Chapter 82

Ps.82:1. Song of psalm to Asaph. He brings a prayer to God, asking him to punish the Assyrian peoples for their arrogance in the war against Jerusalem. It is these nations that are understood in the continuation of the psalm. Ps.83:2. God, who will be like You? Don’t remain silent, keep quiet, O God. No one, he says, will be like You in forgetfulness of malice and long-suffering towards untruths. But I beg You not to remain silent during these unjust enemy invasions of us. Ps.82:3. For behold, Thy gates make a noise. Everyone knows how unfair they are to us. Ps.83:9. He came to the intercession of his son Lot. The nations mentioned above provided assistance and fought against the sons of Lot in the war with us. The sons of Lot are Moabites and Ammonites. From here we also learn that the demons call each other to the destruction of our souls in order to bring us to the point of all-destruction and consign the notorious Israel to oblivion. Then the Psalmist lists those neighboring nations, at whose call other nations also gathered. Ps.83:10. Make them like Midian and Sisera. Just as the Midianites, Sisera and Jabin, rebelled against Israel and were destroyed - some at the Kishon watercourse, and others at Endor, so may those who attack us with the Assyria be subjected to a similar punishment. Sisera was the commander of the forces, and Jabin was the King of Canaan; and both of them at the Kishon watercourse were put to flight by the hand of Barak and Deborah, the wife of Israel, as it is written in the book of Judges. Ps.82:11. Needed in Endor, in a dishonorable place, because Endor means indecency. For, remaining unburied, they faded away and mixed with the earth like pus. Ps.82:12. The princes put them down like Orib. Make sure that the Edomites, Ishmaelites, Moabites, Hagarites and other nations mentioned above suffer the same thing as Oreb and the others with him. And they, like the evil ones, died. Ps.83:14. My God, put me down like a colo. That is, let them not remain in the same position, but let them tolerate the opposite of this. Like a cane in the face of the wind. Let them be shaken in the same way as the stalk of the ear. Ps.82:15. Like a fire scorching an oak forest. Let them taste, he says, the fire that they themselves lit; and let this fire consume them, like a sensual fire consuming an oak grove. This is similar to what was said: behold, “you make fire: walk by the light of your fire, and by the flame that you kindled” (Is. 50:11). Burn the mountains like a flame. Speech is influent. As fire, falling on the mountains, burns them, so may they also be consumed by the punishment that You will send on them, and which the Psalmist, in severity and swiftness, likened to a “storm” (Ps. 82:16). Ps.82:17. Fill their faces with dishonor. For, having been deceived in their desires and filled with shame, they will recognize Your power. And they will seek Your name, O Lord. This means that the punishments will turn to their advantage. It is said “they will seek” instead of “they will know.” You might be interested in: