9 Do to them as `to' Midian, As `to' Sisera, as `to' Jabin, at the stream Kishon.
And they war against Midian, as Jehovah hath commanded Moses, and slay every male; and the kings of Midian they have slain, besides their pierced ones, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, five kings of Midian; and Balaam son of Beor, they have slain with the sword.
And Jehovah destroyeth Sisera, and all the chariots, and all the camp, by the mouth of the sword, before Barak, and Sisera cometh down from off the chariot, and fleeth on his feet. And Barak hath pursued after the chariots and after the camp, unto Harosheth of the Goyim, and all the camp of Sisera falleth by the mouth of the sword -- there hath not been left even one. And Sisera hath fled on his feet unto the tent of Jael wife of Heber the Kenite, for peace `is' between Jabin king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite; and Jael goeth out to meet Sisera, and saith unto him, `Turn aside, my lord, turn aside unto me, fear not;' and he turneth aside unto her, into the tent, and she covereth him with a coverlet. And he saith unto her, `Give me to drink, I pray thee, a little water, for I am thirsty;' and she openeth the bottle of milk, and giveth him to drink, and covereth him. And he saith unto her, `Stand at the opening of the tent, and it hath been, if any doth come in, and hath asked thee, and said, Is there a man here? that thou hast said, There is not.' And Jael wife of Heber taketh the pin of the tent, and taketh the hammer in her hand, and goeth unto him gently, and striketh the pin into his temples, and it fasteneth in the earth -- and he hath been fast asleep, and is weary -- and he dieth. And lo, Barak is pursuing Sisera, and Jael cometh out to meet him, and saith to him, `Come, and I shew thee the man whom thou art seeking;' and he cometh in unto her, and lo, Sisera is fallen -- dead, and the pin in his temples. And God humbleth on that day Jabin king of Canaan before the sons of Israel, and the hand of the sons of Israel goeth, going on and becoming hard on Jabin king of Canaan, till that they have cut off Jabin king of Canaan.
And Jerubbaal (he `is' Gideon) riseth early, and all the people who `are' with him, and they encamp by the well of Harod, and the camp of Midian hath been on the south of him, on the height of Moreh, in the valley. And Jehovah saith unto Gideon, `Too many `are' the people who `are' with thee for My giving Midian into their hand, lest Israel beautify itself against Me, saying, My hand hath given salvation to me; and now, call, I pray thee, in the ears of the people, saying, Whoso `is' afraid and trembling, let him turn back and go early from mount Gilead;' and there turn back of the people twenty and two thousand, and ten thousand have been left. And Jehovah saith unto Gideon, `Yet `are' the people too many; bring them down unto the water, and I refine it for thee there; and it hath been, he of whom I say unto thee, This doth go with thee -- he doth go with thee; and any of whom I say unto thee, This doth not go with thee -- he doth not go.' And he bringeth down the people unto the water, and Jehovah saith unto Gideon, `Every one who lappeth with his tongue of the water as the dog lappeth -- thou dost set him apart; also every one who boweth on his knees to drink.' And the number of those lapping with their hand unto their mouth is three hundred men, and all the rest of the people have bowed down on their knees to drink water. And Jehovah saith unto Gideon, `By the three hundred men who are lapping I save you, and have given Midian into thy hand, and all the people go, each to his place.' And the people take the provision in their hand, and their trumpets, and every man of Israel he hath sent away, each to his tents; and on the three hundred men he hath kept hold, and the camp of Midian hath been by him at the lower part of the valley. And it cometh to pass, on that night, that Jehovah saith unto him, `Rise, go down into the camp, for I have given it into thy hand; and if thou art afraid to go down -- go down, thou and Phurah thy young man, unto