83:1-8 Sometimes God seems not to be concerned at the unjust treatment of his people. But then we may call upon him, as the psalmist here. All wicked people are God's enemies, especially wicked persecutors. The Lord's people are his hidden one; the world knows them not. He takes them under his special protection. Do the enemies of the church act with one consent to destroy it, and shall not the friends of the church be united? Wicked men wish that there might be no religion among mankind. They would gladly see all its restraints shaken off, and all that preach, profess, or practise it, cut off. This they would bring to pass if it were in their power. The enemies of God's church have always been many: this magnifies the power of the Lord in preserving to himself a church in the world.

Verse 6. - The tabernacles of Edom. Edom was always among the bitterest of Israel's enemies, and naturally took a part in almost every combination that was made against them. Though sometimes subjugated (2 Samuel 8:14; 1 Kings 11:15, 16), it continued hostile during the whole period of Israelite and Jewish history. Hence the constant denunciations of the prophets (Isaiah 11:14; Jeremiah 27:3; Jeremiah 49:7-22; Ezekiel 25:12-14; Joel 3:19; Amos 9:12; Obadiah 1:6-18; Malachi 1:4). And the Ishmaelites. The Ishmaelites were the chief inhabitants of Northern Arabia (Genesis 25:13-18). They do not often appear among Israel's enemies. Of Moab. Moab, on the contrary, is a persistent adversary (see Numbers 22:6; Judges 3:12-30; 1 Samuel 14:47; 2 Samuel 8:2; 2 Kings 1:1; 2 Kings 3:4-27; 26:2; 2 Chronicles 20:1-10). And the Hagarenes. The "Hagarenes," or "Hagarites," are only mentioned here and in 1 Chronicles 5:10, 19-22. They were probably a branch of the Ishmaelites, named after Hagar, Ishmael's mother (Genesis 25:12). Their name occurs among those of Aramman tribes in the Assyrian inscriptions.

The tabernacles of Edom, &c. Or the Idumeans, as the Targum; the posterity of Esau, who, with the rest that joined with them, hereafter mentioned, and made the confederate army, brought their tents with them, pitched them, and encamped in them against Israel:

and the Ishmaelites; or Arabians, as the Targum, who descended from Ishmael, the son of Abraham:

of Moab, and the Hagarenes; the Moabites, who sprung from Lot by one of his daughters, in an incestuous way; and the Hagarenes are the same with the Hagarites, 1 Chronicles 5:10 who dwelt to the east of the land of Israel, so called from Hagar, the handmaid of Abraham, but not by him, but by another husband, after sent away from him, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi think, or by him, supposing Hagar to be the same with Keturah, as some do: the Targum calls them Hungarians; the Syriac version renders it Gadareans, or Gadarenes; of which see Mark 5:1.

6-8. tabernacles—for people (Ps 78:67).

they—all these united with the children of Lot, or Ammonites and Moabites (compare 2Ch 20:1).

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