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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 Psalm 83:15 and Zechariah 9:14

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Psalm 83 describes God attacking his enemies with the wind, using a storm as a weapon of judgment, following ancient Near Eastern traditions that describe storm deities. Zechariah follows this tradition, where a storm is the sign of divine victory.

Passages

Psalm 83:15

Hebrew Bible
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.
600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

Zechariah 9:14

Hebrew Bible
13 I will bend Judah as my bow; I will load the bow with Ephraim, my arrow. I will stir up your sons, Zion, against your sons, Greece, and I will make you, Zion, like a warrior’s sword. 14 Then the Lord will appear above them, and his arrow will shoot forth like lightning; the Sovereign Lord will blow the trumpet and will proceed in the southern storm winds. 15 The Lord of Heaven’s Armies will guard them, and they will prevail and overcome with sling stones. Then they will drink and will become noisy like drunkards, full like the sacrificial basin or like the corners of the altar.
500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Zechariah

References

"... Divine responsibility for the four winds is an almost universal history-of-religions concept. Within the Jewish tradition, the opening verses of the book of Jonah offer an example. The Lord sends a wind (the noun is likewise anarthrous) that threatens the ship with Jonah on board ... (The notion of gods or goddesses traveling or appearing on the wind has a rich history-of-religions background. Biblical examples include Ezekiel 1; 2 Kings 2:1; Job 38:1; 40:6; Psalm 83:15; Jeremiah 23:19; Zechariah 9:14 ...) ..."
Clare K. Rothschild, “Embryology, Plant Biology, and Divine Generation in the Fourth Gospel,” in Women and Gender in Ancient Religions: Interdisciplinary Approaches, ed. Stephen P. Ahearne-Kroll, Paul A. Holloway, and James A. Kelhoffer (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010), 125–151.

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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Psalm 83:15 and Zechariah 9:14

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