the camp, and thou hast heard what they speak, and afterwards are thy hands strengthened, and thou hast gone down against the camp.' And he goeth down, he and Phurah his young man, unto the extremity of the fifties who `are' in the camp; and Midian and Amalek, and all the sons of the east are lying in the valley, as the locust for multitude, and of their camels there is no number, as sand which `is' on the sea-shore for multitude. And Gideon cometh in, and lo, a man is recounting to his companion a dream, and saith, `Lo, a dream I have dreamed, and lo, a cake of barley-bread is turning itself over into the camp of Midian, and it cometh in unto the tent, and smiteth it, and it falleth, and turneth it upwards, and the tent hath fallen.' And his companion answereth and saith, `This is nothing save the sword of Gideon son of Joash, a man of Israel; God hath given into his hand Midian and all the camp.' And it cometh to pass, when Gideon heareth the narration of the dream and its interpretation, that he boweth himself, and turneth back unto the camp of Israel, and saith, `Rise ye, for Jehovah hath given into your hand the camp of Midian.' And he divideth the three hundred men `into' three detachments, and putteth trumpets into the hand of all of them, and empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers. And he saith unto them, `Look at me, and thus do; and lo, I am coming into the extremity of the camp -- and it hath been -- as I do so ye do; and I have blown with a trumpet -- I and all who `are' with me, and ye have blown with trumpets, even ye, round about all the camp, and have said, For Jehovah and for Gideon.' And Gideon cometh -- and the hundred men who `are' with him -- into the extremity of the camp, `at' the beginning of the middle watch (it hath only just confirmed the watchmen), and they blow with trumpets -- dashing in pieces also the pitchers which `are' in their hand; and the three detachments blow with trumpets, and break the pitchers, and keep hold with their left hand on the lamps, and with their right hand on the trumpets to blow, and they cry, `The sword of Jehovah and of Gideon.' And they stand each in his place, round about the camp, and all the camp runneth, and they shout, and flee; and the three hundred blow the trumpets, and Jehovah setteth the sword of each against his companion, even through all the camp; and the camp fleeth unto Beth-Shittah, at Zererath, unto the border of Abel-Meholah, by Tabbath. And the men of Israel are called from Naphtali, and from Asher, and from all Manasseh, and pursue after Midian. And messengers hath sent Gideon into all the hill-country of Ephraim, saying, `Come down to meet Midian, and capture before them the waters unto Beth-Barah, and the Jordan;' and every man of Ephraim is called, and they capture the waters unto Beth-Barah, and the Jordan, and they capture two of the heads of Midian, Oreb, and Zeeb, and slay Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb they have slain at the wine-vat of Zeeb, and they pursue unto Midian; and the heads of Oreb and Zeeb they have brought in unto Gideon beyond the Jordan.
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Commentary on Psalms 83 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Battle-Cry to God against Allied Peoples
The close of this Psalm is in accord with the close of the preceding Psalm. It is the last of the twelve Psalms of Asaph of the Psalter. The poet supplicates help against the many nations which have allied themselves with the descendants of Lot, i.e., Moab and Ammon, to entirely root out Israel as a nation. Those who are fond of Maccabaean Psalms (Hitzig and Olshausen), after the precedent of van Til and von Bengel, find the circumstances of the time of the Psalm in 1 Macc. 5, and Grimm is also inclined to regard this as correct; and in point of fact the deadly hostility of the ἔθνη κυκλόθεν which we there see breaking forth on all sides,
(Note: Concerning the υίοὶ Βαΐάν ( Benı̂ Baijân ), 1 Macc. 5:4, the difficulty respecting which is to the present time unsolved, vid., Wetzstein's Excursus II, pp. 559f..)
as it were at a given signal, against the Jewish people, who have become again independent, and after the dedication of the Temple doubly self-conscious, is far better suited to explain the Psalm than the hostile efforts of Sanballat, Tobiah, and others to hinder the rebuilding of Jerusalem, in the time of Nehemiah (Vaihinger, Ewald, and Dillmann). There is, however, still another incident beside that recorded in 1 Macc. 5 to which the Psalm may be referred, viz., the confederation of the nations for the extinction of Judah in the time of Jehoshaphat (2 Chr. 20), and, as it seems to us, with comparatively speaking less constraint. For the Psalm speaks of a real league, whilst in 1 Macc. 5 the several nations made the attack without being allied and not jointly; then, as the Psalm assumes in Psalms 83:9, the sons of Lot, i.e., the Moabites and Ammonites, actually were at the head at that time, whilst in 1 Macc. 5 the sons of Esau occupy the most prominent place; and thirdly, at that time, in the time of Jehoshaphat, as is recorded, an Asaphite, viz., Jahaziël, did actually interpose in the course of events, a circumstance which coincides remarkably with the לאסף . The league of that period consisted, according to 2 Chronicles 20:1, of Moabites, Ammonites, and a part of the מעוּנים (as it is to be read after the lxx). But 2 Chronicles 20:2 (where without any doubt מאדם is to be read instead of מארם ) adds the Edomites to their number, for it is expressly stated further on (2 Chronicles 20:10, 2 Chronicles 20:22, 2 Chronicles 20:23) that the inhabitants of Mount Seïr were with them. Also, supposing of course that the “Ishmaelites” and “Hagarenes” of the Psalm may be regarded as an unfolding of the מעונים , which is confirmed by Josephus, Antiq . ix. 1. 2; and that Gebäl is to be understood by the Mount Seïr of the chronicler, which is confirmed by the Arab. jibâl still in use at the present day, there always remains a difficulty in the fact that the Psalm also names Amalek , Philistia , Tyre , and Asshur , of which we find no mention there in the reign of Jehoshaphat. But these difficulties are counter-balanced by others that beset the reference to 1 Macc. 5, viz., that in the time of the Seleucidae the Amalekites no longer existed, and consequently, as might be expected, are not mentioned at all in 1 Macc. 5; further, that there the Moabites, too, are no longer spoken of, although some formerly Moabitish cities of Gileaditis are mentioned; and thirdly, that אשׁור = Syria (a certainly possible usage of the word) appears in a subordinate position, whereas it was, however, the dominant power. On the other hand, the mention of Amalek is intelligible in connection with the reference to 2 Chr. 20, and the absence of its express mention in the chronicler does not make itself particularly felt in consideration of Genesis 36:12. Philistia, Tyre, and Asshur, however, stand at the end in the Psalm, and might also even be mentioned with the others if they rendered aid to the confederates of the south-east without taking part with them in the campaign, as being a succour to the actual leaders of the enterprise, the sons of Lot. We therefore agree with the reference of Psalms 83 (as also of Psalms 48:1-14) to the alliance of the neighbouring nations against Judah in the reign of Jehoshaphat, which has been already recognised by Kimchi and allowed by Keil, Hengstenberg, and Movers.
The poet prays, may God not remain an inactive looker-on in connection with the danger of destruction that threatens His people. דּמי (with which יהי is to be supplied) is the opposite of alertness; חרשׁ the opposite of speaking (in connection with which it is assumed that God's word is at the same time deed); שׁקט the opposite of being agitated and activity. The energetic future jehemajûn gives outward emphasis to the confirmation of the petition, and the fact that Israel's foes are the foes of God gives inward emphasis to it. On נשׂא ראשׁ , cf. Psalms 110:7. סוד is here a secret agreement; and יערימוּ , elsewhere to deal craftily, here signifies to craftily plot, devise, bring a thing about. צפוּניך is to be understood according to Psalms 27:5; Psalms 31:21. The Hithpa . התיעץ alternates here with the more ancient Niph . (Psalms 83:6). The design of the enemies in this instance has reference to the total extirpation of Israel, of the separatist-people who exclude themselves from the life of the world and condemn it. מגּוי , from being a people = so that it may no longer be a people or nation, as in Isaiah 7:8; Isaiah 17:1; Isaiah 25:2; Jeremiah 48:42. In the borrowed passage, Jeremiah 48:2, by an interchange of a letter it is נכריתנּה . This Asaph Psalm is to be discerned in not a few passages of the prophets; cf. Isaiah 62:6. with Psalms 83:2, Isaiah 17:12 with Psalms 83:3.
