Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb ,.... Two princes of Midian, who were slain, the one at the rock Oreb, and the other at the winepress of Zeeb, so called after their names, Judges 7:25 , yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna ; kings of Midian, slain by Gideon, Judges 8:21 . read more
Who said ,.... Not the kings and princes of Midian just mentioned, but the confederate enemies of Israel, named Psalm 83:6 , to whom the like things are wished as to the Midianites and others, because they said what follows: let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession ; not only the temple, which was eminently the house of God, but all the habitations of the Israelites in Jerusalem, and other places, where the Lord vouchsafed to dwell; unless this should be ironically... read more
O my God, make them like a wheel ,.... Which, as the Targum adds, is rolled, and goes on, and rests not in a declivity; let them be as fickle and inconstant as a wheel; being in high, let them be in slippery places, and brought down to desolation in a moment; like a wheel set running down hill, so let them swiftly and suddenly come to ruin; or be in all kind of calamities, and continual troubles F11 "Vide Suidam in voce" τροχου . as the wheel is always turning: some think there is an... read more
As the fire burneth the wood ,.... Or "forest" F13 יער "sylvam", Montanus, Tigurine version, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, &c.; ; which is sometimes done purposely, and sometimes through carelessness, as Virgil F14 Georgic. l. 2. v. 310. observes; and which is done very easily and swiftly, when fire is set to it; even all the trees of it, great and small, to which an army is sometimes compared, Isaiah 10:18 , and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire; either the... read more
So persecute them with thy tempest ,.... Pursue them with thy fury, follow them with thy vengeance; cause it to fall upon them like a mighty tempest: and make them afraid with thy storm ; God has his storms and tempests of wrath and vengeance, which he sometimes causes to fall upon wicked men in this life, to their inexpressible terror, and with which he takes them out of this world; and he has still more horrible ones to rain upon them hereafter: see Job 27:20 . read more
Fill their faces with shame ,.... For their sins, or rather through disappointment, not being able to put their desperate and deep laid schemes into execution: or "with lightness" F15 קלון Heb. "levitate", Piscator; so Ainsworth. ; instead of a weight of honour and glory upon them, let them be despised. R. Joseph Kimchi renders it, "fill their faces with fire"; let their faces be as if they were on fire, as men's faces are, who are put to an exceeding great blush, or are most sadly... read more
Lake their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb - They were two of the chiefs, or generals, of the Midianites; and were slain in the pursuit of the Midianites, by the men of Ephraim; and their heads brought to Gideon on the other side of JorDaniel Judges 7:24 , Judges 7:25 . Yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna - These were kings of Midian, who were encamped at Karkor with fifteen thoussand men, whom Gideon attacked there, and defeated, and took the kings prisoners; and... read more
Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession - Nearly the words spoken by the confederates when they came to attack Jehoshaphat. They come (says the king in address to God) to cast us out of thy possession which thou hast given us to inherit. See 2 Chronicles 20:11 . read more
O may God, make them like a wheel - Alluding to the manner of threshing corn in the east. A large broad wheel was rolled over the grain on a threshing-floor, which was generally in the open air; and the grain being thrown up by a shovel against the wind the chaff was thus separated from it, in the place where it was threshed. read more
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Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Psalms 83:9-18
The psalmist here, in the name of the church, prays for the destruction of those confederate forces, and, in God's name, foretels it; for this prayer that it might be so amounts to a prophecy that it shall be so, and this prophecy reaches to all the enemies of the gospel-church; whoever they be that oppose the kingdom of Christ, here they may read their doom. The prayer is, in short, that these enemies, who were confederate against Israel, might be defeated in all their attempts, and that they... read more