Read
Psalm 83:2
For, behold, your enemies are stirred up. Those who hate you have lifted up their heads.
1A song. A Psalm by Asaph. God, don’t keep silent. Don’t keep silent, and don’t be still, God.
2For, behold, your enemies are stirred up. Those who hate you have lifted up their heads.
3They conspire with cunning against your people. They plot against your cherished ones.
4“Come,” they say, “let’s destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more.”
Notice
Enemies with raised heads convey open defiance, giving this plea its urgency as the surrounding verses describe a plot to erase Israel’s name.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
How does the plot to destroy Israel shape your reading of these raised heads?
Write on thisWhat changes in your prayer when you address God about hostility toward his people?
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Where else Scripture says this
12 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
Psalm 81:15The haters of the LORD would cringe before him, and their punishment would last forever.Both passages name people who hate God; Psalm 83 describes their defiance, while Psalm 81 describes their humiliation and punishment.
Isaiah 17:12Ah, the uproar of many peoples who roar like the roaring of the seas; and the rushing of nations that rush like the rushing of mighty waters!Both passages portray threatening unrest, with raised heads in the psalm and nations roaring like seas in Isaiah.
Matthew 27:24So when Pilate saw that nothing was being gained, but rather that a disturbance was starting, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, …The shared thread is mounting unrest; Psalm 83 addresses God, while Matthew describes Pilate responding to a growing disturbance.
Jeremiah 1:19They will fight against you, but they will not prevail against you; for I am with you”, says the LORD, “to rescue you.”Both passages acknowledge hostile opposition; Jeremiah includes an explicit promise of rescue, while Psalm 83:2 names the threat.
Judges 8:28So Midian was subdued before the children of Israel, and they lifted up their heads no more. The land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon.Raised heads mark enemy strength in both passages: Psalm 83 describes that posture, while Judges says Midian could sustain it no more.
Isaiah 37:23Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel.Both passages describe defiance directed against God, expressed through raised heads in the psalm and lifted eyes in Isaiah.
2 Kings 19:28Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance has come up into my ears, therefore I will put my hook in your nose, and my bridle in your lips, …Both passages name hostility against God; the psalm reports enemy defiance, while Kings records God’s response to rage and arrogance.
Acts 17:5But the unpersuaded Jews took along some wicked men from the marketplace and gathering a crowd, set the city in an uproar. Assaulting the house of Jason, they …Both passages portray active hostility, with enemies rising in Psalm 83 and a crowd incited to assault Jason’s house in Acts.
Acts 4:25–27who by the mouth of your servant David, said, ‘Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot a vain thing?Both passages describe hostile agitation, and the plotting named in Acts also appears in Psalm 83’s surrounding verses.
Psalm 74:4Your adversaries have roared in the middle of your assembly. They have set up their standards as signs.Both prayers address God about his adversaries, whose defiance appears as raised heads or roaring within his assembly.
Acts 16:22The multitude rose up together against them and the magistrates tore their clothes from them, then commanded them to be beaten with rods.Both passages describe hostile people rising up; Acts carries that hostility into an order for a public beating.
Psalm 75:4–5I said to the arrogant, “Don’t boast!” I said to the wicked, “Don’t lift up the horn.Both passages use an upward gesture to express defiance: raised heads in Psalm 83 and a lifted horn in Psalm 75.
Where this verse fits
Injustice and anger. fear for the future.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
There is room in prayer to name threats without softening them. Here, the danger remains unresolved, and the plea addresses God as the one these enemies defy.
Now put it in your words.
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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).