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Read the Bible in the chronological order in which its stories and events occurred.

Duration: 365 days

Obadiah

Rise Up! Let Us Attack Edom

¹The vision of Obadiah about Edom:

I heard a message from the Lord,
and a herald has been sent to advise the nations:
“Rise up! Let us attack Edom!”

²The Lord says to Edom:

I will make you the least of all the nations;
    you are the object of utter contempt.
³The pride in your heart has led you astray,
    you who live in the crannies of the rock,
    whose dwelling is on the heights.
You think to yourself,
    “Who can bring me down to the ground?”
⁴Even though you soar like an eagle
    and your nest is set among the stars,
from there I will bring you down
    says the Lord.
⁵If thieves approached you,
    or robbers during the night,
you would not be destroyed,
    for wouldn’t they steal only what they wanted?
If grape-pickers were to come to you,
    wouldn’t they leave gleanings?
⁶But note how they will ransack Esau
    and steal his hidden treasures.
⁷All your former allies
    will drive you to your borders.
Your confederates will overpower you,
    those who eat your bread will set a trap for you,
    but you will not realize it.^[a]
⁸On that day, says the Lord,
    I will destroy all the wise men of Edom,
    and wisdom will disappear from the mountains of Esau.
⁹Your warriors will be so terrified, O Teman,^[b]
    that there will be no survivors on the mountains of Esau.
¹⁰Because of the slaughter and the violence
    inflicted on your brother Jacob,
shame will cover you
    and you will be cut off forever.
¹¹On the day when you stood aside
    while strangers carried off his wealth,
and foreigners passed through his gates
    and cast lots for Jerusalem,
    you were as evil as they were.

Do Not Gloat over Your Brother on the Day of His Misfortune

¹²Do not gloat over your brother
    on the day of his misfortune.
Do not rejoice over the children of Judah
    on the day of their ruin,
nor boast unfeelingly
    on the day of their distress.
¹³Do not enter the gate of my people
    on the day of their calamity.
Do not join in the gloating
    on the day of their calamity.
Do not lay your hands on their possessions
    on the day of their calamity.
¹⁴Do not wait at the crossroads
    to slaughter their fugitives.
Do not hand over the survivors
    on the day of their distress.
¹⁵For the day of the Lord is near
    for all the nations.
As you have done,
    so will it be done to you;
    your deeds will recoil upon your own head.

Dominion Will Belong to the Lord

¹⁶Just as you have drunk on my holy mountain,
    so shall all the nations drink continually;
they shall drink and gulp it down
    and be as though they had never been.
¹⁷But on Mount Zion a remnant will be saved;
    it will be holy,
and the house of Jacob will take possession
    of those who dispossessed them.
¹⁸Then the house of Jacob will be a fire,
    and the house of Joseph a flame.
The house of Esau will be stubble;
    it will be set afire and consumed,
and no one of the house of Esau will survive,
    for the Lord has spoken.
¹⁹My people from the Negeb^[c]
    will occupy the mount of Esau,
and people from the lowlands
    will occupy the foothills
    of the land of the Philistines.
They will occupy the fields of Ephraim and Samaria,
    and Benjamin will possess Gilead.
²⁰The exiles of the Israelites
    will possess Phoenicia as far as Zarephath,^[d]
and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad
    will possess the towns of the Negeb.
²¹Those who have been saved
    will ascend Mount Zion
to rule over the mountains of Esau,
    and dominion will belong to the Lord.

Psalm 82-83

Psalm 82^[a]

Judgment on Abuse of Authority

¹A psalm of Asaph.^[b]

God takes his place in the divine council;^[c]
    in the midst of the gods he pronounces judgment:
²“How long will you issue unfair judgments
    and rule in favor of those who are wicked?^[d] Selah
³^[e]“Grant justice to the weak and the orphan;
    defend the rights of the lowly and the poor.
⁴Rescue the wretched and the needy;
    free them from the hand of the wicked.
⁵“They neither know nor understand;
    they wander around in darkness
    while all the foundations of the earth^[f] are crumbling.
⁶^[g]I declare, ‘Although you are gods,
    all of you sons of the Most High,
⁷you will die as all men do;
    like any ruler you will fall.’ ”^[h]
⁸Rise up, O God, and judge the earth,
    for all the nations belong to you.^[i]

