How often ¹  are they like straw before the wind, and like chaff swept away ²  by a whirlwind?

May they be ¹  like wind-driven chaff, as the Lord’s angel ²  attacks them! ³ 

Not so with the wicked! Instead ¹  they are like wind-driven chaff. ² 

But the horde of invaders will be like fine dust, the horde of tyrants ¹  like chaff that is blown away. It will happen suddenly, in a flash.

Therefore they will disappear like ¹  the morning mist, ²  like early morning dew that evaporates, ³  like chaff that is blown away ⁴  from a threshing floor, like smoke that disappears through an open window.

Though these people make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves, ¹  when he shouts at ²  them, they will flee to a distant land, driven before the wind like dead weeds on the hills, or like dead thistles ³  before a strong gale.

“Look, I am making you like ¹  a sharp threshing sledge, new and double-edged. ²  You will thresh the mountains and crush them; you will make the hills like straw. ³ 

before God’s decree becomes reality ¹  and the day of opportunity disappears like windblown chaff, ²  before the Lord’s raging anger ³  overtakes ⁴  you – before the day of the Lord’s angry judgment overtakes you!