Psalm 83

¹Of David. To You, O Lord, I call; be not deaf to me, O my Rock. For if You remain silent, I will be like those descending to the Pit.

²²O Lord, You have seen it; be not silent. O Lord, be not far from me.

³Our God approaches and will not be silent! Consuming fire precedes Him, and a tempest rages around Him.

¹For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. O God of my praise, be not silent.

²For wicked and deceitful mouths open against me; they speak against me with lying tongues.

¹⁴“I have kept silent from ages past; I have remained quiet and restrained. But now I will groan like a woman in labor; I will at once gasp and pant.

²³Wake up, O Lord! Why are You sleeping? Arise! Do not reject us forever.

¹⁵Those who hate the Lord would feign obedience, and their doom would last forever.

²⁴When Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but that instead a riot was breaking out, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “You bear the responsibility.”

¹²Alas, the tumult of many peoples; they rage like the roaring seas and clamoring nations; they rumble like the crashing of mighty waters.

²³Whom have you taunted and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel!

¹⁹They will fight against you but will never overcome you, since I am with you to deliver you,” declares the Lord.

²⁸In this way Midian was subdued before the Israelites and did not raise its head again. So the land had rest for forty years in the days of Gideon,

²Hide me from the scheming of the wicked, from the mob of workers of iniquity,

⁵For in the day of trouble He will hide me in His shelter; He will conceal me under the cover of His tent; He will set me high upon a rock.

²⁰You hide them in the secret place of Your presence from the schemes of men. You conceal them in Your shelter from accusing tongues.

⁶‘Let us invade Judah, terrorize it, and divide it among ourselves. Then we can install the son of Tabeal over it as king.’

⁷But this is what the Lord God says: ‘It will not arise; it will not happen.

²⁰So they watched Him closely and sent spies who pretended to be sincere. They were hoping to catch Him in His words in order to hand Him over to the rule and authority of the governor.

²¹“Teacher,” they inquired, “we know that You speak and teach correctly. You show no partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.

⁹He lies in wait like a lion in a thicket; he lurks to seize the oppressed; he catches the lowly in his net.

²There is no longer praise for Moab; in Heshbon they devise evil against her: ‘Come, let us cut her off from nationhood.’ You too, O people of Madmen, will be silenced; the sword will pursue you.

¹⁹For I was like a gentle lamb led to slaughter; I did not know that they had plotted against me: “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit; let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be remembered no more.”

⁶And when he learned the identity of Mordecai’s people, he scorned the notion of laying hands on Mordecai alone. Instead, he sought to destroy all of Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout the kingdom of Xerxes.

⁷In the twelfth year of King Xerxes, in the first month, the month of Nisan, the Pur (that is, the lot) was cast before Haman to determine a day and month. And the lot fell on the twelfth month, the month of Adar.

⁸They said in their hearts, “We will crush them completely.” They burned down every place where God met us in the land.

¹Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord. He approached the high priest

²and requested letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any men or women belonging to the Way, he could bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem.

²⁵He will speak out against the Most High and oppress the saints of the Most High, intending to change the appointed times and laws; and the saints will be given into his hand for a time, and times, and half a time.

²The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together, against the Lord and against His Anointed One:

¹³These kings have one purpose: to yield their power and authority to the beast.

⁹Huddle together, O peoples, and be shattered; pay attention, all you distant lands; prepare for battle, and be shattered; prepare for battle, and be shattered!

¹⁰Devise a plan, but it will be thwarted; state a proposal, but it will not happen. For God is with us.”

⁵For Aram, along with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has plotted your ruin, saying:

⁶‘Let us invade Judah, terrorize it, and divide it among ourselves. Then we can install the son of Tabeal over it as king.’

¹⁹Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies assembled to wage war against the One seated on the horse, and against His army.

⁶When the Ammonites realized that they had become a stench to David, they hired twenty thousand Aramean foot soldiers from Beth-rehob and Zoba, as well as a thousand men from the king of Maacah and twelve thousand men from Tob.

⁷On hearing this, David sent Joab and the entire army of mighty men.

¹⁰During the days of Saul they waged war against the Hagrites, who were defeated at their hands, and they occupied the dwellings of the Hagrites throughout the region east of Gilead.

