Text -- Psalms 83:1-5 (NET)

Psalm 83

83:1 A song, a psalm of Asaph. O God, do not be silent! Do not ignore us! Do not be inactive, O God! 83:2 For look, your enemies are making a commotion; those who hate you are hostile. 83:3 They carefully plot against your people, and make plans to harm the ones you cherish. 83:4 They say, “Come on, let’s annihilate them so they are no longer a nation! Then the name of Israel will be remembered no more.” 83:5 Yes, they devise a unified strategy; they form an alliance against you.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Psa 83:1

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.

² tn Heb “do not be deaf.”

NET Notes: Psa 83:2

¹ 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.

NET Notes: Psa 83:3

¹ tn Heb “they make crafty a plot.”

² tn Heb “and consult together against.”

³ tn The passive participle of the Hebrew verb צָפַן (tsafan, “to hide”) is used here in the sense of “treasured; cherished.”

NET Notes: Psa 83:4

¹ tn Heb “we will cause them to disappear from [being] a nation.”

NET Notes: Psa 83:5

¹ tn Or “for.”

² tn Heb “they consult [with] a heart together.”

³ tn Heb “cut a covenant.”