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Psalm 83:17–18

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83:17May they be humiliated and continually terrified!30

May they die in shame!31

83:18Then they will know32 that you alone are the Lord,33

the sovereign king34 over all the earth.

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Footnotes

  1. 30 Heb “and may they be terrified to perpetuity.” The Hebrew expression עֲדֵי־עַד (’adey-’ad, “to perpetuity”) can mean “forevermore” (see Pss 92:7; 132:12, 14), but here it may be used hyperbolically, for the psalmist asks that the experience of judgment might lead the nations to recognize (v. 18) and even to seek (v. 16) God.
  2. 31 Heb “may they be ashamed and perish.” The four prefixed verbal forms in this verse are understood as jussives. The psalmist concludes his prayer with an imprecation, calling severe judgment down on his enemies. The strong language of the imprecation seems to run contrary to the positive outcome of divine judgment envisioned in v. 16b. Perhaps the language of v. 17 is overstated for effect. Another option is that v. 16b expresses an ideal, while the strong imprecation of vv. 17–18 anticipates reality. It would be nice if the defeated nations actually pursued a relationship with God, but if judgment does not bring them to that point, the psalmist asks that they be annihilated so that they might at least be forced to acknowledge God’s power.
  3. 32 After the preceding jussives (v. 17), the prefixed verbal form with prefixed vav (ו) indicates purpose (“so that they may know”) or result.
  4. 33 Heb “that you, your name [is] the Lord, you alone.”
  5. 34 Traditionally “the Most High.”

In other versions

ESVEnglish Standard Version

Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever;

let them perish in disgrace,

that they may know that you alone,

whose name is the Lord,

are the Most High over all the earth.

NIVNew International Version (2011)

May they ever be ashamed and dismayed;

may they perish in disgrace.

Let them know that you, whose name is the Lord—

that you alone are the Most High over all the earth.

CSBChristian Standard Bible

Let them be put to shame and terrified forever;

let them perish in disgrace.

May they know that you alone—

whose name is the Lord—

are the Most High over the whole earth.

NLTNew Living Translation

Let them be ashamed and terrified forever.

Let them die in disgrace.

Then they will learn that you alone are called the Lord,

that you alone are the Most High,

supreme over all the earth.

LEBThe Lexham English Bible

Let them be ashamed and terrified forever,

and let them be humiliated and perish

that they may know that you,

whose name is Yahweh, you alone,

are the Most High over the whole earth.

KJV 1900King James Version

Let them be confounded and troubled for ever;

Yea, let them be put to shame, and perish:

That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH,

Art the most high over all the earth.