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Don’t you hear the uproar of your enemies? Don’t you see that your arrogant enemies are rising up?
Psalms 83:2 · New Living Translation
Parallel translations
  • WEB For, behold, your enemies are stirred up. Those who hate you have lifted up their heads.
  • KJV For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.
  • BSB See how Your enemies rage, how Your foes have reared their heads.
  • NKJV For behold, Your enemies make a tumult; And those who hate You have lifted up their head.
  • NASB For behold, Your enemies make an uproar, And those who hate You have exalted themselves.

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

God's enemies are in an uproar and those who hate Him lift their heads in defiance. The threat against Israel is ultimately a rebellion against God.

Overview

The psalmist sees the surrounding nations not merely as Israel's foes but as God's enemies, raising their heads in proud hostility. This reframes the conflict around God's honor and rule. It assures believers that opposition to God's people is opposition to God Himself, who will not let such defiance stand.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 21

  • Ps 81:15The haters of Yahweh would cringe before him, and their punishment would last forever.
  • Matt 27:24So when Pilate saw that nothing was being gained, but rather that a disturbance was starting, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this righteous person. You see to it.”
  • Isa 17:12Ah, the uproar of many peoples, who roar like the roaring of the seas; and the rushing of nations, that rush like the rushing of mighty waters!
  • Judg 8:28So Midian was subdued before the children of Israel, and they lifted up their heads no more. The land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon.
  • Jer 1:19They will fight against you, but they will not prevail against you; for I am with you”, says Yahweh, “to rescue you.”
  • Isa 37:29Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance has come up into my ears, therefore will I put my hook in your nose and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came.
  • Acts 16:22The multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates tore their clothes off of them, and commanded them to be beaten with rods.
  • 2 Kgs 19:28Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance has come up into my ears, therefore I will put my hook in your nose, and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came.’
  • Ps 74:23Don’t forget the voice of your adversaries. The tumult of those who rise up against you ascends continually.
  • Acts 22:22They listened to him until he said that; then they lifted up their voice, and said, “Rid the earth of this fellow, for he isn’t fit to live!”
  • Acts 19:28–41When they heard this they were filled with anger, and cried out, saying, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
  • Dan 5:20–23But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him:
  • Acts 17:5But the unpersuaded Jews took along some wicked men from the marketplace, and gathering a crowd, set the city in an uproar. Assaulting the house of Jason, they sought to bring them out to the people.
  • Acts 4:25–27who by the mouth of your servant, David, said, ‘Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot a vain thing?
  • Ps 2:1–2Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot a vain thing?
  • Ps 93:3The floods have lifted up, Yahweh, the floods have lifted up their voice. The floods lift up their waves.
  • Acts 23:10When a great argument arose, the commanding officer, fearing that Paul would be torn in pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him by force from among them, and bring him into the barracks.
  • Ps 75:4–5I said to the arrogant, “Don’t boast!” I said to the wicked, “Don’t lift up the horn.
  • Acts 21:30All the city was moved, and the people ran together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple. Immediately the doors were shut.
  • Isa 37:23Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel.
  • Ps 74:4Your adversaries have roared in the middle of your assembly. They have set up their standards as signs.

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Psalms videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Psalms 83:2YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on PsalmsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

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 83:2 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.