What Does Psalm 83:15 Mean?
So pursue them with your gale, and shake them with your whirlwind.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm.THE KEY
The storm is not scenery; it takes up the chase, making those pursued the ones overtaken by fear.
THE MEANING
The verse voices a fierce petition against those who threaten: God’s tempest pursues them, and the storm leaves them afraid. Weather is not a backdrop here; it becomes the force that overtakes and unsettles them. The line holds judgment in its violence, without softening it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that those who make others afraid remain beyond fear themselves: here they are overtaken and made afraid.
THE ROOT
תִּרְדְּפֵם
tirdofem
GROWS FROM
רדף
radaph
Pursue, chase, follow after.
“pursue” in this verse is tirdofem. The Hebrew verb means pursuit: a force in motion after someone. The verse pictures the tempest taking up that same chase, so the threat is met by a pursuing force of its own.
ALSO GROWS
rodef: Pursuer.
רֹדֵף
This form names the one doing the chasing, making the motion inside “persecute” visible.
redifah: Pursuit; persecution.
רְדִיפָה
This noun holds both the act of chasing and the pressure that pursuit brings.
תְבַהֲלֵם
tevahelem
GROWS FROM
בהל
bahal
Be disturbed, alarmed, or thrown into haste.
“shake them” in this verse is tevahelem. The verb describes being thrown into alarm, not simply holding a quiet fear. As the storm closes in outwardly, it unsettles them inwardly.
ALSO GROWS
behalah: Panic; sudden alarm.
בְּהָלָה
The noun makes explicit the disturbance contained in the verse’s “make them afraid.”
nibhal: Be alarmed or dismayed.
נִבְהַל
This related form shows the state of being thrown off balance by fear.
סַעֲרֶךָ
saarekha
GROWS FROM
סער
sa'ar
Storm, rage, or whirl.
“gale” in this verse is saarekha. The word carries the force of a storming, whirling upheaval, not merely rain. Paired with pursuit and alarm, the tempest becomes an active force of judgment.
ALSO GROWS
se'arah: Storm; tempest.
סְעָרָה
This noun names the storm-force that the verse makes pursue its targets.
so'arah: Storm-tossed.
סֹעֲרָה
This related form describes someone caught and battered by the same storming force.
THE PATTERN
The psalm casts judgment as God’s force meeting threat and distressing those who bring it.
Let them be like chaff before the breath, and let the messenger of the LORD thrust them away.You will be visited by the LORD of hosts with thunder, with quaking and a great roar, with sweeping wind and storm, and the flame of fire that eats.Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but give room to wrath. For it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will give back, says the LORD.THE THREAD
Let them be like chaff before the breath, and let the messenger of the LORD thrust them away.The word translated “chase” there shares the Hebrew root רדף (radaph, “pursue”) with “persecute” here. That makes the link sharper than a shared theme: the storm-pursuit in this verse is another expression of the same pursuit verb.
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