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Psalms

About this book
Psalm 83

1 A song, a psalm of Asaph. O God, do not be silent. Do not ignore us. Do not be inactive, O God. 2 For look, your enemies are making a commotion; those who hate you are hostile. 3 They carefully plot against your people, and make plans to harm the ones you cherish. 4 They say, “Come on, let’s annihilate them so they are no longer a nation. Then the name of Israel will be remembered no more.” 5 Yes, they devise a unified strategy; they form an alliance against you. 6 It includes the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites, 7 Gebal, Ammon, and Amalek, Philistia, and the inhabitants of Tyre. 8 Even Assyria has allied with them, lending its strength to the descendants of Lot. (Selah) 9 Do to them as you did to Midian—as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the Kishon River. 10 They were destroyed at Endor; their corpses were like manure on the ground. 11 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, and all their rulers like Zebah and Zalmunna, 12 who said, “Let’s take over the pastures of God.” 13 O my God, make them like dead thistles, like dead weeds blown away by the wind.⁠ 14 Like the fire that burns down the forest, or the flames that consume the mountainsides, 15 chase them with your gale winds and terrify them with your windstorm.⁠ 16 Cover their faces with shame, so they might seek you, O Lord. 17 May they be humiliated and continually terrified. May they die in shame. 18 Then they will know that you alone are the Lord, the Most High over all the earth.

Texts in conversation

Compare Isaiah 17:13 and Psalm 83:13

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Isaiah 17 and Psalm 83 describe nations scattered like chaff or dry weeds blown by the wind, a common image for weakness and instability. In both, the loud rush of many nations fades into silence.

Passages

Isaiah 17:13

Hebrew Bible
12 Beware, you many nations massing together, those who make a commotion as loud as the roaring of the sea’s waves. Beware, you people making such an uproar, those who make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves. 13 Though these people make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves, when he shouts at them, they will flee to a distant land, driven before the wind like dead weeds on the hills or like dead thistles before a strong gale. 14 In the evening there is sudden terror; by morning they vanish. This is the fate of those who try to plunder us, the destiny of those who try to loot us!
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

Psalm 83:13

Hebrew Bible
11 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, and all their rulers like Zebah and Zalmunna, 12 who said, “Let’s take over the pastures of God.” 13 O my God, make them like dead thistles, like dead weeds blown away by the wind. 14 Like the fire that burns down the forest, or the flames that consume the mountainsides, 15 chase them with your gale winds and terrify them with your windstorm.
600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

References

"... Job is not just distressed at the offensive behavior of his critics; he sees in their attack a cosmic assault upon him, in which malign superhuman forces are ranged against him (it is not that he has nightmares of being attacked by the desert dwellers of verses 2–8, with their “loathsome appearance and repulsive manners,” as Hartley). For the image of the wind driving objects away, see Psalm 1:4; and for that of the cloud that vanishes, compare 7:9–10. It is usually insubstantial and light objects that are driven away by the wind, stubble (Psalm 83:13; Jeremiah 13:24) or chaff (Isaiah 17:13; Psalm 1:4; 35:5) or dust (Psalm 18:42) or locusts (Exodus 10:13, 19). And as for the cloud that vanishes, its significance is that it is never again seen (7:9; compare Hosea 13:3). Job can only mean that what he once prized so highly, his dignity and his security, were, in the end, of little consequence and no permanence ..."
David J. A. Clines, Word Biblical Commentary: Job 21-37 (Dallas: Word, 2006), 680.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Isaiah 17:13 and Psalm 83:13

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