Psalm 83:7

Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre;

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) Gebal.—If this is a noun, as generally supposed, and as printed in the text, we must take it as a synonym of Edom (the Gebalene of Eusebius). The Gebal of Ezekiel 27:9 is not to be thought of; but it is most likely a verb:

“Both Ammon and Amalek are joined together,

The Philistines (are joined) with the men of Tyre.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Gebal - The Gebal here referred to was probably the same as Gebalene, the mountainous tract inhabited by the Edomites, extending from the Dead Sea southward toward Petra, and still called by the Arabs Djebal. (Gesenius, Lexicon) The word means mountain. Those who are here referred to were a part of the people of Edom.

And Ammon - The word Ammon means son of my people. Ammon was the son of Lot by his youngest daughter, Genesis 19:38. The Ammonites, descended from him, dwelt beyond the Jordan in the tract of country between the streams of Jabbok and Arnon. These also would be naturally associated in such a confederacy. 1 Samuel 11:1-11.

And Amalek - The Amalekites were a very ancient people: In the traditions of the Arabians they are reckoned among the aboriginal inhabitants of that country. They inhabited the regions on the south of Palestine, between Idumea and Egypt. Compare Exodus 17:8-16; Numbers 13:29; 1 Samuel 15:7. They also extended eastward of the Dead Sea and Mount Seir Numbers 24:20; Judges 3:13; Judges 6:3, Judges 6:33; and they appear also to have settled down in Palestine itself, whence the name the Mount of the Amalekites, in the territory of Ephraim, Judges 12:15.

The Philistines - Often mentioned in the Scriptures. They were the ancient inhabitants of Palestine, whence the name Philistia or Palestine. The word is supposed to mean the land of sojourners or strangers; hence, in the Septuagint they are uniformly called ἀλλοφύλοι allophuloi, those of another tribe, strangers, and their country is called γῆ ἀλλοφύλων gē allophulōn. They were constant enemies of the Hebrews, and it was natural that they should be engaged in such an alliance as this.

With the inhabitants of Tyre - On the situation of Tyre, see the Introduction to Isaiah 23. Why Tyre should unite in this confederacy is not known. The purpose seems to have been to combine as many nations as possible against the Hebrew people, and - as far as it could be done - all those that were adjacent to it, so that it might be surrounded by enemies, and so that its destruction might be certain. It would not probably be difficult to find some pretext for inducing any of the kings of the surrounding nations to unite in such an unholy alliance. Kings, in general, have not been unwilling to form alliances against liberty.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

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).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Gebal; either,

1. The Giblites or Gebalites, dwelling near Zidon, of whom 1 Kings 5:18 Ezekiel 27:9. Or,

2. An Arabian people, so called by ancient writers, dwelling in the southern border of Canaan, where most of the people here mentioned had their abode. Yet some of these were in the northern parts, and not far from the other Gebal, as some of the Philistines and the Tyrians.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Gebal,.... Gubleans, or Gebalites, as the Targum; the same with Giblites, Joshua 23:5, or men of Gebal, Ezekiel 27:9 the same with Byblus: these dwelt in Phoenicia, near Tyre, where Pliny (g) makes mention of a place called Gabale: the Syriac version joins it with Ammon, and renders it "the border of Ammon":

and Ammon and Amalek, the Philistines, with the inhabitants of Tyre; these are well known in Scripture, and as the enemies of Israel.

(g) Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 20.

Geneva Study Bible

Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre;

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. the Philistines] Lit. Philistia. In Amos 1:6 ff., Amos 1:9 ff., Philistia and Tyre are censured for surrendering Israelite captives to Edom, which in its turn (Psalm 83:11) is condemned for unbrotherly hostility to Israel.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - Gebal. There is no reason to doubt that the Phoenician town of the name, mentioned in Ezekiel 27:9, and alluded to in Joshua 13:5 and 1 Kings 5:18, is meant. A southern Gebal, in the vicinity of Edom, is a fiction. Gebal was one of the most important of the Phoenician cities from the time of Shalmaneser II. (B.C. 828-810) to that of Nebuchadnezzar (B.C. 635-560); see the author's 'History of Phoenicia,' p. 79. And Ammon. Ammon, like Moab, was a perpetual enemy of the Jewish people from their entrance into Palestine to the time of the Maccabees. And Amalek. The Amalekites, on the contrary, disappear from history from the time of their destruction by the Simeonites in the reign of Hezekiah (1 Chronicles 5:42, 43). The Philistines. Persistent enemies, like Edom, Moab, and Ammon (see I Macc. 5:66). With the inhabitants of Tyre. Tyre, in early times, was friendly to Israel (2 Samuel 5:11; 1 Kings 5:1-18; 1 Kings 9:26-28). and is not elsewhere mentioned as hostile until the reign of Uzziah (Amos 1:9). She rejoiced, however, when Jerusalem was destroyed (Ezekiel 26:2). Psalm 83:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Instead of לב אחד, 1 Chronicles 12:38, it is deliberant corde unâ, inasmuch as יחדּו on the one hand gives intensity to the reciprocal signification of the verb, and on the other lends the adjectival notion to לב. Of the confederate peoples the chronicler (2 Chronicles 20) mentions the Moabites, the Ammonites, the inhabitants of Mount Ser, and the Me(unim, instead of which Josephus, Antiq. ix. 1. 2, says: a great body of Arabians. This crowd of peoples comes from the other side of the Dead Sea, מאדם (as it is to be read in Psalm 83:2 in the chronicler instead of מארם, cf. on Psalm 60:2); the territory of Edom, which is mentioned first by the poet, was therefore the rendezvous. The tents of Edom and of the Ishmaelites are (cf. Arab. ahl, people) the people themselves who live in tents. Moreover, too, the poet ranges the hostile nations according to their geographical position. The seven first named from Edom to Amalek, which still existed at the time of the psalmist (for the final destruction of the Amalekites by the Simeonites, 1 Chronicles 4:42., falls at an indeterminate period prior to the Exile), are those out of the regions east and south-east of the Dead Sea. According to Genesis 25:18, the Ishmaelites had spread from Higz through the peninsula of Sinai beyond the eastern and southern deserts as far up as the countries under the dominion of Assyria. The Hagarenes dwelt in tents from the Persian Gulf as far as the east of Gilead (1 Chronicles 5:10) towards the Euphrates. גּבל, Arab. jbâl, is the name of the people inhabiting the mountains situated in the south of the Dead Sea, that is to say, the northern Seritish mountains. Both Gebl and also, as it appears, the Amalek intended here according to Genesis 36:12 (cf. Josephus, Antiq. ii. 1. 2: Ἀμαληκῖτις, a part of Idumaea), belong to the wide circuit of Edom. Then follow the Philistines and Phoenicians, the two nations of the coast of the Mediterranean, which also appear in Amos 1:1-15 (cf. Joel 3) as making common cause with the Edomites against Israel. Finally Asshur, the nation of the distant north-east, here not as yet appearing as a principal power, but strengthening (vid., concerning זרוע, an arm equals assistance, succour, Gesenius, Thesaurus, p. 433b) the sons of Lot, i.e., the Moabites and Ammonites, with whom the enterprise started, and forming a powerful reserve for them. The music bursts forth angrily at the close of this enumeration, and imprecations discharge themselves in the following strophe.