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11 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb,[a]
and all their rulers like Zebah and Zalmunna,[b]
12 who said,[c] “Let’s take over[d] the pastures of God.”
13 O my God, make them like dead thistles,[e]
like dead weeds blown away by[f] the wind.

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Footnotes

  1. Psalm 83:11 sn Oreb and Zeeb were the generals of the Midianite army that was defeated by Gideon. The Ephraimites captured and executed both of them and sent their heads to Gideon (Judg 7:24-25).
  2. Psalm 83:11 sn Zebah and Zalmunna were the Midianite kings. Gideon captured them and executed them (Judg 8:1-21).
  3. Psalm 83:12 tn The translation assumes that “Zebah and Zalmunna” are the antecedents of the relative pronoun (“who [said]”). Another option is to take “their nobles…all their rulers” as the antecedent and to translate, “those who say.”
  4. Psalm 83:12 tn Heb “let’s take possession for ourselves.”
  5. Psalm 83:13 tn Or “tumbleweed.” The Hebrew noun גַּלְגַּל (galgal) refers to a “wheel” or, metaphorically, to a whirling wind (see Ps 77:18). If taken in the latter sense here, one could understand the term as a metonymical reference to dust blown by a whirlwind (cf. NRSV “like whirling dust”). However, HALOT 190 s.v. II גַּלְגַּל understands the noun as a homonym referring to a “dead thistle” here and in Isa 17:13. The parallel line, which refers to קַשׁ (qash, “chaff”), favors this interpretation.
  6. Psalm 83:13 tn Heb “before.”

11 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb,(A)
    all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,(B)
12 who said, “Let us take possession(C)
    of the pasturelands of God.”

13 Make them like tumbleweed, my God,
    like chaff(D) before the wind.

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