What Does Psalm 83:6 Mean in the King James?
The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The list of enemies carries a name that means “God hears”: opposition is named, but so is hearing.
THE MEANING
The verse names your pressure as a gathering of distinct peoples and camps, not an unnamed blur. In that roll call sits Ishmaelites, a name carrying “God hears”; the gathering can be hostile without making your distress unheard.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that a threat large enough to gather allies means your distress cannot be heard.
THE ROOT
יִשְׁמְעֵאלִים
Yishmeʿelim
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear, listen; in shema, hear and respond.
“Ishmaelites” in this verse is Yishmeʿelim. Ishmael is formed from yishma, “he hears,” and El, “God,” so the name of one people in this coalition carries the meaning “God hears.” That meaning does not erase the verse’s threat; it places hearing inside the very list that names the opposition.
ALSO GROWS
yishma: He hears.
יִשְׁמַע
This verb is part of the name Ishmael, keeping hearing audible inside the name of a people in the list.
shema: Hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
The same root joins hearing with a response, giving “God hears” the sense of attention that meets what is heard.
shemuah: A report; what is heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch makes hearing something carried and received, echoing the cry named in the story of Ishmael’s birth.
אָהֳלֵי
ʾoholei
GROWS FROM
אהל
Tent, dwelling; to pitch a tent or dwell.
The tent-root gives the list a sense of separate dwellings and encampments: these are distinct peoples gathered into the threat. The English word “tabernacles” also carries the concrete image of tents and households.
ALSO GROWS
ohel: Tent, dwelling.
אֹהֶל
This is the singular form beneath “tabernacles,” making the coalition’s separate homes and camps visible.
ahal: To pitch a tent, dwell.
אָהַל
This verbal branch connects a tent with the act of inhabiting a place, emphasizing that the list names peoples rooted in their own camps.
THE PATTERN
Hostility becomes a coalition when many rulers gather under one counsel against God.
For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.THE THREAD
And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.The name Ishmael in this coalition is not bare ancestry: the verse where it is given says the LORD heard Hagar’s affliction. That root connection places “God hears” inside a line that names those gathered against you, holding the pressure and the cry together.
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