Discovery BoxPsalms 83:2-8 
Context83:2 For look, your enemies are making a commotion;
those who hate you are hostile. 1
83:3 They carefully plot 2 against your people,
and make plans to harm 3 the ones you cherish. 4
83:4 They say, “Come on, let’s annihilate them so they are no longer a nation! 5
Then the name of Israel will be remembered no more.”
83:5 Yes, 6 they devise a unified strategy; 7
they form an alliance 8 against you.
83:6 It includes 9 the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
Moab and the Hagrites, 10
83:7 Gebal, 11 Ammon, and Amalek,
Philistia and the inhabitants of Tyre. 12
83:8 Even Assyria has allied with them,
lending its strength to the descendants of Lot. 13 (Selah)
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.
2 tn Heb “they make crafty a plot.”
3 tn Heb “and consult together against.”
4 tn The passive participle of the Hebrew verb צָפַן (tsafan, “to hide”) is used here in the sense of “treasured; cherished.”
5 tn Heb “we will cause them to disappear from [being] a nation.”
6 tn Or “for.”
7 tn Heb “they consult [with] a heart together.”
8 tn Heb “cut a covenant.”
9 tn The words “it includes” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.
10 sn The Hagrites are also mentioned in 1 Chr 5:10, 19-20.
11 sn Some identify Gebal with the Phoenician coastal city of Byblos (see Ezek 27:9, where the name is spelled differently), though others locate this site south of the Dead Sea (see BDB 148 s.v. גְּבַל; HALOT 174 s.v. גְּבַל).
12 map For location see Map1 A2; Map2 G2; Map4 A1; JP3 F3; JP4 F3.
13 tn Heb “they are an arm for the sons of Lot.” The “arm” is here a symbol of military might.
sn The descendants of Lot were the Moabites and Ammonites.
