Psalm 83

The preceding psalm was based on King Jehoshafat's accomplishments which Scripture recounts in Il Chronicles, chapter 19. This psalm is related to the period of Jehoshafat's reign recorded in Il Chronicles, chapter 20 (Radak; Malbim).

After Jehoshafat completed his renovation of the judicial system, the land of Judea was attacked by the armies of Ammon, Moab, Aram and Seir (Edom). Malbim (Il Chronicles 20:23) proves from this psalm that these nations were bent on annihilating Israel. They hired mercenaries from every prominent nation in the area, so that Israel would be completely overwhelmed by their vast legions.

The psalmist here reveals the deeper intentions of these marauding nations. Their ultimate desire was not merely to destory Israel, but to obliterate the name of God from the face of the earth. Therefore, Jehoshafat employed the power of song as his chief weapon against his foes. Through song he declared that God does indeed reign supreme over the universe. -Artscoll

A national lament in which the poet or singer prays on behalf of the nation for deliverance from the surrounding enemies who threaten its existence. History transmits no record of the national crisis when the nations enumerated in this psalm formed a league to wipe out Israel; one might conceivably interpret these names merely as a poetically free collocation. However, the mention in vs. 9 of Assyria, which some critics would expunge (unwarrantedly, of course), argues a pre-Exilic date of composition.

The impressive number of archaic spellings and forms that crop up in this lament make a notable contribution to Hebrew grammar; cf. especially the NOTES to vss. 2, 4, 6, 8, 11, 13, 19. -Anchor Bible

3. For, look, Your enemies rage. The situation of an alliance of surrounding nations plotting an all-out assault on Judah identifies this as a militant national supplication. Many interpreters have inferred that it was actually composed in a time of national emergency to be recited in public worship in an entreaty to God to intervene on behalf of His people. When that might have been remains a matter of scholarly debate, although the list of hostile peoples in verses 7 and 8 as well as the invocation of the Song of Deborah in verse 10 argues for an early date, close to or even within the period of the Judges (before 1000 B.C.E.). The mention of Assyria, on the other hand, could be an indication of a late-eighth-century date, unless, as has been proposed, “Assyria” in this text is not the great empire—after all, why would it ally itself with these small, mainly trans-Jordanian kingdoms?—but rather a modest-sized eastern nation antecedent to the empire. -Alter, Robert. The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary (p. 2936).

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For behold, Your enemies are in uproar, and those who hate You have raised their head. As explained in the following verse, the uproar of God's enemies is their plotting deviously against God's nation. 'They are therefore called enemies of God (Rashi to Exodus 15:7). For whoever hates the nation of Israel hates the One Who spoke and the world came into being (Rashi to Numbers 10:35) -Book of Psalms with English Translation and Commentary: With Commentary from the Talmud, Midrash, Kabbalah, Classic Commentators, and the Chasidic Masters.

4. They plot deviously against Your nation in secret, and they conspire against those sheltered by You. The enemies of Israel plot in secret because we study the Torah, which is called God's secret, as the verse states, 77qe secret of God is to those who fear Him (above, 25: 14; Midrash Tehillim).

The Secretive Bond

Torah comprises both revealed and concealed portions. The revealed Torah instructs us on practical Halachic observance. The concealed Torah discusses the underlying meaning of the mitzvot, the nature of the soul, and God.

Access to this part of Torah is unique to the Jewish people. privilege is borne out of our intimate relationship with God. Since our souls are rooted in the depths of God's Being, we can also relate to the depths of God's thought, the concealed Torah. It is this intrinsic connection with God and His Torah that our antagonists cannot abide. As the above Midrash notes, they plot against us in secret because of the secret of the Torah that is our portion (Ihe Rebbe). -Book of Psalms with English Translation and Commentary: With Commentary from the Talmud, Midrash, Kabbalah, Classic Commentators, and the Chasidic Masters.

7. the tents of Edom. Because these are seminomadic peoples, “tents” is an appropriate synecdoche for their concentrations of population.

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8. Philistia. It is worth noting that the Philistines ceased to be a serious threat to the Israelites not long after the establishment of the Davidic dynasty at the beginning of the first millennium B.C.E. -Alter, Robert. The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary (p. 2936).

