Psalms 83:4

Psa 83:4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from [being] a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.

Ver. 4. They have said, Come, &c.] The wicked have their Come, Pro 1:11, as well as the saints, Isa 2:3; Isa 2:5 Zec 8:21, but for a worse purpose.

Let us cut them off] "Them," by way of contempt, as not worth naming, they were so base. The devil and his imps would utterly root out the Church; but that cannot be, Jer 31:36 Mat 16:18.

That the name of Israel, &c.] But Israel hath still a name, when Moab, Ammon, Edom, &c., live but by fame only. See Jer 48:2.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5. (Psa 83:4). They have said, Come and let us destroy them from (being) a nation, and let not the name of Israel be remembered any more. Not only were they turbulent and confident and crafty, but malignant and determined to destroy. The past tense of the first verb represents the combination as already formed. The idiomatic phrase, from, a nation, is used more than once by Isaiah (Isa 7:8; Isa 23:1). The expression for complete extirpation in the last clause is borrowed from the curse on Amalek, Exo 17:14. Israel, as the name of the chosen people, was rightfully claimed by Judah after the great schism, even while the rival kingdom still existed.

6 (Psa 83:5). For they have consulted heartily together; against thee a covenant they ratify. The word translated heartily is really a noun meaning heart, but here used to qualify the verb by adding the idea, with, the heart, ex animo, cordially, heartily. The phrase rendered one heart in 1Ch 12:38, is altogether different. For the meaning of the last verb, see above, on Psa 1:5. The preterite and future tense represent the combination as already formed and still continued.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They were not content to take the Church as prisoner: but sought utterly to destroy it.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 4. Let us cut them off] Let us exterminate the whole race, that there may not be a record of them on the face of the earth. And their scheme was well laid: eight or ten different nations united themselves in a firm bond to do this; and they had kept their purpose so secret that the king of Judah does not appear to have heard of it till his territories were actually invaded, and the different bodies of this coalition had assembled at En-gedi. Never was Judah before in greater danger.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

4 They have said, Come and let us cut them off from being a nation. The wickedness of these hostile powers is aggravated from the circumstance, that it was their determined purpose utterly to exterminate the Church. This may be restricted to the Ammonites and Moabites, who were as bellows to blow up the flame in the rest. But the Hagarenes, the Syrians, and the other nations, being by their instigation affected with no less hatred and fury against the people of God, for whose destruction they had taken up arms, we may justly consider this vaunting language as uttered by the whole of the combined host; for having entered into a mutual compact they rushed forward with rival eagerness, and encouraged one another to destroy the kingdom of Judah. The prime agent in exciting such cruel hatred was doubtless Satan, who has all along from the beginning been exerting himself to extinguish the Church of God, and who, for this purpose, has never ceased to stir up his own children to outrage. The phrase, to cut them off from being a nation, signifies to exterminate them root and branch, and thus to put an end to them as a nation or people. That this is the meaning is more clearly evinced from the second clause of the verse, Let the name of Israel be no more remembered The compassion of God would in no small degree be excited by the circumstance that this war was not undertaken, as wars commonly have been, to bring them, when conquered, under the power of their enemies; but the object which the cruelty of their enemies aimed at was their entire destruction. And what did this amount to but to an attempt to overthrow the decree of God on which the perpetual duration of the Church depends.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(4) For this attack against, not only the independence, but even the continued existence of Israel as a nation, compare Est_3:6; Est_3:9; Jer_11:19; Jer_31:36; Jer_48:2; Isa_7:8.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4. from being a nation] Their aim is to obliterate the name of Israel from the map of the world. For the phrase cp. Jer_48:2; and see Psa_74:8; 1Ma_5:2. that the name &c.] More accurately, and so the name of Israel shall be remembered no more.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They have said,.... Secretly in their hearts, or openly to one another, and gave it out in the most public manner, as what they had consulted and determined upon; see Psa 74:8,

come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; they were not content to invade their country, take their cities, plunder them of their substance, and carry them captives, but utterly to destroy them, root and branch; so that they might be no more a body politic, under rule and government, in their own land, nor have so much as a name and place in others; this was Haman's scheme, Est 3:8.

