18:42 I grind them as fine windblown dust; 1
I beat them underfoot 2 like clay 3 in the streets.
10:6 I sent him 4 against a godless 5 nation,
I ordered him to attack the people with whom I was angry, 6
to take plunder and to carry away loot,
to trample them down 7 like dirt in the streets.
7:10 When my enemies see this, they will be covered with shame.
They say 8 to me, “Where is the Lord your God?”
I will gloat over them. 9
Then they will be trampled down 10
like mud in the streets.
1 tn Heb “I pulverize them like dust upon the face of the wind.” The phrase “upon the face of” here means “before.” 2 Sam 22:43 reads, “like dust of the earth.”
2 tc Ps 18:42 reads, “I empty them out” (Hiphil of ריק), while 2 Sam 22:43 reads, “I crush them, I stomp on them” (juxtaposing the synonyms דקק and רקע). It is likely that the latter is a conflation of variants. One, but not both, of the verbs in 2 Sam 22:43 is probably original; “empty out” does not form as good a parallel with “grind, pulverize” in the parallel line.
3 tn Or “mud.”
4 sn Throughout this section singular forms are used to refer to Assyria; perhaps the king of Assyria is in view (see v. 12).
5 tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “impious”; NCV “separated from God.”
6 tn Heb “and against the people of my anger I ordered him.”
7 tn Heb “to make it [i.e., the people] a trampled place.”
8 tn Heb “who say.” A new sentence was begun here in the translation for stylistic reasons.
9 tn Heb “My eyes will look on them.”
10 tn Heb “a trampled-down place.”
11 tn Heb “and the riders on horses will be put to shame,” figurative for the defeat of mounted troops. The word “enemy” in the translation is supplied from context.