Chapter 82

Be silent, Lord, no longer. O God, do not keep still now, do not hold back now!

What turmoil among thy enemies; how their malice lifts its head!

Busily they plot against thy people, compass the ruin of the men thou hast in thy keeping.

Come, they whisper, let us put an end to their sovereignty, so that the very name of Israel will be remembered no more.

All are agreed, all alike are ranged in confederacy against thee;

here Edom lies encamped, there Ismael; Moab, too, and the Agarenes;

Gebal, Ammon and Amelec, the Philistines, and the folk that dwell at Tyre.

Even Assyria has made common cause with them, lends her aid to these children of Lot.

Do to these what thou didst to Madian, to Sisara and Jabin at the brook of Cison;

the men who died at Endor, rotted there like dung on the ground.

May their princes fare as Oreb fared, and Zeb; may the doom of Zebee and Salmana be the doom of all their chieftains.

And did they think to make God’s chosen portion their spoil?

My God, send them whirling this way and that, like leaves, like straws before the wind.

See how the fire burns up the forest, how its flames scorch the mountain-side!

So let the fury of thy onset rout them, thy fury dismay them.

Let their cheeks blush crimson with shame, Lord, till they come to sue for thy favour;

confusion and dismay be theirs for ever, for ever let them be abashed and brought to nothing,

till they, too, know the meaning of the divine name, acknowledge thee as the most high God, the Overlord of earth.