that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance; but this desperate and dreadful scheme, and wretched design of theirs, took not effect; but, on the contrary, the several nations hereafter mentioned, who were in this conspiracy, are no more, and have not had a name in the world for many hundreds of years; while the Jews are still a people, and are preserved, in order to be called and saved, as all Israel will be in the latter day, Rom 11:25. So Dioclesian thought to have rooted the Christian name out of the world; but in vain: the name of Christ, the name of Christianity, the name of a Christian church, will endure to the end of the world; see Psa 72:17. Compare with this Jer 11:19.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

They have said, Come, and let us cut them off ... - Let us utterly destroy them, and root them out from among the nations. Let us combine against them, and overpower them; let us divide their land among ourselves, attaching it to our own. The nations referred to Psa 83:6-8 were those which surrounded the land of Israel; and the proposal seems to have been to partition the land of the Hebrews among themselves, as has been done in modern times in regard to Poland. On what principles, and in what proportions, they proposed thus to divide the land is not intimated, nor is it said that the project had gone so far that they had agreed on the terms of such a division. The formation of such a purpose, however, was in itself by no means improbable. The Hebrew people were offensive to all the surrounding nations by their religion, their prosperity, and the constant rebuke of tyranny and idolatry by their religious and their social institutions. There had been enough, also, in their past history - in the remembrance of the successful wars of the Hebrews with those very nations - to keep up a constant irritation on their part. We are not to be surprised, therefore, that there was a deeply-cherished desire to blot out the name and the nation altogether.

That the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance - That the nation as such may be utterly extinct and forgotten; that the former triumphs of that nation over us may be avenged; that we may no longer have in our very midst this painful memorial of the existence of one God, and of the demands of his law; that we may pursue our own plans without the silent or the open admonition derived from a religion so pure and holy. For the same reason the world has often endeavored to destroy the church; to cause it to be extinct; to blot out its name; to make the very names Christ and Christian forgotten among mankind. Hence, the fiery persecutions under the Roman government in the time of the Emperors; and hence, in every age, and in every land, the church has been exposed to persecution - originated with a purpose to destroy it as long as there was any hope of accomplishing that end. That purpose has been abandoned by Satan and his friends only because the result has shown that the persecution of the church served but to spread its principles and doctrines, and to fix it more firmly in the affections and confidence of mankind, so that the tendency of persecution is rather to overthrow the persecutor than the persecuted. Whether it can be destroyed by prosperity and corruption - by science - by error - seems now to be the great problem before the mind of Satan.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Whereby they showed both their implacable rage and malice, and their great assurance of success.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 4. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation. Easier said than done. Yet it shows how thorough going are the foes of the church. Theirs was the policy of extermination. They laid the axe at the root of the matter. Rome has always loved this method of warfare, and hence she has gloated over the massacre of Bartholomew, and the murders of the Inquisition.

That the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance. They would blot them out of history as well as out of existence. Evil is intolerant of good. If Israel would let Edom alone yet Edom cannot be quiet, but seeks like its ancestor to kill the chosen of the Lord. Men would be glad to cast the church out of the world because it rebukes them, and is thus a standing menace to their sinful peace.

Ver. 4. That the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance. This desperate and dreadful scheme, and wretched design of theirs, took not effect; but, on the contrary, the several nations hereafter mentioned, who were in this conspiracy, are no more, and have not had a name in the world for many hundreds of years; whilst the Jews are still a people and are preserved, in order to be called and saved, as all Israel will be in the latter day, Ro 11:25. So Diocletian thought to have rooted the Christian name out of the world; but in vain. John Gill.

Ver. 4. The immortality of the church.

Psalms 83:5*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

4. Let us cut them off from being a nation—This shows that it was not an incursion for plunder merely, but a deep political scheme, based on the old hatred indulged against the Hebrews by the idolatrous nations, and on the tributary relation to them which many of the nations had held since the days of David. Jehoshaphat also had directly committed himself to a war with Syria by the affair of Ramoth-gilead, 1 Kings 22.

Israel—The title here seems to apply to the whole Hebrew family. In this counsel for the extinction of Israel, (Psa_83:5,) Asshur, that is, Assyria, (Psa_83:8,) was joined. Moab seems to have been the chief instigator, for which the judgments of God were afterward revisited upon that people. See Jer_48:2

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation. This was the general object of Israel"s enemies at all times, (2Ki_24:2 2Ch_20:11 Psa_138:7 RAPC 1Ma 3:35 5:2) and thus does not help much towards determining the date of the occasion here spoken of. That the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance. (comp. Exo_17:14 Deu_32:26 Psa_34:16 Psa_109:13)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.