Psalm 83:10-19
New Catholic Bible
10 [a]Deal with them as you did with Midian,[b]
and with Sisera and Jabin at the brook of Kishon,[c]
11 who were destroyed at Endor
and became manure for the ground.
12 [d]Make their chieftains like Oreb and Zeeb,
and all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
13 who boasted, “Let us seize for ourselves
the pastures of God.”
14 [e]O my God, treat them like tumbleweed,
like chaff blown before the wind.
15 As a fire rages through a forest,
as a flame sets mountains ablaze,
16 so hound them with your tempests
and terrify them with your stormwinds.[f]
17 Fill their faces with shame
so that they will seek your name,[g] O Lord.
18 [h]Let them be humiliated and terrified forever;
let them be disgraced and perish.
19 Let them know that you alone,
whose name is the Lord,
are the Most High over all the earth.
Footnotes
- 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.
