Psalms 83:12

who said, “Let us take possession of God’s pasture lands.”

World English Bible
Learn

Your notes

Private to you. Anything you write on this verse, here or while reading, shows up here and in My study.

Other translations

WEBBE

who said, “Let’s take possession of God’s pasture lands.”

BSB

who said, “Let us possess for ourselves the pastures of God.”

ASV

Who said, Let us take to ourselves in possession The habitations of God.

Original Hebrew

Look up a word

Tap a word to see what it means and everywhere else it's used.

The early church

"All their princes, who said, Let us take to ourselves the sanctuary of God in possession" [Psalm 83:12]. This is that vain noise, with which, as said above, Your enemies have made a murmuring. But what must be understood by "the sanctuary of God," except the temple of God? As says the Apostle: "For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are." [1 Corinthians 3:17] For what else do the enemies aim at, but to take into possession, that is, to make subject to themselves the temple of God, that it may give in to their ungodly wills?
Augustine of Hippo · d. 430Expositions on the Psalms

Commentary

Matthew Henry · Verses 9–18

All who oppose the kingdom of Christ may here read their doom. God is the same still that ever he was; the same to his people, and the same against his and their enemies. God would make their enemies like a wheel; unsettled in all their counsels and resolves. Not only let them be driven away as stubble, but burnt as stubble. And this will be the end of wicked men. Let them be made to fear thy name, and perhaps that will bring them to seek thy name. We should desire no confusion to our enemies and persecutors but what may forward their conversion. The stormy tempest of Divine vengeance will overtake them, unless they repent and seek the pardoning mercy of their offended Lord. God's triumphs over his enemies, clearly prove that he is, according to his name JEHOVAH, an almighty Being, who has all power and perfection in himself. May we fear his wrath, and yield ourselves to be his willing servants. And let us seek deliverance by the destruction of our fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.

Read Matthew Henry on Psalm 83 →

Spurgeon · Verse 12

Who said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession. Viewing the temple, and also the dwellings of the tribes, as all belonging to God, these greedy plunderers determined to push out the inhabitants, slay them, and become themselves landlords and tenants of the whole. These were large words and dark designs, but God could bring them all to nothing. It is in vain for men to say "Let us take, "if God does not give. He who robs God's house will find that he has a property reeking with a curse; it will plague him and his seed for ever. "Will a man rob God?" Let him try it, and he will find it hot and heavy work.

Read Spurgeon on Psalm 83 →

Cross-references

5

Cross-references: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. Hebrew and Greek data from STEPBible.org (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0. Library: sources.