Psalms 37:38

37:38 Sinful rebels are totally destroyed; ¹ 

evil men have no future. ² 

Psalms 52:4

52:4 You love to use all the words that destroy, ³ 

and the tongue that deceives.

Psalms 69:25

69:25 May their camp become desolate,

their tents uninhabited! ⁴ 

Psalms 73:19

73:19 How desolate they become in a mere moment!

Terrifying judgments make their demise complete! ⁵ 

Psalms 78:45

78:45 He sent swarms of biting insects against them, ⁶ 

as well as frogs that overran their land. ⁷ 

Psalms 78:47-48

78:47 He destroyed their vines with hail,

and their sycamore-fig trees with driving rain.

78:48 He rained hail down on their cattle, ⁸ 

and hurled lightning bolts down on their livestock. ⁹ 

Psalms 83:10

83:10 They were destroyed at Endor; ¹⁰ 

their corpses were like manure ¹¹  on the ground.

Psalms 83:17

83:17 May they be humiliated and continually terrified! ¹² 

May they die in shame! ¹³ 

Psalms 89:40

89:40 You have broken down all his ¹⁴  walls;

you have made his strongholds a heap of ruins.

Psalms 144:6

144:6 Hurl lightning bolts and scatter them!

Shoot your arrows and rout them! ¹⁵ 

Psalms 145:20

145:20 The Lord protects those who love him,

but he destroys all the wicked.

[37:38]  ¹ tn Or “destroyed together.” In this case the psalmist pictures judgment sweeping them away as a group.

[37:38]  ² tn Heb “the end of evil men is cut off.” As in v. 37, some interpret אַחֲרִית (’akharit, “end”) as referring to offspring (see Ps 109:13). The perfect verbal forms in v. 38 probably express general truths. Another option is that they are used emphatically to state with certitude that the demise of the wicked is as good as done.

[52:4]  ³ tn Heb “you love all the words of swallowing.” Traditionally בַּלַּע (bala’) has been taken to mean “swallowing” in the sense of “devouring” or “destructive” (see BDB 118 s.v. בָּלַע). HALOT 135 s.v. III *בֶּלַע proposes a homonym here, meaning “confusion.” This would fit the immediate context nicely and provide a close parallel to the following line, which refers to deceptive words.

[69:25]  ⁵ tn Heb “in their tents may there not be one who dwells.”

[73:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “they come to an end, they are finished, from terrors.”

[78:45]  ⁹ tn Heb “and he sent an insect swarm against them and it devoured them.”

[78:45]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and a swarm of frogs and it destroyed them.”

[78:48]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and he turned over to the hail their cattle.”

[78:48]  ¹² tn Heb “and their livestock to the flames.” “Flames” here refer to the lightning bolts that accompanied the storm.

[83:10]  ¹³ sn Endor is not mentioned in the accounts of Gideon’s or Barak’s victories, but both battles took place in the general vicinity of the town. (See Y. Aharoni and M. Avi-Yonah, The Macmillan Bible Atlas, 46, 54.) Because Sisera and Jabin are mentioned in v. 9b, many understand them to be the subject of the verbs in v. 10, though they relate v. 10 to Gideon’s victory, which is referred to in v. 9a, 11. (See, for example, Y. Aharoni, The Land of the Bible, 263.)

[83:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “they were manure.” In addition to this passage, corpses are compared to manure in 2 Kgs 9:37; Jer 8:2; 9:21; 16:4; 25:33.

[83:17]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and may they be terrified to perpetuity.” The Hebrew expression עֲדֵי־עַד (’adey-’ad, “to perpetuity”) can mean “forevermore” (see Pss 92:7; 132:12, 14), but here it may be used hyperbolically, for the psalmist asks that the experience of judgment might lead the nations to recognize (v. 18) and even to seek (v. 16) God.

[83:17]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “may they be ashamed and perish.” The four prefixed verbal forms in this verse are understood as jussives. The psalmist concludes his prayer with an imprecation, calling severe judgment down on his enemies. The strong language of the imprecation seems to run contrary to the positive outcome of divine judgment envisioned in v. 16b. Perhaps the language of v. 17 is overstated for effect. Another option is that v. 16b expresses an ideal, while the strong imprecation of vv. 17-18 anticipates reality. It would be nice if the defeated nations actually pursued a relationship with God, but if judgment does not bring them to that point, the psalmist asks that they be annihilated so that they might at least be forced to acknowledge God’s power.

[89:40]  ¹⁷ tn The king here represents the land and cities over which he rules.

[144:6]  ¹⁹ sn Arrows and lightning bolts are associated in other texts (see Pss 18:14; 77:17-18; Zech 9:14), as well as in ancient Near Eastern art (see R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” [Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983], 187).