]
4 They say, “Come on, let’s annihilate them so they are no longer a nation.[g]
Then the name of Israel will be remembered no more.”
5 Yes,[h] they devise a unified strategy;[i]
they form an alliance[j] against you.
6 It includes[k] the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
Moab and the Hagrites,[l]
7 Gebal,[m] Ammon, and Amalek,
Philistia and the inhabitants of Tyre.
8 Even Assyria has allied with them,
lending its strength to the descendants of Lot.[n] (Selah)
Footnotes
- Psalm 83:1 sn Psalm 83. The psalmist asks God to deliver Israel from the attacks of foreign nations. Recalling how God defeated Israel’s enemies in the days of Deborah and Gideon, he prays that the hostile nations would be humiliated.
- Psalm 83:1 tn Heb “do not be deaf.”
- Psalm 83:2 tn Heb “lift up [their] head[s].” The phrase “lift up [the] head” here means “to threaten; to be hostile,” as in Judg 8:28.
- Psalm 83:3 tn Heb “they make crafty a plot.”
- Psalm 83:3 tn Heb “and consult together against.”
- Psalm 83:3 tn The passive participle of the Hebrew verb צָפַן (tsafan, “to hide”) is used here in the sense of “treasured; cherished.”
- Psalm 83:4 tn Heb “we will cause them to disappear from [being] a nation.”
- Psalm 83:5 tn Or “for.”
- Psalm 83:5 tn Heb “they consult [with] a heart together.”
- Psalm 83:5 tn Heb “cut a covenant.”
- Psalm 83:6 tn The words “it includes” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
- Psalm 83:6 sn The Hagrites are also mentioned in 1 Chr 5:10, 19-20.
- Psalm 83:7 sn Some identify Gebal with the Phoenician coastal city of Byblos (see Ezek 27:9, where the name is spelled differently), though others locate this site south of the Dead Sea (see BDB 148 s.v. גְּבַל; HALOT 174 s.v. גְּבַל).
- Psalm 83:8 tn Heb “they are an arm for the sons of Lot.” The “arm” is here a symbol of military might.sn The descendants of Lot were the Moabites and Ammonites.
NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.