Psalm 83^[j]

Against a Hostile Alliance

¹A song. A psalm of Asaph.^[k]

²O God, do not remain silent;^[l]
    do not be quiet and inactive, O God.
³^[m]Note how your enemies rage about,
    how your foes increase in arrogance.^[n]
⁴They formulate shrewd plans against your people,
    conspiring against those you love.
⁵They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation;
    let the name of Israel be totally forgotten.”
⁶They conspire with a single mind,
    forming an alliance^[o] against you:
⁷^[p]the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
    Moab and the Hagrites,
⁸Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek,
    Philistia, and the inhabitants of Tyre;
⁹Assyria has also joined them as an ally,
    offering aid to the descendants of Lot. Selah
¹⁰^[q]Deal with them as you did with Midian,^[r]
    and with Sisera and Jabin at the brook of Kishon,^[s]
¹¹who were destroyed at Endor
    and became manure for the ground.
¹²^[t]Make their chieftains like Oreb and Zeeb,
    and all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
¹³who boasted, “Let us seize for ourselves
    the pastures of God.”
¹⁴^[u]O my God, treat them like tumbleweed,
    like chaff blown before the wind.
¹⁵As a fire rages through a forest,
    as a flame sets mountains ablaze,
¹⁶so hound them with your tempests
    and terrify them with your stormwinds.^[v]
¹⁷Fill their faces with shame
    so that they will seek your name,^[w] O Lord.
¹⁸^[x]Let them be humiliated and terrified forever;
    let them be disgraced and perish.
¹⁹Let them know that you alone,
    whose name is the Lord,
    are the Most High over all the earth.

