Psalms 83
Old Testament · Brenton Septuagint with Greek parallel
Psalms chapter 83 is given here in full, verse by verse, in Sir Lancelot Brenton's classic English translation of the Septuagint (LXX), with the Greek text of the Septuagint set beneath each verse. The text follows the Septuagint tradition received throughout the Orthodox Church.
12 patristic excerpts are attached to this chapter, from Saint Augustine of Hippo.
Psalms 83
1(84) For the end, a Psalm for the sons of Core, concerning the wine presses.Εἰς τὸ τέλος, ὑπὲρ τῶν ληνῶν τοῖς υἱοῖς Κορὲ ψαλμός.
2How amiable are your tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!Ὡς ἀγαπητὰ τὰ σκηνώματά σου Κύριε τῶν δυνάμεων.
3My soul longs, and faints for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh have exulted in the living god.Ἐπιποθεῖ καὶ ἐκλείπει ἡ ψυχή μου εἰς τὰς αὐλὰς τοῦ Κυρίου· ἡ καρδία μου καὶ ἡ σάρξ μου ἠγαλλιάσαντο ἐπὶ Θεὸν ζῶντα·
4Yes, the sparrow has found himself a home, and the turtle-dove a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God.Καὶ γὰρ στρουθίον εὗρεν ἑαυτῷ οἰκίαν, καὶ τρυγὼν νοσσιὰν ἑαυτῇ, οὗ θήσει τὰ νοσσία ἑαυτῆς· τὰ θυσιαστήριά σου Κύριε τῶν δυνάμεων, ὁ βασιλεύς μου καὶ ὁ Θεός μου.
5Blessed are they that dwell in your house: they will praise you evermore. Pause.Μακάριοι οἱ κατοικοῦντες ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ σου, εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων αἰνέσουσί σε· διάψαλμα.
6Blessed is the man whose help is of you, O Lord; in his heart he has purposed to go upΜακάριος ἀνὴρ οὗ ἐστιν ἡ ἀντίληψις αὐτοῦ παρὰ σοῦ, Κύριε· ἀναβάσεις ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτοῦ διέθετο,
7the valley of weeping, to the place which he has appointed, for there the law-giver will grant blessings.εἰς τὴν κοιλάδα τοῦ κλαυθμῶνος, εἰς τὸν τόπον ὃν ἔθετο· καὶ γὰρ εὐλογίας δώσει ὁ νομοθετῶν,
8They shall go from strength to strength: the God of gods shall be seen in Sion.πορεύσονται ἐκ δυνάμεως εἰς δύναμιν, ὀφθήσεται ὁ Θεὸς τῶν θεῶν ἐν Σιών.
9O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer: listen, O God of Jacob. Pause.Κύριε ὁ Θεὸς τῶν δυνάμεων, εἰσάκουσον τῆς προσευχῆς μου, ἐνώτισαι ὁ Θεὸς Ἰακώβ· διάψαλμα.
10Behold, O God our defender, and look upon the face of your anointed.Ὑπερασπιστὰ ἡμῶν ἴδε ὁ Θεὸς, καὶ ἐπίβλεψον ἐπὶ τὸ πρόσωπον τοῦ χριστοῦ σοῦ.
11For one day in your courts is better than thousands. I would rather be an abject in the house of God, than dwell in the tents of sinners.Ὅτι κρείσσων ἡμέρα μία ἐν ταῖς αὐλαῖς σου, ὑπὲρ χιλιάδας· ἐξελεξάμην παραῤῥιπτεῖσθαι ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ τοῦ Θεοῦ μᾶλλον ἢ οἰκεῖν με ἐπὶ σκηνώμασιν ἁμαρτωλῶν.
12For the Lord loves mercy and truth: God will give grace and glory: the Lord will not withhold good things from them that walk in innocence.Ὅτι ἔλεον καὶ ἀλήθειαν ἀγαπᾷ Κύριος, ὁ Θεὸς χάριν καὶ δόξαν δώσει· Κύριος οὐχ ὑστερήσει τὰ ἀγαθὰ τοῖς πορευομένοις ἐν ἀκακίᾳ.
13O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusts in you.Κύριε τῶν δυνάμεων, μακάριος ἄνθρωπος ὁ ἐλπίζων ἐπὶ σέ.
The Fathers on Psalms 83
Saint Augustine of Hippo comments on this chapter. Each excerpt below is drawn from the full text held in the Fathers Library; follow the link on any entry to read the whole work.
