Psalms 35:5

35:5 May they be ¹  like wind-driven chaff,

as the Lord’s angel ²  attacks them! ³ 

Psalms 68:1-2

Psalm 68 ⁴ 

For the music director; by David, a psalm, a song.

68:1 God springs into action! ⁵ 

His enemies scatter;

his adversaries ⁶  run from him. ⁷ 

68:2 As smoke is driven away by the wind, so you drive them away. ⁸ 

As wax melts before fire,

so the wicked are destroyed before God.

Exodus 15:7

15:7 In the abundance of your majesty ⁹  you have overthrown ¹⁰ 

those who rise up against you. ¹¹ 

You sent forth ¹²  your wrath; ¹³ 

it consumed them ¹⁴  like stubble.

Job 13:25

13:25 Do you wish to torment ¹⁵  a windblown ¹⁶  leaf

and chase after dry chaff? ¹⁷ 

Job 21:18

21:18 How often ¹⁸  are they like straw before the wind,

and like chaff swept away ¹⁹  by a whirlwind?

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.

Isaiah 41:2

41:2 Who stirs up this one from the east? ²⁰ 

Who ²¹  officially commissions him for service? ²² 

He hands nations over to him, ²³ 

and enables him to subdue ²⁴  kings.

He makes them like dust with his sword,

like windblown straw with his bow. ²⁵ 

Jeremiah 13:24

13:24 “The Lord says, ²⁶ 

‘That is why I will scatter your people ²⁷  like chaff

that is blown away by a desert wind. ²⁸ 

Matthew 3:12

3:12 His winnowing fork ²⁹  is in his hand, and he will clean out his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the storehouse, ³⁰  but the chaff he will burn up with inextinguishable fire.” ³¹ 

[35:5]  ¹ tn The prefixed verbal form is taken as a jussive. See v. 4.

[35:5]  ² sn See the mention of the Lord’s angel in Ps 34:7.

[35:5]  ³ tn Heb “as the Lord’s angel pushes [them].”

[68:1]  ⁴ sn Psalm 68. The psalmist depicts God as a mighty warrior and celebrates the fact that God exerts his power on behalf of his people.

[68:1]  ⁵ tn Or “rises up.” The verb form is an imperfect, not a jussive. The psalmist is describing God’s appearance in battle in a dramatic fashion.

[68:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “those who hate him.”

[68:1]  ⁷ sn The wording of v. 1 echoes the prayer in Num 10:35: “Spring into action, Lord! Then your enemies will be scattered and your adversaries will run from you.”

[68:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “as smoke is scattered, you scatter [them].”

[15:7]  ⁹ sn This expression is cognate with words in v. 1. Here that same greatness or majesty is extolled as in abundance.

[15:7]  ¹⁰ tn Here, and throughout the song, these verbs are the prefixed conjugation that may look like the imperfect but are actually historic preterites. This verb is to “overthrow” or “throw down” – like a wall, leaving it in shattered pieces.

[15:7]  ¹¹ tn The form קָמֶיךָ (qamekha) is the active participle with a pronominal suffix. The participle is accusative, the object of the verb, but the suffix is the genitive of nearer definition (see GKC 358 §116.i).

[15:7]  ¹² sn The verb is the Piel of שָׁלַח (shalakh), the same verb used throughout for the demand on Pharaoh to release Israel. Here, in some irony, God released his wrath on them.

[15:7]  ¹³ sn The word wrath is a metonymy of cause; the effect – the judgment – is what is meant.

[15:7]  ¹⁴ tn The verb is the prefixed conjugation, the preterite, without the consecutive vav (ו).

[13:25]  ¹⁵ tn The verb תַּעֲרוֹץ (ta’arots, “you torment”) is from עָרַץ (’arats), which usually means “fear; dread,” but can also mean “to make afraid; to terrify” (Isa 2:19,21). The imperfect is here taken as a desiderative imperfect: “why do you want to”; but it could also be a simple future: “will you torment.”

[13:25]  ¹⁶ tn The word נִדָּף (niddaf) is “driven” from the root נָדַף (nadaf, “drive”). The words “by the wind” or the interpretation “windblown” has to be added for the clarification. Job is comparing himself to this leaf (so an implied comparison, called hypocatastasis) – so light and insubstantial that it is amazing that God should come after him. Guillaume suggests that the word is not from this root, but from a second root נָדַף (nadaf), cognate to Arabic nadifa, “to dry up” (A. Guillaume, “A Note on Isaiah 19:7,” JTS 14 [1963]: 382-83). But as D. J. A. Clines notes (Job [WBC], 283), a dried leaf is a driven leaf – a point Guillaume allows as he says there is ambiguity in the term.

[13:25]  ¹⁷ tn The word קַשׁ (qash) means “chaff; stubble,” or a wisp of straw. It is found in Job 41:20-21 for that which is so worthless and insignificant that it is hardly worth mentioning. If dried up or withered, it too will be blown away in the wind.

[21:18]  ¹⁸ tn To retain the sense that the wicked do not suffer as others, this verse must either be taken as a question or a continuation of the question in v. 17.

[21:18]  ¹⁹ tn The verb used actually means “rob.” It is appropriate to the image of a whirlwind suddenly taking away the wisp of straw.

[41:2]  ²⁰ sn The expression this one from the east refers to the Persian conqueror Cyrus, as later texts indicate (see 44:28-45:6; 46:11; 48:14-16).

[41:2]  ²¹ tn The interrogative particle is understood by ellipsis.

[41:2]  ²² tn Heb “[in] righteousness called him to his foot.”

[41:2]  ²³ tn Heb “he [the Lord] places before him [Cyrus] nations.”

[41:2]  ²⁴ tn The verb יַרְדְּ (yardÿ) is an otherwise unattested Hiphil form from רָדָה (radah, “rule”). But the Hiphil makes no sense with “kings” as object; one must understand an ellipsis and supply “him” (Cyrus) as the object. The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has יוֹרִד (yorid), which appears to be a Hiphil form from יָרַד (yarad, “go down”). Others suggest reading יָרֹד (yarod), a Qal form from רָדַד (radad, “beat down”).

[41:2]  ²⁵ sn The point is that they are powerless before Cyrus’ military power and scatter before him.

[13:24]  ²⁶ tn The words, “The Lord says” are not in the text at this point. The words “an oracle of the Lord” does, however, occur in the middle of the next verse and it is obvious the Lord is the speaker. The words have been moved up from the next verse to enhance clarity.

[13:24]  ²⁷ tn Heb “them.” This is another example of the rapid shift in pronouns seen several times in the book of Jeremiah. The pronouns in the preceding and the following are second feminine singular. It might be argued that “them” goes back to the “flock”/“sheep” in v. 20, but the next verse refers the fate described here to “you” (feminine singular). This may be another example of the kind of metaphoric shifts in referents discussed in the notes on 13:20 above. Besides, it would sound a little odd in the translation to speak of scattering one person like chaff.

[13:24]  ²⁸ sn Compare the threat using the same metaphor in Jer 4:11-12.

[3:12]  ²⁹ sn A winnowing fork was a pitchfork-like tool used to toss threshed grain in the air so that the wind blew away the chaff, leaving the grain to fall to the ground. The note of purging is highlighted by the use of imagery involving sifting though threshed grain for the useful kernels.

[3:12]  ³⁰ tn Or “granary,” “barn” (referring to a building used to store a farm’s produce rather than a building to house livestock).

[3:12]  ³¹ sn The image of fire that cannot be extinguished is from the OT: Job 20:26; Isa 34:8-10; 66:24.