Footnotes

Psalm 82:1 The psalmist sets forth a word about just and unjust judges (somewhat similar to Ps 58). He reminds rulers and magistrates that they are earthly members of God’s tribunal, associated in the government of the world, and in this respect “gods” (v. 6). Why then does the cause of the poor find such little regard among them? By establishing injustice rather than justice, these powerful people disturb the very order of the world (v. 5). They themselves will therefore be judged by the great King (see Ps 47) and Judge of all the earth (see Ps 94:2; Gen 18:25; 1 Sam 2:10) who “loves justice” (Ps 99:4) and judges the nations in righteousness (see Pss 9:9; 96:13; 98:9). Furthermore, God’s justice turns human judgments topsy-turvy; the kingdom of God and his justice will overcome the evildoers and the powers of oppression (see Isa 24:21f).
Even in nations that are not concerned with God or openly deny him, rulers and judges receive their powers from God and are bound to exercise them for justice in accord with his will: “[Civil authorities] are . . . God’s representatives for your welfare . . . [and] God’s servants to mete out punishment to wrongdoers” (Rom 13:4). This same truth is proclaimed by 1 Pet 2:13f. See also Ps 2:6-11; Isa 44:28; Jer 27:6; Dan 2:21; 4:14, 28f; 5:18; Jn 19:11; Rom 13:1.
Psalm 82:1 Asaph: see notes on Pss 73–89.
Psalm 82:1 Divine council: the psalmist pictures a kind of heavenly assembly (see Ps 89:6; 1 Ki 22:19; Job 1:6; 2:1; Isa 6:1-4) in the Hall of Justice, patterned after the Solomonic one (see 1 Ki 7:7), in which God is dispensing justice. Gods: a word applied to rulers and judges who are “godlike” in their function of establishing justice on the earth (see note on Ps 45:7).
Psalm 82:2 Like other authors of the Old Testament, the psalmist reproaches those in power with the sin of administering justice inequitably and showing partiality toward the wicked (see Ex 23:6; Lev 19:15; Deut 1:17; 2 Chr 19:7; Prov 18:5; Mic 3:1-12).
Psalm 82:3 Rulers and judges are exhorted to protect the powerless against exploiters and oppressors (see Ps 72:2, 4, 12-14; Job 29:11f; Prov 31:8f; Isa 11:4; Jer 22:3, 16; Ezek 22:27, 29; Zec 7:9f). Indeed, to see to it that the weak do not fall into the hands of unscrupulous exploiters is one of the most important functions of government. Poor: see note on Ps 34:7.
Psalm 82:5 When those in authority, instead of sharing in God’s wisdom (see 1 Ki 3:9; Prov 8:14-16; Isa 11:2), have no understanding of their most important duty or of the divine norm and standard and do not walk in the light of the revealed will of the eternal Judge (see Job 21:22), then all the supports upon which a well-ordered State rests will crumble (see Pss 11:3; 75:4). Foundations of the earth: a metaphor for God’s rule on earth (see Pss 11:3; 75:4; 96:10). The Lord has established some order, even in pagan nations, and he condemns the ungodly for undermining that order for their own ends.
Psalm 82:6 These verses can be interpreted to apply to judges or rulers but also to pagan gods. The Lord pronounces sentence and dethrones such gods. Indeed, his judgment is pronounced upon all manifestations of evil, both in the human world and in the angelic world (see Mt 25:41; Rev 20:10, 14f; 21:8). Gods: see note on verse 1b. This passage is applied by Christ, in an entirely different context, to Jews instructed by the word of God (see Jn 10:34; see also Acts 17:28; 2 Cor 6:18).
Psalm 82:7 These corrupt rulers will see death like all other human beings and be judged in the same way. Like any ruler you will fall: another possible translation is: “as one man, rulers, you will fall.” God will humble the great of the world as he annihilated the false gods likened to personages of the ancient mythology (see Isa 14:12; Ezek 28:11ff).
Psalm 82:8 The psalmist prays that God’s just judgment (see Pss 9:21; 10:12-15; 76:10) will come soon. Whenever we encounter injustice, we can fittingly say our Lord’s prayer: “Your kingdom come” (Mt 6:10). This verse can be fittingly applied to Christ, to whom all judgment has been entrusted by the Father (see Jn 5:22).
Psalm 83:1 After the deportation in 587 B.C., Israel ceased to exist as a political entity. The community that has been reestablished in Jerusalem after the return is subjected to the tutelage of great powers and the vexation of their neighbors. The communities that had been scattered among foreign peoples have already experienced more than one persecution. In their struggles with pagan religions and cultures, believers feel threatened in their faith. It seems that all forces have formed a coalition to destroy Israel because it wishes to remain faithful to its vocation as the People of God. As a result, the psalmist directs the following challenge to the Lord: May he let himself be known by crushing the pride of the nations; indeed, may the latter meet the cruel fate of the petty kings who wanted to destroy Israel at the time of the Judges (see notes on Pss 5:11; 35).