10. as to Sisera, / as to Jabin. Jabin was the Canaanite king whose army, under the command of Sisera, was defeated by Barak, with Deborah behind him, as recorded in Judges 4–5. -Alter, Robert. The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary (p. 2936).

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12. Oreb / . . . Zeeb . . . Zebah . . . Zalmunna. These were the Midianite chieftains defeated by Gideon, as reported in Judges 8. -Alter, Robert. The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary (p. 2936).

16. pursue them with Your storm. As in Canaanite mythology, the storm is the weapon of the sky god—in particular, the bolts of lightning, clearly implied in the fire imagery of the previous verse.

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19. You alone are most high over all the earth. YHWH, the God of Israel, is not just a powerful national god but the deity that rules all the earth. This cosmic supremacy of the God of Israel, in the gesture of prayer that concludes the psalm, is a fact that the hostile nations will come to recognize through their own disastrous defeat, just before they perish. -Alter, Robert. The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary (p. 2936).

Spiritual Applications

“Come, let us destroy their nationhood.” Whether we live in Israel, have lived or traveled there, or view it only from afar through friends or newspapers, Jewish nationhood is a reality that confronts us daily. For our grandparents and great-grandparents, Jewish nationhood was an unrealizable ideal. For them, peoplehood— whether or not they used the term— was real; they spoke or denied a common Jewish language, celebrated or rejected common holidays, maintained a relationship to common literatures and rituals. These things we identify as part of the holiness (k’dushah) of being Jewish— but is there a k’dushah in nationhood? If the Jewish people is an am kadosh, a holy people, chosen by God to spread Torah in the world, then, one might argue, the material manifestation of that people as a nation has a quality of holiness as well.

The poet argues that without nationhood, the identity of the people Israel would disappear— but when the Second Temple was destroyed, the people’s strong belief in God’s role in that tragedy, along with other factors, prevented that from occurring. God’s promise to Abraham (Gen. 15) ensures us an eternal claim to the Land of Israel, but not an eternal state— the prophets made it clear that we could rule over the Land only so long as we ruled justly. This suggests that when the state of Israel— and by extension, Jewish organizations in the Diaspora— conduct their affairs with integrity and sensitivity to others, there is k’dushah there, and that participating in any Jewish governing entity can be a spiritual activity so long as one is concerned about godly values and not just the day-to-day maintenance of the state or organization. The threat of the poet’s enemies, as well as the prophetic warnings, also remind us that Jewish nationhood is a fragile thing, at risk from forces without and within.

Is that true of other kinds of k’dushah? Surely it is. While Shabbat is inherently kadosh (holy), when we ignore it or treat it casually, we obscure its holiness for ourselves and others. Is the vengefulness against enemies for which the poet prays an example of this? If God is an ish milchamah (Exod. 15: 3), one could argue— though many would disagree— that perhaps there is even some k’dushah involved in war-making, participating in the wounding or the destruction of a nation that God created, but which exceeded the bounds God had set for it. This is not a “God is on our side” mentality but a “we shall succeed in war only if this is a battle desired by God” mentality— something very hard to discern.

It is instructive that psalm verses that discuss battles are not less literary than those pouring out the pain and yearnings of the poets. Perhaps this is another example of the k’dushah present in battles which fulfill God’s plan— language itself, a godly creation, contributes to the narrative of warfare. Indeed, in a description of battle or the emotions leading up to it, language is the poet’s only weapon; and so emphatic, repetitive, evocative language becomes an integral part of the battle itself.

For those who feel that no war-making is ever justified, or could ever be considered an action sanctioned by God, this is a hard argument to accept. Some pacifists understand “God is a warrior” to mean that only God should wage war, because human beings can never be sufficiently certain that God wants them to do it. Can God wage war without human soldiers? If we refuse to fight, are we helping to curb God’s own warlike instincts? Is there not a distinction between wars waged in self-defense and those waged to gain new territory or influence? (The Rabbis argue in Mishneh Torah, M’lachim 5: 1, that there is, though— as we know from our own times— the distinction is often blurred.) In the case of wars not waged in self-defense, the psalms describe all kinds of natural and supernatural ways in which God can hunt down enemies; we do not have to participate. -Levy, Rabbi Richard N.. Songs Ascending: The Book of Psalms (Vol. 2)