A prayer for God to punish enemies
1 God, do not continue to be silent!
Do not remain quiet.
Please do something!
2 Look! Your enemies are causing trouble.
The people who hate you are ready to attack.
3 They decide carefully how they will attack your people.
They want to hurt the people that you love.
4 They say, ‘Come now! We will destroy them.
They will no longer be a nation.
Nobody will remember the name of Israel any more.’
5 They agree together what they will do.
They join one another to fight against you.
6 Those enemies are Edomites and Ishmaelites,
Moabites and Hagrites.
83:6Edom was a country near Israel. It was also called Seir.
7 They also come from Gebal, Ammon and Amalek,
Philistia and Tyre.
8 Even the Assyrian army has joined with them.
83:8Assyria was a country that was north of Israel. It was in what are now called northern Iraq and south-east Turkey. The Assyrians were enemies of the Israelites.
They have given strength to Lot's descendants,
the Moabites and the Ammonites.
9 God, punish them as you punished Midian.
Do what you did to Sisera and Jabin at the Kishon River.
83:9Jabin was king of Hazor. Sisera was the leader of his army. A woman (Jael) killed Sisera as he hid in her tent. Two leaders of Israel destroyed Jabin's army at the Kishon River. See Judges 4:1-24. 10 You destroyed them at Endor.
Their bodies remained on the ground, like dirt.
11 Do to their leaders
what you did to Oreb and Zeeb.
Let their rulers die,
like Zebah and Zalmunna.
83:11Oreb and Zeeb were rulers in Midian. People from Ephraim killed them. See Judges 7:24-25. Gideon killed Zebah and Zalmunna. See Judges 8:21. They were kings of Midian. 12 Those people said,
‘Let us take God's valuable country for ourselves!’
13 God, blow them away like dust,
like chaff that blows away in the wind!
14 Go after them,
like a fire that burns both forest and mountains.
15 Chase them away with your storms.
Frighten them with your strong winds.
16 Cause them to be very ashamed, Lord,
so that they might turn to you.
17 May they always be ashamed and frightened.
Let them die with shame!
18 Then they will understand that you are the Lord.
They will know that you are the Most High God
who rules over all the earth.