¹After this, the Moabites and Ammonites, together with some of the Meunites, came to make war against Jehoshaphat.

¹⁰And now, here are the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, whom You did not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt. So Israel turned away from them and did not destroy them.

¹¹See how they are repaying us by coming to drive us out of the possession that You gave us as an inheritance.

⁷Remember, O Lord, the sons of Edom on the day Jerusalem fell: “Destroy it,” they said, “tear it down to its foundations!”

¹⁹They waged war against the Hagrites, as well as Jetur, Naphish, and Nodab.

²⁰And because they cried out to God in battle, they were helped against their enemies, and the Hagrites and all their allies were delivered into their hands. Because they put their trust in God, He answered their prayers.

¹²This is the account of Abraham’s son Ishmael, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s maidservant, bore to Abraham.

¹³These are the names of the sons of Ishmael in the order of their birth: Nebaioth the firstborn of Ishmael, then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,

⁵the land of the Gebalites; and all Lebanon to the east, from Baal-gad below Mount Hermon to Lebo-hamath.

³Tell Tyre, who dwells at the gateway to the sea, merchant of the peoples on many coasts, that this is what the Lord God says: You have said, O Tyre, ‘I am perfect in beauty.’

⁹The elders of Gebal were aboard as shipwrights, repairing your leaks. All the ships of the sea and their sailors came alongside to barter for your merchandise.

⁹This is what the Lord says: “For three transgressions of Tyre, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they delivered up a whole congregation of exiles to Edom and broke a covenant of brotherhood.

¹Thus the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now the Israelites went out to meet the Philistines in battle and camped at Ebenezer, while the Philistines camped at Aphek.

²This is what the Lord of Hosts says: ‘I witnessed what the Amalekites did to the Israelites when they opposed them on their way up from Egypt.

⁹Then the Lord said to me, “Do not harass the Moabites or provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land, because I have given Ar to the descendants of Lot as their possession.”

¹¹From that land he went forth into Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah,

³Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were the Asshurites, the Letushites, and the Leummites.

³⁷The older daughter gave birth to a son and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites of today.

³⁸The younger daughter also gave birth to a son, and she named him Ben-ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites of today.

²O Lord, be gracious to us! We wait for You. Be our strength every morning and our salvation in time of trouble.

¹⁹Then Pul king of Assyria invaded the land, and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver in order to gain his support and strengthen his own grip on the kingdom.

⁴For as in the day of Midian You have shattered the yoke of their burden, the bar across their shoulders, and the rod of their oppressor.

¹⁵And in front of him the Lord routed with the sword Sisera, all his charioteers, and all his army. Sisera abandoned his chariot and fled on foot.

¹⁶Then Barak pursued the chariots and army as far as Harosheth-hagoyim, and the whole army of Sisera fell by the sword; not a single man was left.

⁷Then they waged war against Midian, as the Lord had commanded Moses, and they killed every male.

⁸Among the slain were Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba—the five kings of Midian. They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword.

²¹The River Kishon swept them away, the ancient river, the River Kishon. March on, O my soul, in strength!

⁷And I will draw out Sisera the commander of Jabin’s army, his chariots, and his troops to the River Kishon, and I will deliver him into your hand.’”

²⁶And the Lord of Hosts will brandish a whip against them, as when He struck Midian at the rock of Oreb. He will raise His staff over the sea, as He did in Egypt.

¹⁷I will bring such distress on mankind that they will walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the Lord. Their blood will be poured out like dust and their flesh like dung.

¹¹Within Issachar and Asher, Manasseh was assigned Beth-shean, Ibleam, Dor (that is, Naphath), Endor, Taanach, and Megiddo, each with their surrounding settlements.

⁷Then Saul said to his servants, “Find me a woman who is a medium, so I can go and consult her.” “There is a medium at Endor,” his servants replied.

⁴“They will die from deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried, but will lie like dung on the ground. They will be finished off by sword and famine, and their corpses will become food for the birds of the air and beasts of the earth.”

²They will be exposed to the sun and moon, and to all the host of heaven which they have loved, served, followed, consulted, and worshiped. Their bones will not be gathered up or buried, but will become like dung lying on the ground.

³⁷And Jezebel’s body will lie like dung in the field on the plot of ground at Jezreel, so that no one can say: This is Jezebel.’”

