Psalms 21:9-13

21:9 You burn them up like a fiery furnace ¹  when you appear; ² 

the Lord angrily devours them; ³ 

the fire consumes them.

21:10 You destroy their offspring ⁴  from the earth,

their descendants ⁵  from among the human race. ⁶ 

21:11 Yes, ⁷  they intend to do you harm; ⁸ 

they dream up a scheme, ⁹  but they do not succeed. ¹⁰ 

21:12 For you make them retreat ¹¹ 

when you shoot your arrows at them. ¹² 

21:13 Rise up, O Lord, in strength! ¹³ 

We will sing and praise ¹⁴  your power!

[21:9]  ¹ 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”).

[21:9]  ² tn Heb “at the time of your face.” The “face” of the king here refers to his angry presence. See Lam 4:16.

[21:9]  ³ 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).

[21:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “fruit.” The next line makes it clear that offspring is in view.

[21:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “seed.”

[21:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “sons of man.”

[21:11]  ⁷ tn Or “for.”

[21:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “they extend against you harm.” The perfect verbal forms in v. 11 are taken as generalizing, stating factually what the king’s enemies typically do. Another option is to translate with the past tense (“they intended…planned”).

[21:11]  ⁹ sn See Ps 10:2.

[21:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “they lack ability.”

[21:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “you make them a shoulder,” i.e., “you make them turn and run, showing the back of their neck and shoulders.”

[21:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “with your bowstrings you fix against their faces,” i.e., “you fix your arrows on the bowstrings to shoot at them.”

[21:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “in your strength,” but English idiom does not require the pronoun.

[21:13]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “sing praise.”