Psalms 22:14

22:14 My strength drains away like water; ¹ 

all my bones are dislocated;

my heart ²  is like wax;

it melts away inside me.

Psalms 68:2

68:2 As smoke is driven away by the wind, so you drive them away. ³ 

As wax melts before fire,

so the wicked are destroyed before God.

Psalms 97:5

97:5 The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,

before the Lord of the whole earth.

Psalms 112:10

112:10 When the wicked ⁴  see this, they will worry;

they will grind their teeth in frustration ⁵  and melt away;

the desire of the wicked will perish. ⁶ 

[22:14]  ¹ tn Heb “like water I am poured out.”

[22:14]  ² sn The heart is viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s strength and courage.

[68:2]  ³ tn Heb “as smoke is scattered, you scatter [them].”

[112:10]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew text uses the singular; the representative wicked individual is in view as typifying the group (note the use of the plural form in v. 10).

[112:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “his teeth he will gnash.” In Pss 35:16 and 37:12 this action is associated with a vicious attack.

[112:10]  ⁷ tn This could mean that the desires of the wicked will go unfulfilled. Another possibility is that “desire” refers by metonymy to the object desired and acquired. In this case the point is that the wicked will lose what they desired so badly and acquired by evil means (see Ps 10:3).