Tap any verse number for what that verse means.
1Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God.
2For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.
3They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:
6The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
7Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre;
8Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah.
9Do unto them as unto the Midianites; as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison:
10Which perished at Endor: they became as dung for the earth.
11Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb: yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna:
12Who said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession.
13O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind.
14As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire;
15So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm.
16Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O LORD.
17Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish:
18That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.
Understand This
Psalm 83, explained
What Psalm 83 is saying
The final Asaphite psalm, Psalm 83 is a communal lament responding to a coalition of nations conspiring to annihilate Israel. The psalmist catalogs ten enemy peoples forming an alliance with Assyria, then appeals to God by recalling His past military deliverances through Gideon and Deborah. The imprecatory petitions employ nature imagery—whirling dust, fire consuming forests, tempest—to request divine intervention.
The background behind it
The specific ten-nation coalition described is difficult to match with a single historical event, leading some scholars to see it as an ideal or composite threat. The inclusion of Assyria as a supporting power suggests a pre-exilic date, possibly during the 8th or 7th century BC.
Themes running underneath
The psalm's theology of holy war entrusts national defense entirely to God. The appeal to past deliverances (Midian, Sisera, Endor) grounds present hope in precedent. Remarkably, the stated purpose of the enemies' destruction is not merely Israel's survival but that 'they may seek Your name, O LORD'—judgment serves revelation.
Why it still matters
Psalm 83 models prayer in the face of overwhelming opposition by combining historical memory with urgent petition. Its surprising conclusion—that enemies would come to know God's name—introduces a missional dimension to imprecatory prayer.
Scripture text: King James Version — public domain.