Job 21:18

21:18 How often ¹  are they like straw before the wind,

and like chaff swept away ²  by a whirlwind?

Psalms 1:4

1:4 Not so with the wicked!

Instead ³  they are like wind-driven chaff. ⁴ 

Psalms 35:5

35:5 May they be ⁵  like wind-driven chaff,

as the Lord’s angel ⁶  attacks them! ⁷ 

Isaiah 5:24

5:24 Therefore, as flaming fire ⁸  devours straw,

and dry grass disintegrates in the flames,

so their root will rot,

and their flower will blow away like dust. ⁹ 

For they have rejected the law of the Lord who commands armies,

they have spurned the commands ¹⁰  of the Holy One of Israel. ¹¹ 

Isaiah 17:13

17:13 Though these people make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves, ¹² 

when he shouts at ¹³  them, they will flee to a distant land,

driven before the wind like dead weeds on the hills,

or like dead thistles ¹⁴  before a strong gale.

Hosea 13:3

13:3 Therefore they will disappear like ¹⁵  the morning mist, ¹⁶ 

like early morning dew that evaporates, ¹⁷ 

like chaff that is blown away ¹⁸  from a threshing floor,

like smoke that disappears through an open window.

Malachi 4:1

4:1 (3:19) ¹⁹  “For indeed the day ²⁰  is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the arrogant evildoers will be chaff. The coming day will burn them up,” says the Lord who rules over all. “It ²¹  will not leave even a root or branch.

Luke 3:17

3:17 His winnowing fork ²²  is in his hand to clean out his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his storehouse, ²³  but the chaff he will burn up with inextinguishable fire.” ²⁴ 

[21:18]  ¹ 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.

[21:18]  ² tn The verb used actually means “rob.” It is appropriate to the image of a whirlwind suddenly taking away the wisp of straw.

[1:4]  ³ 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.

[1:4]  ⁴ 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.

[35:5]  ⁵ tn The prefixed verbal form is taken as a jussive. See v. 4.

[35:5]  ⁶ sn See the mention of the Lord’s angel in Ps 34:7.

[35:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “as the Lord’s angel pushes [them].”

[5:24]  ⁸ tn Heb “a tongue of fire” (so NASB), referring to a tongue-shaped flame.

[5:24]  ⁹ sn They are compared to a flowering plant that withers quickly in a hot, arid climate.

[5:24]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the word.”

[5:24]  ¹¹ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[17:13]  ¹² tn Heb “the peoples are in an uproar like the uproar of mighty waters.”

[17:13]  ¹³ 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.

[17:13]  ¹⁴ tn Or perhaps “tumbleweed” (NAB, NIV, CEV); KJV “like a rolling thing.”

[13:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “they will be like” (so NASB, NIV).

[13:3]  ¹⁶ tn The phrase כְּעֲנַן־בֹּקֶר (kÿ’anan-boqer, “like a cloud of the morning”) occurs also in Hos 6:4 in a similar simile. The Hebrew poets and prophets refer to morning clouds as a simile for transitoriness (Job 7:9; Isa 44:22; Hos 6:4; 13:3; HALOT 858 s.v. עָנָן 1.b; BDB 778 s.v. עָנָן 1.c).

[13:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “like the early rising dew that goes away”; TEV “like the dew that vanishes early in the day.”

[13:3]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “storm-driven away”; KJV, ASV “driven with the whirlwind out.” The verb יְסֹעֵר (yÿso’er, Poel imperfect 3rd person masculine singular from סָעַר, sa’ar, “to storm”) often refers to the intense action of strong, raging storm winds (e.g., Jonah 1:11, 13). The related nouns refer to “heavy gale,” “storm wind,” and “high wind” (BDB 704 s.v. סָעַר; HALOT 762 s.v. סער). The verb is used figuratively to describe the intensity of God’s destruction of the wicked whom he will “blow away” (Isa 54:11; Hos 13:3; Hab 3:14; Zech 7:14; BDB 704 s.v.; HALOT 762 s.v.).

[4:1]  ¹⁹ sn Beginning with 4:1, the verse numbers through 4:6 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 4:1 ET = 3:19 HT, 4:2 ET = 3:20 HT, etc., through 4:6 ET = 3:24 HT. Thus the book of Malachi in the Hebrew Bible has only three chapters, with 24 verses in ch. 3.

[4:1]  ²⁰ sn This day is the well-known “day of the Lord” so pervasive in OT eschatological texts (see Joel 2:30-31; Amos 5:18; Obad 15). For the believer it is a day of grace and salvation; for the sinner, a day of judgment and destruction.

[4:1]  ²¹ tn Heb “so that it” (so NASB, NRSV). For stylistic reasons a new sentence was begun here in the translation.

[3:17]  ²² sn A winnowing fork is a pitchfork-like tool used to toss threshed grain in the air so that the wind blows 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.

[3:17]  ²³ tn Or “granary,” “barn” (referring to a building used to store a farm’s produce rather than a building for housing livestock).

[3:17]  ²⁴ sn The image of fire that cannot be extinguished is from the OT: Job 20:26; Isa 34:8-10; 66:24.