11:6 May the Lord rain down 1 burning coals 2 and brimstone 3 on the wicked!
A whirlwind is what they deserve! 4
21:9 You burn them up like a fiery furnace 5 when you appear; 6
the Lord angrily devours them; 7
the fire consumes them.
A well-written song 9 by Asaph.
74:1 Why, O God, have you permanently rejected us? 10
Why does your anger burn 11 against the sheep of your pasture?
104:32 He looks down on the earth and it shakes;
he touches the mountains and they start to smolder.
144:5 O Lord, make the sky sink 12 and come down! 13
Touch the mountains and make them smolder! 14
144:6 Hurl lightning bolts and scatter them!
Shoot your arrows and rout them! 15
11:1 20 When the people complained, 21 it displeased 22 the Lord. When the Lord heard 23 it, his anger burned, 24 and so 25 the fire of the Lord 26 burned among them and consumed some of the outer parts of the camp.
29:2 Moses proclaimed to all Israel as follows: “You have seen all that the Lord did 35 in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, all his servants, and his land.
1 tn The verb form is a jussive, indicating that the statement is imprecatory (“May the
2 tc The MT reads “traps, fire, and brimstone,” but the image of God raining traps, or snares, down from the sky is bizarre and does not fit the fire and storm imagery of this verse. The noun פַּחִים (pakhim, “traps, snares”) should be emended to פַּחֲמֵי (pakhamey, “coals of [fire]”). The rare noun פֶּחָם (pekham, “coal”) occurs in Prov 26:21 and Isa 44:12; 54:16.
3 sn The image of God “raining down” brimstone on the objects of his judgment also appears in Gen 19:24 and Ezek 38:22.
4 tn Heb “[may] a wind of rage [be] the portion of their cup.” The precise meaning of the rare noun זִלְעָפוֹת (zil’afot) is uncertain. It may mean “raging heat” (BDB 273 s.v. זַלְעָפָה) or simply “rage” (HALOT 272 s.v. זַלְעָפָה). If one understands the former sense, then one might translate “hot wind” (cf. NEB, NRSV). The present translation assumes the latter nuance, “a wind of rage” (the genitive is attributive) referring to a “whirlwind” symbolic of destructive judgment. In this mixed metaphor, judgment is also compared to an allotted portion of a beverage poured into one’s drinking cup (see Hab 2:15-16).
5 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”).
6 tn Heb “at the time of your face.” The “face” of the king here refers to his angry presence. See Lam 4:16.
7 tn Heb “the
8 sn Psalm 74. The psalmist, who has just experienced the devastation of the Babylonian invasion of Jerusalem in 586
9 tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. The word is derived from a verb meaning “to be prudent; to be wise.” Various options are: “a contemplative song,” “a song imparting moral wisdom,” or “a skillful [i.e., well-written] song.” The term occurs in the superscriptions of Pss 32, 42, 44, 45, 52-55, 74, 78, 88, 89, and 142, as well as in Ps 47:7.
10 sn The psalmist does not really believe God has permanently rejected his people or he would not pray as he does in this psalm. But this initial question reflects his emotional response to what he sees and is overstated for the sake of emphasis. The severity of divine judgment gives the appearance that God has permanently abandoned his people.
11 tn Heb “smoke.” The picture is that of a fire that continues to smolder.
12 tn The Hebrew verb נָטָה (natah) can carry the sense “to [cause to] bend; to [cause to] bow down.” For example, Gen 49:15 pictures Issachar as a donkey that “bends” its shoulder or back under a burden. Here the
13 tn Heb “so you might come down.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose after the preceding imperative. The same type of construction is utilized in v. 6.
14 tn Heb “so they might smolder.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose after the preceding imperative.
15 sn Arrows and lightning bolts are associated in other texts (see Pss 18:14; 77:17-18; Zech 9:14), as well as in ancient Near Eastern art (see R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” [Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983], 187).
16 tn Heb “upon the face of.”
17 tn Or “all the land of the plain”; Heb “and all the face of the land of the circle,” referring to the “circle” or oval area of the Jordan Valley.
18 tn Heb “And he saw, and look, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.”
19 tn See the note on 9:24a.
20 sn The chapter includes the initial general complaints (vv. 1-3), the complaints about food (vv. 4-9), Moses’ own complaint to the
21 tn The temporal clause uses the Hitpoel infinitive construct from אָנַן (’anan). It is a rare word, occurring in Lam 3:39. With this blunt introduction the constant emphasis of obedience to the word of the
22 tn Heb “it was evil in the ears of the
23 tn The preterite with vav (ו) consecutive is here subordinated to the next verb as a temporal clause.
24 tn The common Hebrew expression uses the verb חָרָה (harah, “to be hot, to burn, to be kindled”). The subject is אַפּוֹ (’appo), “his anger” or more literally, his nose, which in this anthropomorphic expression flares in rage. The emphasis is superlative – “his anger raged.”
25 tn The vav (ו) consecutive does not simply show sequence in the verbs, but here expresses the result of the anger of the
26 sn The “fire of the
27 tn For a discussion of the fire of the
28 tn Heb “the wrath of the
29 tn Heb “smoke,” or “smolder.”
30 tn Heb “the entire oath.”
31 tn Or “will lie in wait against him.”
32 tn Heb “blot out his name from under the sky.”
33 tn Heb “the anger and the wrath.” This construction is a hendiadys intended to intensify the emotion.
34 tn Heb “this great burning of anger”; KJV “the heat of this great anger.”
35 tn The Hebrew text includes “to your eyes,” but this is redundant in English style (cf. the preceding “you have seen”) and is omitted in the translation.
36 tn Heb “I have placed before you the land.”
37 tn Heb “the
38 tn Heb “swore” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT). This refers to God’s promise, made by solemn oath, to give the patriarchs the land.
39 tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 11, 21, 35).
40 tn Heb “their seed after them.”