Psalms 105:39

105:39 He spread out a cloud for a cover, ¹ 

and provided a fire to light up the night.

Psalms 18:8

18:8 Smoke ascended from ²  his nose; ³ 

fire devoured as it came from his mouth; ⁴ 

he hurled down fiery coals. ⁵ 

Psalms 78:21

78:21 When ⁶  the Lord heard this, he was furious.

A fire broke out against Jacob,

and his anger flared up ⁷  against Israel,

[105:39]  ¹ tn Or “curtain.”

[18:8]  ² tn Heb “within”; or “[from] within.” For a discussion of the use of the preposition -בְּ (bÿ) here, see R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 163-64.

[18:8]  ³ tn Or “in his anger.” The noun אַף (’af) can carry the abstract meaning “anger,” but the parallelism (note “from his mouth”) suggests the more concrete meaning “nose” here. See also v. 15, “the powerful breath of your nose.”

[18:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “fire from his mouth devoured.” In this poetic narrative context the prefixed verbal form is best understood as a preterite indicating past tense, not an imperfect. Note the two perfect verbal forms in the verse.

[18:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “coals burned from him.” Perhaps the psalmist pictures God’s fiery breath igniting coals (cf. Job 41:21), which he then hurls as weapons (cf. Ps 120:4).

[78:21]  ³ tn Heb “therefore.”

[78:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “and also anger went up.”