On Psalms 83:2Saint Augustine of Hippo5. If therefore thou feelest the passions of this world, even when thou art happy, thou understandest now that thou art in the winepress.…If therefore the world smile upon thee with happiness, imagine thyself in the winepress, and say, “I found trouble and heaviness, and I did call upon the name of the Lord.” He said not, I found trouble, without meaning, of such a kind as was hidden: for some troubles are hidden…
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On Psalms 83:3Saint Augustine of Hippo6. And what follows? “My soul longeth and faileth for the courts of the Lord” (ver. 2). It is not enough that it “longeth and faileth:” for what doth it fail? “For the courts of the Lord.” The grape when pressed hath failed: but for what? So as to be changed into wine, and to flow into the vat, and into the rest of the storeroom, to be kept there in great quiet. Here it is longed for, there it is received: here…
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On Psalms 83:4Saint Augustine of Hippo7. Thou hast heard a groan in the winepress, “My soul longeth and faileth for the courts of the Lord:” hear how it holdeth out, rejoicing in hope: “My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God.” Here they have rejoiced for that cause. Whence cometh rejoicing, but of hope? Wherefore have they rejoiced? “In the living God.” What has rejoiced in thee? “My heart and my flesh.” Why have they rejoiced? “For,”…
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On Psalms 83:5Saint Augustine of Hippo8. …“Blessed are those who dwell in Thy house” (ver. 4).…If thou hast thy own house, thou art poor; if God’s, thou art rich. In thy own house thou wilt fear robbers; of the house of God, He is Himself the wall. Therefore “blessed are those who dwell in Thy house.” They possess the heavenly Jerusalem, without constraint, without pressure, without difference and division of boundaries; all have it, and each have…
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On Psalms 83:6Saint Augustine of Hippo9. But how shall we come thither? “Happy is the man whose strength is in Thee” (ver. 5). He knew where he was, and that by reason of the frailty of his flesh he could not fly to that state of blessedness: he thought upon his own burden, as it is said elsewhere; “For the corruptible body weighs down the soul, and the earthly house depresses the understanding which has many thoughts.” The Spirit calls upward, the…
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On Psalms 83:7Saint Augustine of Hippo10. What then does God supply by His grace to him whom He taketh hold of to lead him on? He goes on to say: “He hath placed steps in his heart.”…Where does it place steps? “In his heart, in the valley of weeping” (ver. 6). So here thou hast for a winepress the valley of weeping, the very pious tears in tribulation are the new wine of those that love.…They went forth “weeping,” he says, “casting their seed.”…
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On Psalms 83:9Saint Augustine of Hippo12. And again, from the thought of those joys he returns to his own sighs. He sees what has come before in hope, and where he is in reality.…Therefore returning to the groans proper to this place, he saith, “O Lord God of virtues, hear my prayer: hearken, O God of Jacob” (ver. 8): for Jacob himself also Thou hast made Israel out of Jacob. For God appeared unto him, and he was called Israel, seeing God. Hear me…
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On Psalms 83:10Saint Augustine of Hippo13. “Behold, O God our defender. And look on the face of Thy Christ” (ver. 9). For when doth God not look upon the face of His Christ? What is this, “Look on the face of Thy Christ”? By the face we are known. What is it then, Look on the face of Thy Christ? Cause Thy Christ to become known to all. Look on the face of Thy Christ: let Christ become known to all, that we may be able to go from strength to strength,…
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On Psalms 83:11Saint Augustine of Hippo14. “For one day in Thy courts is better than a thousand” (ver. 10). Those courts they were for which he sighed, for which he fainted. “My soul longeth and faileth for the courts of the Lord:” one day there is better than a thousand days. Men long for thousands of days, and wish to live here long: let them despise these thousands of days, let them long for one day, which has neither rising nor setting: one day,…
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On Psalms 83:11Saint Augustine of Hippo15. “I have chosen to be cast away in the house of the Lord, rather than to dwell in the tents of sinners” (ver. 11). For he found the valley of weeping, he found humility by which he might rise: he knoweth that if he would raise himself he shall fall, if he humble himself he shall be exalted: he hath chosen to be cast away, that he may be raised up. How many beside this tabernacle of the Lord’s winepress, that…
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On Psalms 83:12Saint Augustine of Hippo16. Wherefore did he choose?…“Because God loveth mercy and truth” (ver. 12). The Lord loveth mercy, by which He first came to my help: He loveth truth, so as to give to him that believeth what He has promised. Hear in the case of the Apostle Paul, His mercy and truth, Paul who was first Saul the persecutor. He needed mercy, and he has said that it was shown towards him: “I who was before a blasphemer, and a…
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On Psalms 83:12Open Psalms 83 in the interactive reader Switch translations, hear the chapter read aloud, tap any verse for its patristic commentary, and study the Greek word by word.Saint Augustine of Hippo17. Therefore “the Lord will not withhold good from those who walk in innocence” (ver. 12). Why then, O men, are ye unwilling to keep innocence, except in order that ye may have good things?…Thou seest wealth in the hands of robbers, of the impious, the wicked, the base; in the hands of scandalous and criminal men thou seest wealth: God giveth them these things on account of their fellowship in the human race,…
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