I ground them as dust in the face of the wind; I trampled them like mud in the streets.
Parallel translations
- WEB Then I beat them small as the dust before the wind. I cast them out as the mire of the streets.
- KJV Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind: I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets.
- NKJV Then I beat them as fine as the dust before the wind; I cast them out like dirt in the streets.
- NASB Then I beat them fine like the dust before the wind; I emptied them out like the mud of the streets.
- NLT I ground them as fine as dust in the wind. I swept them into the gutter like dirt.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
David grinds his enemies to dust and casts them out like street mud. The imagery conveys their utter and humiliating defeat.
Overview
Two pictures, wind-blown dust and trampled mire, depict how completely David's foes are subdued. This is the language of total conquest granted by God to his king. Such Old Testament judgment imagery ultimately points to the final overthrow of evil under the reign of Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Isa 10:6I will send him against a godless nation; I will dispatch him against a people destined for My rage, to take spoils and seize plunder, and to trample them down like clay in the streets.
- Isa 41:15–16Behold, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff.
- 2 Kgs 13:7Jehoahaz had no army left, except fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand foot soldiers, because the king of Aram had destroyed them and made them like the dust at threshing.
- Zech 10:5They will be like mighty men in battle, trampling the enemy in the mire of the streets. They will fight because the LORD is with them, and they will put the horsemen to shame.
- Isa 25:10For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain. But Moab will be trampled in his place as straw is trodden into the dung pile.
- Ps 50:22Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you:
- Isa 41:2Who has aroused one from the east and called him to his feet in righteousness? He hands nations over to him and subdues kings before him. He turns them to dust with his sword, to windblown chaff with his bow.
- Mal 4:3Then you will trample the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day I am preparing,” says the LORD of Hosts.
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 18:42 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.