What Does Psalm 83:2 Mean?
For look, your enemies roar, and those who hate you lift up the head.
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
For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.THE KEY
The verse joins a roaring crowd with a raised head: hostility is making a public bid for elevation.
THE MEANING
The opposition confronting you is not quiet: it surges in public tumult, and those who hate you lift their heads openly. The verse lets you see hostility in both its noise and its posture.
THE ROOT
יַהֲמִיוּן
yehemayun
GROWS FROM
המה
To roar, murmur, or surge noisily.
“roar” in this verse is yehemayun. The sound here belongs to the root הָמָה (hamah), which can describe roaring or murmuring; הָמוֹן (hamon) names a multitude or its din. Isaiah uses this same root for peoples making a noise like the sea, so the English “tumult” carries the image of a surge of voices.
ALSO GROWS
hamah: To roar or murmur.
הָמָה
This verb gives the enemies’ tumult its sense of a swelling, audible uproar.
hamon: A multitude, crowd, or din.
הָמוֹן
This related word brings the crowd and its noise together, rather than leaving “tumult” as a vague disturbance.
נָשְׂאוּ
nas'u
GROWS FROM
נשא
To lift, carry, or bear.
“lift up the head” in this verse is nas'u. The verb can mean lifting as well as bearing, while נָשִׂיא (nasi) means a prince or leader, one elevated in rank. Beside “head,” the root depicts hatred taking an openly raised, defiant posture.
ALSO GROWS
nasa: To lift, carry, or bear.
נָשָׂא
This is the verb behind the raised head, keeping the image of elevation concrete.
nasi: A prince, leader, or chief.
נָשִׂיא
This related word links being lifted up with public rank and authority.
massa: A load or burden.
מַשָּׂא
This branch preserves the root’s other shade: what is lifted can also be carried as a burden.
THE PATTERN
Hostility toward God becomes public as a swelling roar and organized opposition.
Woe to the roaring of many peoples, who roar like the roar of seas; and to the crashing of nations, who crash like the crashing of mighty waters!Why do the nations churn, and the peoples mutter emptiness?The kings of the earth stood side by side, and the rulers gathered together against the LORD and against his Anointed One.THE THREAD
Woe to the roaring of many peoples, who roar like the roar of seas; and to the crashing of nations, who crash like the crashing of mighty waters!Isaiah uses the same root, הָמָה (hamah), for peoples making a noise like the sea. That shared root opens the “tumult” here as a surge of voices, human opposition sounding like waters in motion.
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