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Psalm 83:11

Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, yes, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,

9Do to them as you did to Midian, as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the river Kishon;
10who perished at Endor, who became as dung for the earth.
11Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, yes, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
12who said, “Let’s take possession of God’s pasture lands.”
13My God, make them like tumbleweed, like chaff before the wind.
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← Psalm 83:10Psalm 83:12 →
Notice

The four named rulers make this plea for judgment concrete and lethal, confronting the reader with Israel’s prayer against those seeking to seize God’s land.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

How does knowing these four rulers were killed affect your reading of this prayer?

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What difference does it make that this plea addresses God amid a threat to his land?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

5 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.

This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Judges 7:25They took the two princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at Oreb’s rock, and Zeeb they killed at Zeeb’s wine press, as they pursued Midian. Then …Judges records the killing of Oreb and Zeeb, whose fate the psalm asks God to bring upon threatening nobles.
Judges 8:12Zebah and Zalmunna fled and he pursued them. He took the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and confused all the army.The psalm names Zebah and Zalmunna as examples of defeated rulers; Judges records their pursuit and capture.
Judges 8:21Gideon’s killing of Zebah and Zalmunna makes clear the deadly fate invoked by the psalm’s prayer.
Psalm 82:7Nevertheless you shall die like men, and fall like one of the rulers.”Both passages speak of rulers falling in death, exposing the limits of their rank and power.
Isaiah 10:26The LORD of Armies will stir up a scourge against him, as in the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb. His rod will be over the sea, and he will lift it up …Both recall Oreb’s defeat in the conflict with Midian when describing judgment against threatening powers.
Where this verse fits

Injustice and anger. fear for the future. sermon or Bible study notes.

What the Bible says about anger →What the Bible says about fear →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Ask God to protect threatened people and judge their oppressors

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Encouragement

Threatening rulers have limits. This prayer appeals to God’s rule over them, recalling defeated kings as it asks him to judge those seeking to seize his land.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 83:11. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

Keep goingPsalm 83 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).