Psalms 83:3

Consulted against thy hidden ones - צפוניך tsephuneycha, Thy hidden things; places; persons. "The hidden things in thy treasures." - Chaldee. "Thy holy ones." - Syriac. "Thy saints." - Vulgate and Septuagint; and so the Ethiopic and Arabic. The people of Israel are probably meant. Or perhaps the temple, the ark, and the treasures of the temple, are intended.

They have taken crafty counsel - The one word translated "have taken crafty" - ערם ‛âram - means properly to make naked; and then, to be crafty, cunning, malignant, 1 Samuel 23:22. It is well rendered here, they have taken crafty counsel. The meaning is, they have made their counsel or their consultations crafty, cunning, artful, malignant. Instead of pursuing a course in their deliberations that would be just, true, honorable, they have followed the reverse. On the word rendered "counsel" - סוד sôd - which means a couch or cushion, and hence, a divan - see Job 15:8, note; Psalm 25:14, note; Psalm 64:2, note. The idea here is, that the persons referred to in the subsequent part of the psalm (Psalm 83:6-8) had been assembled in a divan, or for consultation, and that they had there formed a malignant plan - against God and his people - which they were now proceeding to execute.

Against thy people - For the purpose of destroying them.

And consulted against thy hidden ones - The word rendered "hidden ones" - from the verb צפן tsâphan, to hide, to conceal - properly denotes that which is secret, private, inaccessible Ezekiel 7:22; and then, anything protected or hidden so as to be secure. Compare the notes at Psalm 27:5. It would seem here to refer to those who were so protected by Yahweh - so inaccessible to others by reason of his guardian care - that they would be safe.

83:3 Hidden ones - Thy people of Israel, who are called God's hidden or secret ones, to intimate the respect which God has to them, as to his peculiar treasure.