Psalms 73:20

73:20 They are like a dream after one wakes up. ¹ 

O Lord, when you awake ²  you will despise them. ³ 

Isaiah 29:7-8

29:7 It will be like a dream, a night vision.

There will be a horde from all the nations that fight against Ariel,

those who attack her and her stronghold and besiege her.

29:8 It will be like a hungry man dreaming that he is eating,

only to awaken and find that his stomach is empty. ⁴ 

It will be like a thirsty man dreaming that he is drinking,

only to awaken and find that he is still weak and his thirst unquenched. ⁵ 

So it will be for the horde from all the nations

that fight against Mount Zion.

[73:20]  ¹ tn Heb “like a dream from awakening.” They lack any real substance; their prosperity will last for only a brief time.

[73:20]  ² sn When you awake. The psalmist compares God’s inactivity to sleep and the time of God’s judgment to his awakening from sleep.

[73:20]  ³ tn Heb “you will despise their form.” The Hebrew term צֶלֶם (tselem, “form; image”) also suggests their short-lived nature. Rather than having real substance, they are like the mere images that populate one’s dreams. Note the similar use of the term in Ps 39:6.

[29:8]  ⁴ tn Or “that he [or “his appetite”] is unsatisfied.”

[29:8]  ⁵ tn Or “that he is faint and that he [or “his appetite”] longs [for water].”