Psalm 83:2

For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(2) Make a tumult.—Literally, roar like the sea. So (correctly) LXX. and Vulg. (See Psalm 46:3.)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

83:1-8 Sometimes God seems not to be concerned at the unjust treatment of his people. But then we may call upon him, as the psalmist here. All wicked people are God's enemies, especially wicked persecutors. The Lord's people are his hidden one; the world knows them not. He takes them under his special protection. Do the enemies of the church act with one consent to destroy it, and shall not the friends of the church be united? Wicked men wish that there might be no religion among mankind. They would gladly see all its restraints shaken off, and all that preach, profess, or practise it, cut off. This they would bring to pass if it were in their power. The enemies of God's church have always been many: this magnifies the power of the Lord in preserving to himself a church in the world.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult - Are excited; are aroused; are moving in a wild, furious, tumultuous manner, rushing on to the accomplishment of their designs. They come like rolling waves of the sea. See the word used here explained in the notes at Psalm 2:1, where it is rendered, in the text, "rage;" in the margin, "tumultuously assemble."

And they that hate thee - Thine enemies; the enemies of thy cause, and of thy people. Who they were is specified in Psalm 83:6-8.

Have lifted up the head - Have become proud; bold; confident of success, all of which is indicated by the phrase "lifted up the head." The head is bowed down in penitence and trouble; pride lifts it up; boldness, confidence, and wickedness, are indicated by its being thus lifted up.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2. thine enemies—as well as ours (Ps 74:23; Isa 37:23).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Thine enemies; they are not only enemies to us thy people, but also to thy will, and name, and glory.

Make a tumult; or, make a tumultuous noise, both with their tongues reproaching thee and threatening us, and with their arms.

Have lift up the head; are grown potent, and insolent, and scornful.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult,.... Or "a noise" (d): wicked men are commonly noisy, roaring out their blasphemies against God, belching out oaths and curses, and breathing threatenings and slaughter against the saints; especially a numerous army of them, consisting of many people and nations, as this did; who are called the Lord's "enemies", being the enemies of his people, and their cause and his are one and the same; and besides, all wicked men are enemies to God, and all that is good, in their minds, and which appears by their actions; yea, they are enmity itself unto him:

and they that hate thee have lift up the head; are haughty, proud, and arrogant; speak loftily, and with a stiff neck; set their mouth against heaven, and God in it; and their tongue walks through the earth, and spares none; they exult and rejoice, as sure of victory, before the battle is fought; such then were, and such there are, who are haters of God, hate his being, perfections, purposes, and providences; hate his Son without a cause, and even do despite unto the Spirit of grace; hate the law and its precepts, the Gospel and its doctrines and ordinances, and the ways, worship, and people of God, as appears by what follows.

(d) "sonuerunt", V. L. "perstrepunt", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius; "strepunt", Gejerus.

Geneva Study Bible

For, lo, thine {b} enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.

(b) He calls them God's enemies, who are enemies of his Church.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

2. make a tumult] A word denoting the uproar and tumult of a throng of people: the substantive for multitude, frequently used of a great army, is derived from it: cp. Psalm 46:3; Psalm 46:6; Isaiah 17:12; Isaiah 29:5; Isaiah 29:7-8; 2 Chronicles 20:2; 2 Chronicles 20:12; 2 Chronicles 20:15; 2 Chronicles 20:24.

thine enemies … they that hate thee] For Israel’s enemies are Jehovah’s enemies: their plot to destroy His people is a plot to frustrate the purposes and put an end to the worship of Jehovah. Cp. against thee, Psalm 83:5; and Jdg 5:31.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 2. - For, lo, thine enemies; i.e. Israel's enemies, who are also "thine enemies" (see the comment on Psalm 81:15). make a tumult; literally, make a roaring, like the roaring of the sea (comp. Psalm 46:3; Isaiah 17:12). And they that hate thee (compare "the haters of the Lord," in Psalm 81:15). Have lifted up the head; i.e. raised themselves up against thee - taken a menacing attitude (comp. Judges 8:28). Psalm 83:2

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

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. Psalm 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 Psalm 27:5; Psalm 31:21. The Hithpa. התיעץ alternates here with the more ancient Niph. (Psalm 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 equals 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 Psalm 83:2, Isaiah 17:12 with Psalm 83:3.