Psalms 21:9

21:9 You burn them up like a fiery furnace ¹  when you appear; ² 

the Lord angrily devours them; ³ 

the fire consumes them.

Psalms 120:4

120:4 Here’s how! ⁴  With the sharp arrows of warriors,

with arrowheads forged over the hot coals. ⁵ 

Isaiah 30:33

30:33 For ⁶  the burial place is already prepared; ⁷ 

it has been made deep and wide for the king. ⁸ 

The firewood is piled high on it. ⁹ 

The Lord’s breath, like a stream flowing with brimstone,

will ignite it.

Matthew 3:12

3:12 His winnowing fork ¹⁰  is in his hand, and he will clean out his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the storehouse, ¹¹  but the chaff he will burn up with inextinguishable fire.” ¹² 

¹ tn Heb “you make them like a furnace of fire.” Although many modern translations retain the literal Hebrew, the statement is elliptical. The point is not that he makes them like a furnace, but like an object burned in a furnace (cf. NEB, “at your coming you shall plunge them into a fiery furnace”).

² tn Heb “at the time of your face.” The “face” of the king here refers to his angry presence. See Lam 4:16.

³ tn Heb “the Lord, in his anger he swallows them, and fire devours them.” Some take “the Lord” as a vocative, in which case he is addressed in vv. 8-9a. But this makes the use of the third person in v. 9b rather awkward, though the king could be the subject (see vv. 1-7).

⁴ tn The words “here’s how” are supplied in the translation as a clarification. In v. 4 the psalmist answers the question he raises in v. 3.

⁵ tn Heb “with coals of the wood of the broom plant.” The wood of the broom plant was used to make charcoal, which in turn was used to fuel the fire used to forge the arrowheads.

⁶ tn Or “indeed.”

⁷ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “for arranged from before [or “yesterday”] is [?].” The meaning of תָּפְתֶּה (tafÿteh), which occurs only here, is unknown. The translation above (as with most English versions) assumes an emendation to תֹּפֶת (tofet, “Topheth”; cf. NASB, NIV, NLT) and places the final hey (ה) on the beginning of the next word as an interrogative particle. Topheth was a place near Jerusalem used as a burial ground (see Jer 7:32; 19:11).

⁸ tn The Hebrew text reads literally, “Also it is made ready for the king, one makes it deep and wide.” If one takes the final hey (ה) on תָּפְתֶּה (tafÿteh) and prefixes it to גָּם (gam) as an interrogative particle (see the preceding note), one can translate, “Is it also made ready for the king?” In this case the question is rhetorical and expects an emphatic affirmative answer, “Of course it is!”

⁹ tn Heb “its pile of wood, fire and wood one makes abundant.”

¹⁰ sn A winnowing fork was a pitchfork-like tool used to toss threshed grain in the air so that the wind blew away the chaff, leaving the grain to fall to the ground. The note of purging is highlighted by the use of imagery involving sifting though threshed grain for the useful kernels.

¹¹ tn Or “granary,” “barn” (referring to a building used to store a farm’s produce rather than a building to house livestock).

¹² sn The image of fire that cannot be extinguished is from the OT: Job 20:26; Isa 34:8-10; 66:24.