17:13 Though these people make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves, 1
when he shouts at 2 them, they will flee to a distant land,
driven before the wind like dead weeds on the hills,
or like dead thistles 3 before a strong gale.
21:18 How often 4 are they like straw before the wind,
and like chaff swept away 5 by a whirlwind?
1:4 Not so with the wicked!
Instead 6 they are like wind-driven chaff. 7
35:5 May they be 8 like wind-driven chaff,
as the Lord’s angel 9 attacks them! 10
1 tn Heb “the peoples are in an uproar like the uproar of mighty waters.”
2 tn Or “rebukes.” The verb and related noun are used in theophanies of God’s battle cry which terrifies his enemies. See, for example, Pss 18:15; 76:7; 106:9; Isa 50:2; Nah 1:4, and A. Caquot, TDOT 3:49-53.
3 tn Or perhaps “tumbleweed” (NAB, NIV, CEV); KJV “like a rolling thing.”
4 tn To retain the sense that the wicked do not suffer as others, this verse must either be taken as a question or a continuation of the question in v. 17.
5 tn The verb used actually means “rob.” It is appropriate to the image of a whirlwind suddenly taking away the wisp of straw.
6 tn Here the Hebrew expression כִּי־אִם (ki-’im, “instead,” cf. v. 2) introduces a contrast between the prosperity of the godly depicted in v. 3 and the destiny of the wicked described in v. 4.
7 tn Heb “[they are] like the chaff which [the] wind blows about.” The Hebrew imperfect verbal form draws attention to the typical nature of the action described.
8 tn The prefixed verbal form is taken as a jussive. See v. 4.
9 sn See the mention of the
10 tn Heb “as the