²⁵They also captured Oreb and Zeeb, the two princes of Midian; and they killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb and Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb. So they pursued the Midianites and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side of the Jordan.

¹²When Zebah and Zalmunna fled, Gideon pursued and captured these two kings of Midian, routing their entire army.

¹³After this, Gideon son of Joash returned from the battle along the Ascent of Heres.

¹¹See how they are repaying us by coming to drive us out of the possession that You gave us as an inheritance.

⁴saying, “Come, let us erase them as a nation; may the name of Israel be remembered no more.”

⁷They have burned Your sanctuary to the ground; they have defiled the dwelling place of Your Name.

⁸They said in their hearts, “We will crush them completely.” They burned down every place where God met us in the land.

¹⁸Are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a storm?

⁵May they be like chaff in the wind, as the angel of the Lord drives them away.

²⁴No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner have their stems taken root in the ground, than He blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like stubble.

¹¹Why do You withdraw Your strong right hand? Stretch it out to destroy them!

¹²Yet God is my King from ancient times, working salvation on the earth.

¹²Alas, the tumult of many peoples; they rage like the roaring seas and clamoring nations; they rumble like the crashing of mighty waters.

¹³The nations rage like the rush of many waters. He rebukes them, and they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweeds before a gale.

²⁵Would You frighten a windblown leaf? Would You chase after dry chaff?

²²For a fire has been kindled by My anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol; it consumes the earth and its produce, and scorches the foundations of the mountains.

¹“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the Lord of Hosts. “Not a root or branch will be left to them.”

¹⁸For wickedness burns like a fire that consumes the thorns and briers and kindles the forest thickets, which roll upward in billows of smoke.

⁶Who can withstand His indignation? Who can endure His burning anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; even rocks are shattered before Him.

³³For Topheth has long been prepared; it has been made ready for the king. Its funeral pyre is deep and wide, with plenty of fire and wood. The breath of the Lord, like a torrent of burning sulfur, sets it ablaze.

¹⁰For they will be entangled as with thorns and consumed like the drink of a drunkard—like stubble that is fully dry.

¹⁷For He would crush me with a tempest and multiply my wounds without cause.

³Our God approaches and will not be silent! Consuming fire precedes Him, and a tempest rages around Him.

¹⁷I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the level. Hail will sweep away your refuge of lies, and water will flood your hiding place.

⁹Before your pots can feel the burning thorns—whether green or dry—He will sweep them away.

²⁰Terrors overtake him like a flood; a tempest sweeps him away in the night.

²¹The east wind carries him away, and he is gone; it sweeps him out of his place.

¹⁸For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom, and storm;

¹⁹Rise up, O Lord, do not let man prevail; let the nations be judged in Your presence.

²⁰Lay terror upon them, O Lord; let the nations know they are but men. Selah

¹⁰All my enemies will be ashamed and dismayed; they will turn back in sudden disgrace.

⁵Those who look to Him are radiant with joy; their faces shall never be ashamed.

²⁹May my accusers be clothed with disgrace; may they wear their shame like a robe.

¹⁵If I am guilty, woe to me! And even if I am righteous, I cannot lift my head. I am full of shame and aware of my affliction.

¹⁸I will clothe his enemies with shame, but the crown upon him will gleam.”

⁴May those who seek my life be disgraced and put to shame; may those who plan to harm me be driven back and confounded.

²⁹May my accusers be clothed with disgrace; may they wear their shame like a robe.

²⁶May those who gloat in my distress be ashamed and confounded; may those who exalt themselves over me be clothed in shame and reproach.

¹⁴May those who seek my life be ashamed and confounded; may those who wish me harm be repelled and humiliated.

¹⁵May those who say to me, “Aha, aha!” be appalled at their own shame.

³I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by My name the Lord I did not make Myself known to them.

²³I will magnify and sanctify Myself, and I will reveal Myself in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

¹³Consume them in wrath; consume them till they are no more, so it may be known to the ends of the earth that God rules over Jacob. Selah

²¹“Therefore behold, I will inform them, and this time I will make them know My power and My might; then they will know that My name is the Lord.

⁹For You, O Lord, are Most High over all the earth; You are exalted far above all gods.

¹⁹And now, O Lord our God, please save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O Lord, are God.”