81:7 In your distress you called out and I rescued you.
I answered you from a dark thundercloud. 1
I tested you at the waters of Meribah. 2 (Selah)
A song, a psalm of Asaph.
83:1 O God, do not be silent!
Do not ignore us! 4 Do not be inactive, O God!
91:4 He will shelter you 5 with his wings; 6
you will find safety under his wings.
His faithfulness is like a shield or a protective wall. 7
1 tn Heb “I answered you in the hidden place of thunder.” This may allude to God’s self-revelation at Mount Sinai, where he appeared in a dark cloud accompanied by thunder (see Exod 19:16).
2 sn The name Meribah means “strife.” Two separate but similar incidents at the place called Meribah are recorded in the Pentateuch (Exod 17:1-7; Num 20:1-13). In both cases the Israelites complained about lack of water and the Lord miraculously provided for them.
3 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.
4 tn Heb “do not be deaf.”
5 tn Heb “put a cover over you” (see Ps 5:11).
6 tc The Hebrew text has the singular, but the plural should be read. The final yod (י) of the suffix, which indicates the plural, has dropped off by haplography (note the yod [י] at the beginning of the next word).
7 tn Traditionally the Hebrew term סֹחֵרָה (sokherah), which occurs only here in the OT, has been understood to refer to a buckler or small shield (see BDB 695 s.v.). But HALOT 750 s.v., on the basis of evidence from the cognate languages, proposes the meaning “wall.”