Psalm 83:17

Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

83:9-18 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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Let them be confounded - Let them be ashamed. That is, Let them have that kind of shame and confusion which results from the fact that their plans have not been successful, or that they have been foiled and baffled in their schemes.

And troubled - Disturbed; put to confusion. Let them be troubled as men are who are unsuccessful in their projects.

Forever - As a people; as confederated nations; as united in such an unholy alliance. Let them never again be able thus to combine, or to form a compact for the destruction of thy people. This does not refer to them as individuals, but as nations. It is a prayer that they may be so discomfited now that they may see the wickedness and folly of all such efforts, and that they may never again form such a combination.

Yea, let them be put to shame - By utter failure in their schemes.

And perish - Not individually, but as combined - as an alliance. Let there be a complete end to such a confederacy, so that it shall never be seen again.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

16. that they may seek—or as Ps 83:18, supply "men," since Ps 83:17, 18 amplify the sentiment of Ps 83:16, expressing more fully the measure of destruction, and the lesson of God's being and perfections (compare 2Ch 20:29) taught to all men.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

But those of them that will not humble themselves before thee, let them be utterly destroyed.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Let them be confounded and troubled for ever,.... As long as they are in this world, and to all eternity in another; a dreadful portion this:

yea, let them be put to shame, and perish; wholly and eternally, in soul and body, for evermore.

Geneva Study Bible

Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish:

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

17. Let them be ashamed and dismayed for ever;

Yea, let them be put to confusion and perish:

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 17. - Lot them be confounded and troubled forever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish. An expansion of the thought contained in the first clause of the preceding verse, which must not be regarded as annulling the kind wish of the second clause. Like Hezekiah (Isaiah 37:20), the psalmist desires nothing so much as that "all the kingdoms of the earth may know that Jehovah, and he only, is God," and may turn to him in sincerity and truth. It is for this end that he wishes them to be brought low, even to the verge of destruction. Psalm 83:17

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The aim of the wish is that they in the midst of their downfall may lay hold upon the mercy of Jahve as their only deliverance: first they must come to nought, and only by giving Jahve the glory will they not be utterly destroyed. Side by side with אתּה, v. 19a, is placed שׁמך as a second subject (cf. Psalm 44:3; Psalm 69:11). In view of Psalm 83:17 וידעוּ (as in Psalm 59:14) has not merely the sense of perceiving so far as the justice of the punishment is concerned; the knowledge which is unto salvation is not excluded. The end of the matter which the poet wishes to see brought about is this, that Jahve, that the God of revelation (שׁמך), may become the All-exalted One in the consciousness of the nations.