So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm.
Parallel translations
- WEB so pursue them with your tempest, and terrify them with your storm.
- BSB so pursue them with Your tempest, and terrify them with Your storm.
- NKJV So pursue them with Your tempest, And frighten them with Your storm.
- NASB So pursue them with Your heavy gale, And terrify them with Your storm.
- NLT chase them with your fierce storm; terrify them with your tempest.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The psalmist asks God to pursue and terrify the enemies with His tempest and storm. He prays God's overwhelming might would overtake them.
Overview
Continuing the storm imagery, the prayer asks God to chase down the foes with the terror of His judgment. The God who commands wind and storm can rout any army. Such language is not personal vindictiveness but a plea for God to defend His name and people against those bent on their destruction.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Job 9:17For he breaketh me with a tempest, and multiplieth my wounds without cause.
- Ps 50:3Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.
- Isa 28:17Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
- Ps 58:9Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.
- Job 27:20–23Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away in the night.
- Ps 11:6Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.
- Heb 12:18For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,
- Matt 7:27And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
- Ezek 13:11–14Say unto them which daub it with untempered morter, that it shall fall: there shall be an overflowing shower; and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall rend it.
- Isa 30:30And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 83:15 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.