Psalms 72:9

72:9 Before him the coastlands ¹  will bow down,

and his enemies will lick the dust. ² 

Isaiah 29:4

29:4 You will fall;

while lying on the ground ³  you will speak;

from the dust where you lie, your words will be heard. ⁴ 

Your voice will sound like a spirit speaking from the underworld; ⁵ 

from the dust you will chirp as if muttering an incantation. ⁶ 

Isaiah 65:25

65:25 A wolf and a lamb will graze together; ⁷ 

a lion, like an ox, will eat straw, ⁸ 

and a snake’s food will be dirt. ⁹ 

They will no longer injure or destroy

on my entire royal mountain,” ¹⁰  says the Lord.

Micah 7:17

7:17 They will lick the dust like a snake,

like serpents crawling on the ground. ¹¹ 

They will come trembling from their strongholds

to the Lord our God; ¹² 

they will be terrified ¹³  of you. ¹⁴ 

[72:9]  ¹ tn Or “islands.” The term here refers metonymically to those people who dwell in these regions.

[72:9]  ² sn As they bow down before him, it will appear that his enemies are licking the dust.

[29:4]  ³ tn Heb “from the ground” (so NIV, NCV).

[29:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “and from the dust your word will be low.”

[29:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “and your voice will be like a ritual pit from the earth.” The Hebrew אוֹב (’ov, “ritual pit”) refers to a pit used by a magician to conjure up underworld spirits. See the note on “incantations” in 8:19. Here the word is used metonymically for the voice that emerges from such a pit.

[29:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “and from the dust your word will chirp.” The words “as if muttering an incantation” are supplied in the translation for clarification. See the parallelism and 8:19.

[65:25]  ⁷ sn A similar statement appears in 11:6.

[65:25]  ⁸ sn These words also appear in 11:7.

[65:25]  ⁹ sn Some see an allusion to Gen 3:14 (note “you will eat dirt”). The point would be that even in this new era the snake (often taken as a symbol of Satan) remains under God’s curse. However, it is unlikely that such an allusion exists. Even if there is an echo of Gen 3:14, the primary allusion is to 11:8, where snakes are pictured as no longer dangerous. They will no longer attack other living creatures, but will be content to crawl along the ground. (The statement “you will eat dirt” in Gen 3:14 means “you will crawl on the ground.” In the same way the statement “dirt will be its food” in Isa 65:25 means “it will crawl on the ground.”)

[65:25]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “in all my holy mountain.” These same words appear in 11:9. See the note there.

[7:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “like crawling things on the ground.” The parallelism suggests snakes are in view.

[7:17]  ¹² tn Thetranslationassumesthatthe phrase אֶל־יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ (’el-yÿhvah ’elohenu, “to the Lord our God”) goes with what precedes. Another option is to take the phrase with the following verb, in which case one could translate, “to the Lord our God they will turn in dread.”

[7:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “they will be in dread and afraid.”

[7:17]  ¹⁴ tn The Lord is addressed directly using the second person.