Instead of לב אחד , 1 Chronicles 12:38, it is deliberant corde unâ , inasmuch as יחדּו on the one hand gives intensity to the reciprocal signification of the verb, and on the other lends the adjectival notion to לב . Of the confederate peoples the chronicler (2 Chr. 20) mentions the Moabites, the Ammonites, the inhabitants of Mount Seïr, and the Me(unim , instead of which Josephus, Antiq . ix. 1. 2, says: a great body of Arabians. This crowd of peoples comes from the other side of the Dead Sea, מאדם (as it is to be read in Psalms 83:2 in the chronicler instead of מארם , cf. on Psalms 60:2); the territory of Edom, which is mentioned first by the poet, was therefore the rendezvous. The tents of Edom and of the Ishmaelites are (cf. Arab. ahl , people) the people themselves who live in tents. Moreover, too, the poet ranges the hostile nations according to their geographical position. The seven first named from Edom to Amalek, which still existed at the time of the psalmist (for the final destruction of the Amalekites by the Simeonites, 1 Chronicles 4:42., falls at an indeterminate period prior to the Exile), are those out of the regions east and south-east of the Dead Sea. According to Genesis 25:18, the Ishmaelites had spread from Higâz through the peninsula of Sinai beyond the eastern and southern deserts as far up as the countries under the dominion of Assyria. The Hagarenes dwelt in tents from the Persian Gulf as far as the east of Gilead (1 Chronicles 5:10) towards the Euphrates. גּבל , Arab. jbâl , is the name of the people inhabiting the mountains situated in the south of the Dead Sea, that is to say, the northern Seïritish mountains. Both Gebâl and also, as it appears, the Amalek intended here according to Genesis 36:12 (cf. Josephus, Antiq . ii. 1. 2: Ἀμαληκῖτις , a part of Idumaea), belong to the wide circuit of Edom . Then follow the Philistines and Phoenicians, the two nations of the coast of the Mediterranean, which also appear in Amos 1:1-15 (cf. Joel 3) as making common cause with the Edomites against Israel. Finally Asshur, the nation of the distant north-east, here not as yet appearing as a principal power, but strengthening (vid., concerning זרוע , an arm = assistance, succour, Gesenius, Thesaurus , p. 433 b ) the sons of Lot, i.e., the Moabites and Ammonites, with whom the enterprise started, and forming a powerful reserve for them. The music bursts forth angrily at the close of this enumeration, and imprecations discharge themselves in the following strophe.
With כּמדין reference is made to Gideon's victory over the Midianites, which belongs to the most glorious recollections of Israel, and to which in other instances, too, national hopes are attached, Isaiah 9:3 [4], Isaiah 10:26, cf. Habakkuk 3:7; and with the asyndeton כּסיסרא כיבין ( כּסיסרא , as Norzi states, who does not rightly understand the placing of the Metheg ) to the victory of Barak and Deborah over Sisera and the Canaanitish king Jabin, whose general he was. The Beth of בּנחל is like the Beth of בּדּרך in Psalms 110:7 : according to Judges 5:21 the Kishon carried away the corpses of the slain army. ‛Endôr , near Tabor, and therefore situated not far distant from Taanach and Megiddo (Judges 5:19), belonged to the battle-field. אדמה , starting from the radical notion of that which flatly covers anything, which lies in דם , signifying the covering of earth lying flat over the globe, therefore humus (like ארץ , terra , and תבל , tellus ), is here (cf. 2 Kings 9:37) in accord with דּמן (from דמן ), which is in substance akin to it. In Psalms 83:12 we have a retrospective glance at Gideon's victory. ‛Oreb and Zeēb were שׂרים of the Midianites, Judges 7:25; Zebach and Tsalmunna‛ , their kings, Judges 8:5.
