Proverbs 1:27

1:27 when what you dread ¹  comes like a whirlwind, ² 

and disaster strikes you ³  like a devastating storm, ⁴ 

when distressing trouble ⁵  comes on you.

Job 27:19-21

27:19 He goes to bed wealthy, but will do so no more. ⁶ 

When he opens his eyes, it is all gone. ⁷ 

27:20 Terrors overwhelm him like a flood; ⁸ 

at night a whirlwind carries him off.

27:21 The east wind carries him away, and he is gone;

it sweeps him out of his place.

Psalms 37:9-10

37:9 Wicked men ⁹  will be wiped out, ¹⁰ 

but those who rely on the Lord are the ones who will possess the land. ¹¹ 

37:10 Evil men will soon disappear; ¹² 

you will stare at the spot where they once were, but they will be gone. ¹³ 

Psalms 58:9

58:9 Before the kindling is even placed under your pots, ¹⁴ 

he ¹⁵  will sweep it away along with both the raw and cooked meat. ¹⁶ 

Psalms 73:18-20

73:18 Surely ¹⁷  you put them in slippery places;

you bring them down ¹⁸  to ruin.

73:19 How desolate they become in a mere moment!

Terrifying judgments make their demise complete! ¹⁹ 

73:20 They are like a dream after one wakes up. ²⁰ 

O Lord, when you awake ²¹  you will despise them. ²² 

Isaiah 40:24

40:24 Indeed, they are barely planted;

yes, they are barely sown;

yes, they barely take root in the earth,

and then he blows on them, causing them to dry up,

and the wind carries them away like straw.

[1:27]  ¹ tn Heb “your dread.” See note on 1:31.

[1:27]  ² sn The term “whirlwind” (NAB, NIV, NRSV; cf. TEV, NLT “storm”) refers to a devastating storm and is related to the verb שׁוֹא (sho’, “to crash into ruins”; see BDB 996 s.v. שׁוֹאָה). Disaster will come swiftly and crush them like a devastating whirlwind.

[1:27]  ³ tn Heb “your disaster.” The 2nd person masculine singular suffix is an objective genitive: “disaster strikes you.”

[1:27]  ⁴ tn Heb “like a storm.” The noun סוּפָה (sufah, “storm”) is often used in similes to describe sudden devastation (Isa 5:28; Hos 8:7; Amos 1:14).

[1:27]  ⁵ tn Heb “distress and trouble.” The nouns “distress and trouble” mean almost the same thing so they may form a hendiadys. The two similar sounding terms צוּקָה (tsuqah) and צָרָה (tsarah) also form a wordplay (paronomasia) which also links them together.

[27:19]  ⁶ tc The verb is the Niphal יֵאָסֵף (ye’asef), from אָסַף (’asaf, “to gather”). So, “he lies down rich, but he is not gathered.” This does not make much sense. It would mean “he will not be gathered for burial,” but that does not belong here. Many commentators accept the variant יֹאסִף (yo’sif) stood for יוֹסִיף (yosif, “will [not] add”). This is what the LXX and the Syriac have. This leads to the interpretive translation that “he will do so no longer.”

[27:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he is not.” One view is that this must mean that he dies, not that his wealth is gone. R. Gordis (Job, 295) says the first part should be made impersonal: “when one opens one’s eyes, the wicked is no longer there.” E. Dhorme (Job, 396) has it more simply: “He has opened his eyes, and it is for the last time.” But the other view is that the wealth goes overnight. In support of this is the introduction into the verse of the wealthy. The RSV, NRSV, ESV, and NLT take it that “wealth is gone.”

[27:20]  ⁸ tn Many commentators want a word parallel to “in the night.” And so we are offered בַּיּוֹם (bayyom, “in the day”) for כַמַּיִם (khammayim, “like waters”) as well as a number of others. But “waters” sometimes stand for major calamities, and so may be retained here. Besides, not all parallel structures are synonymous.

[37:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “for evil men.” The conjunction כִּי (ki, “for”) relates to the exhortations in v. 8; there is no reason to be frustrated, for the evildoers will be punished in due time.

[37:9]  ¹⁰ tn Or “cut off, removed.”

[37:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and those who wait on the Lord, they will possess the land.”

[37:10]  ¹² tn Heb “and yet, a little, there will be no wicked [one].”

[37:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “and you will carefully look upon his place, but he will not be [there].” The singular is used here in a representative sense; the typical evildoer is in view.

[58:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “before your pots perceive thorns.”

[58:9]  ¹⁵ tn Apparently God (v. 6) is the subject of the verb here.

[58:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “like living, like burning anger he will sweep it away.” The meaning of the text is unclear. The translation assumes that within the cooking metaphor (see the previous line) חַי (khay, “living”) refers here to raw meat (as in 1 Sam 2:15, where it modifies בָּשָׂר, basar, “flesh”) and that חָרוּן (kharun; which always refers to God’s “burning anger” elsewhere) here refers to food that is cooked. The pronominal suffix on the verb “sweep away” apparently refers back to the “thorns” of the preceding line. The image depicts swift and sudden judgment. Before the fire has been adequately kindled and all the meat cooked, the winds of judgment will sweep away everything in their path.

[73:18]  ¹⁷ tn The use of the Hebrew term אַךְ (’akh, “surely”) here literarily counteracts its use in v. 13. The repetition draws attention to the contrast between the two statements, the first of which expresses the psalmist’s earlier despair and the second his newly discovered confidence.

[73:18]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “cause them to fall.”

[73:19]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “they come to an end, they are finished, from terrors.”

[73:20]  ²⁰ tn Heb “like a dream from awakening.” They lack any real substance; their prosperity will last for only a brief time.

[73:20]  ²¹ sn When you awake. The psalmist compares God’s inactivity to sleep and the time of God’s judgment to his awakening from sleep.

[73:20]  ²² tn Heb “you will despise their form.” The Hebrew term צֶלֶם (tselem, “form; image”) also suggests their short-lived nature. Rather than having real substance, they are like the mere images that populate one’s dreams. Note the similar use of the term in Ps 39:6.