Psalms 83:14

83:14 Like the fire that burns down the forest,

or the flames that consume the mountainsides, ¹ 

Psalms 119:139

119:139 My zeal ²  consumes ³  me,

for my enemies forget your instructions. ⁴ 

Psalms 97:3

97:3 Fire goes before him;

on every side ⁵  it burns up his enemies.

Psalms 69:9

69:9 Certainly ⁶  zeal for ⁷  your house ⁸  consumes me;

I endure the insults of those who insult you. ⁹ 

Psalms 21:9

21:9 You burn them up like a fiery furnace ¹⁰  when you appear; ¹¹ 

the Lord angrily devours them; ¹² 

the fire consumes them.

Psalms 39:11

39:11 You severely discipline people for their sins; ¹³ 

like a moth you slowly devour their strength. ¹⁴ 

Surely all people are a mere vapor. (Selah)

¹ sn The imagery of fire and flames suggests unrelenting, destructive judgment.

² tn or “zeal.”

³ tn Heb “destroys,” in a hyperbolic sense.

⁴ tn Heb “your words.”

³ tn Heb “all around.”

⁴ tn Or “for.” This verse explains that the psalmist’s suffering is due to his allegiance to God.

⁵ tn Or “devotion to.”

⁶ sn God’s house, the temple, here represents by metonymy God himself.

⁷ tn Heb “the insults of those who insult you fall upon me.”

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 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).

⁶ tn “with punishments on account of sin you discipline a man.”

⁷ tc Heb “you cause to dissolve, like a moth, his desired [thing].” The translation assumes an emendation of חֲמוּדוֹ (khamudo, “his desirable [thing]”) to חֶמְדוֹ (khemdo, “his loveliness” [or “beauty”]), a reading that is supported by a few medieval Hebrew mss.