(Note: The Syriac Hexapla has (Hosea 10:14) צלמנע instead of שׁלמן , a substitution which is accepted by Geiger, Deutsch. Morgenländ. Zeitschr . 1862, S. 729f. Concerning the signification of the above names of Midianitish princes, vid., Nöldeke, Ueber die Amalekiter , S. 9.)
The pronoun precedes the word itself in שׁיתמו , as in Exodus 2:6; the heaped-up suffixes ēmo ( êmo ) give to the imprecation a rhythm and sound as of rolling thunder. Concerning נסיך , vid., on Psalms 2:6. So far as the matter is concerned, 2 Chronicles 20:11 harmonizes with Psalms 83:13. Canaan, the land which is God's and which He has given to His people, is called נאות אלהים (cf. Psalms 74:20).
With the אלהי , which constrains God in faith, the “thundering down” begins afresh. גּלגּל signifies a wheel and a whirling motion, such as usually arises when the wind changes suddenly, then also whatever is driven about in the whirling, Isaiah 17:13.
(Note: Saadia, who renders the גּלגּל in Psalms 77:19 as an astronomical expression with Arab. 'l - frk , the sphere of the heavens, here has professedly Arab. kâlgrâblt , which would be a plural from expanded out of Arab. grâbı̂l , “sieves” or “tambourines;” it is, however, to be read, as in Isaiah 17:13, Codex Oxon ., Arab. kâlgirbâlt . The verb Arab. garbala , “to sift,” is transferred to the wind, e.g., in Mutanabbi (edited with Wahidi's commentary by Dieterici), p. 29, l. 5 and 6: “it is as though the dust of this region, when the winds chase one another therein, were sifted,” Arab. mugarbalu (i.e., caught up and whirled round); and with other notional and constructional applications in Makkarı̂ , i. p. 102, l. 18: “it is as though its soil had been cleansed from dust by sifting,” Arab. gurbilat (i.e., the dust thereof swept away by a whirlwind). Accordingly Arab. girbâlat signifies first, as a nom. vicis , a whirling about (of dust by the wind), then in a concrete sense a whirlwind, as Saadia uses it, inasmuch as he makes use of it twice for גּלגּל . So Fleischer in opposition to Ewald, who renders “like the sweepings or rubbish.”)
קשׁ (from קשׁשׁ , Arab. qšš , aridum esse ) is the cry corn-talks, whether as left standing or, as in this instance, as straw upon the threshing-floor or upon the field. Like a fire that spreads rapidly, laying hold of everything, which burns up the forest and singes off the wooded mountain so that only a bare cone is left standing, so is God to drive them before Him in the raging tempest of His wrath and take them unawares. The figure in Psalms 83:15 is fully worked up by Isaiah, Isaiah 10:16-19; לחט as in Deuteronomy 32:22. In the apodosis, Psalms 83:16, the figure is changed into a kindred one: wrath is a glowing heat ( חרון ) and a breath ( נשׁמה , Isaiah 30:33) at the same time. In Psalms 83:17 it becomes clear what is the final purpose towards which this language of cursing tends: to the end that all, whether willingly or reluctantly, may give the glory to the God of revelation. Directed towards this end the earnest prayer is repeated once more in the tetrastichic closing strain.
The aim of the wish is that they in the midst of their downfall may lay hold upon the mercy of Jahve as their only deliverance: first they must come to nought, and only by giving Jahve the glory will they not be utterly destroyed. Side by side with אתּה , v. 19 a , is placed שׁמך as a second subject (cf. Psalms 44:3; Psalms 69:11). In view of Psalms 83:17 וידעוּ (as in Psalms 59:14) has not merely the sense of perceiving so far as the justice of the punishment is concerned; the knowledge which is unto salvation is not excluded. The end of the matter which the poet wishes to see brought about is this, that Jahve, that the God of revelation ( שׁמך ), may become the All-exalted One in the consciousness of the nations.