Psalms 83 (WEB)

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Chapter Text

83:1 God, don’t keep silent. Don’t keep silent, and don’t be still, God.

83:2 For, behold, your enemies are stirred up. Those who hate you have lifted up their heads.

83:3 They conspire with cunning against your people. They plot against your cherished ones.

83:4 “Come,” they say, “let’s destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more.”

83:5 For they have conspired together with one mind. They form an alliance against you.

83:6 The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites; Moab, and the Hagrites;

83:7 Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek; Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre;

83:8 Assyria also is joined with them. They have helped the children of Lot. Selah.

83:9 Do to them as you did to Midian, as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the river Kishon;

83:10 who perished at Endor, who became as dung for the earth.

83:11 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb; yes, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna;

83:12 who said, “Let us take possession of God’s pasture lands.”

83:13 My God, make them like tumbleweed; like chaff before the wind.

83:14 As the fire that burns the forest, as the flame that sets the mountains on fire,

83:15 so pursue them with your tempest, and terrify them with your storm.

83:16 Fill their faces with confusion, that they may seek your name, Yahweh.

83:17 Let them be disappointed and dismayed forever. Yes, let them be confounded and perish;

83:18 that they may know that you alone, whose name is Yahweh, are the Most High over all the earth.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "keep", "silent", "still", "behold", "enemies", and "stirred". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "keep" and "silent", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The local WEB text gives this verse as the immediate unit, so "keep" and "silent" carries the first interpretive weight. In Psalms context, the local focus is worship, trust, the LORD's kingship, and covenant mercy.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "keep" and "silent" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.