Obviously, this is a prayer of vengeance, but even more of salvation. It wishes to provoke Heaven: how could a polytheistic and idolatrous world come to worship the one and all-powerful God if he abandons his people? The chosen people could never resign themselves to such a collapse; that would be tantamount to the defeat of the Lord himself.
Although as Christians we are constantly under threat from the godless, we can ceaselessly implore God the Father (by this psalm) to grant his new People a complete victory over our enemies. We do not desire the eternal death of our foes but ask that God will bring them low and lead them to himself as God and Father.
Psalm 83:1 Asaph: see notes on Pss 73–89.
Psalm 83:2 Do not remain silent: i.e., spring into action (see Pss 35:22; 109:1).
Psalm 83:3 The words, Come, let us, are the very ones used by the leaders of the rebels at the tower of Babel when humanity attempted to usurp the power of the Lord (see Gen 11:3f). They obviously identify the enemies of God and of his people who cunningly plot to show their independence from the Lord and to exterminate Israel as a nation. Name: see note on Ps 5:12.
Psalm 83:3 Increase in arrogance: literally, “rear their heads.”
Psalm 83:6 Alliance: there is no record of such a vast alliance of nations ever arrayed against Israel at one time. It may be that only some of them were attacking at the moment while passively being supported by the others. Some point to the time when Moab, Ammon, and Edom were invading Judah during the reign of King Jehoshaphat (see 2 Chr 20). Against you: the invaders acknowledge openly that the war is intended not only against the people but also against their God.
Psalm 83:7 The members of the hostile alliance are all well-known foes of Israel. The psalmist alludes to the Edomites, descendants of Esau, the son of the patriarch Isaac (see Gen 36), and the Ishmaelites, who descended from Ishmael, the son of Abraham and Hagar (see Gen 16:15f); he also mentions the Moabites (see 2 Chr 20:1) and Ammonites, descendants of Lot, the nephew of Abraham (see Gen 19:38); next, he includes the Hagrites, an Arabian Bedouin tribe that was encamped on the border of the Syro-Arabian Desert (see 1 Chr 5:10, 19f). Other members were the inhabitants of Gebal, in the territory of the Edomites south of the Dead Sea (see Jos 13:5), and the Amalekites (see Gen 14:7). The Philistines, Israel’s foes along the Mediterranean coast of Palestine (see Ex 15:14), were also part of the alliance, as were the inhabitants of Tyre (see Isa 23:3). Assyria (see Gen 10:11) is mentioned as rendering assistance to the alliance; hence, it must not have become a major power in that area.
Psalm 83:10 These verses are part of the so-called imprecatory (or cursing) psalms that call upon God to mete out justice to enemies (see notes on Pss 5:11; 35). In their thirst for justice, the authors of these psalms use hyperbole (or overstatement) in order to move others to oppose sin and evil.
Psalm 83:10 The psalmist takes heart by recalling two great victories won with God’s help against superior forces during the time of the Judges: the victory of Gideon over the Midianites (see Jdg 7) and the defeat of King Jabin (see Jdg 4). He knows that in order for God’s kingdom of righteousness and peace to come, his foes must be defeated (see note on Ps 5:11).
Psalm 83:10 Midian: it was at Midian (see Ex 2:15) that Gideon defeated the Midianites and slew the leaders named in verse 12 (see Jdg 7:24-25; 8:5). Sisera and Jabin: commander and king, respectively, of the army defeated by Deborah and Barak in the Plain of Esdraelon near Endor at the foot of Mount Tabor (see Jdg 4–5).
Psalm 83:12 The Midianites had despoiled the croplands (v. 13: Let us seize for ourselves the pastures of God) and driven fear into the hearts of the Israelites. In their defeat at the hands of the Lord through Gideon, their leaders Oreb, Zeeb, Zebah, and Zalmunna were captured and put to death (see Jdg 7:25; 8:21).
Psalm 83:14 The psalmist likens the fate of the enemies to that of tumbleweed and chaff carried away by the wind and a forest or mountains destroyed by fire (common figures of destruction at the hand of the Lord: see Pss 1:4; 35:5; Isa 5:24; 10:17; 17:13; 29:5; Jer 13:24).
Psalm 83:16 Tempests . . . stormwinds: for God in the thunderstorm, see Pss 18:8-16; 68:34; 77:18f; Ex 15:7-10; Jos 10:11; Jdg 5:4, 20f; 1 Sam 2:10; 7:10; Isa 29:5f; 33:3. See also note on Ps 68:5.
Psalm 83:17 They will seek your name: the psalmist prays that God will humiliate the enemies and lead men to seek his name, i.e., realize and accept that the Lord alone is God (see v. 19).
Psalm 83:18 The Chronicler (2 Chr 20:22-29) records the defeat of the alliance and mentions that all the nations were terrified when they learned that the Lord fought on the side of the Israelites. This is precisely what the psalmist asks so that his people will be saved and the Lord will be praised by the whole world.

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Chronological

Rise Up! Let Us Attack Edom

Do Not Gloat over Your Brother on the Day of His Misfortune

Dominion Will Belong to the Lord

Footnotes

Psalm 82[a]

Judgment on Abuse of Authority

Psalm 83[j]

Against a Hostile Alliance

Footnotes

Psalm 82^[a]

Psalm 83^[j]