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You will place them in a fiery furnace at the time of Your appearing. In His wrath the LORD will engulf them, and the fire will consume them.
Psalms 21:9 · Berean Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB You will make them as a fiery furnace in the time of your anger. Yahweh will swallow them up in his wrath. The fire shall devour them.
  • KJV Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: the LORD shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them.
  • NKJV You shall make them as a fiery oven in the time of Your anger; The Lord shall swallow them up in His wrath, And the fire shall devour them.
  • NASB You will make them as a fiery oven in the time of your anger; The Lord will swallow them up in His wrath, And fire will devour them.
  • NLT You will throw them in a flaming furnace when you appear. The Lord will consume them in his anger; fire will devour them.

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

In his anger God will consume his enemies like a blazing furnace, devouring them in wrath. His judgment against the wicked is severe and certain.

Overview

Using fire imagery, the psalm portrays the Lord's wrath swallowing up his enemies entirely. Such language sober warns of the real and righteous judgment of God against persistent rebellion. While stern, it expresses the holy justice that finally vindicates God's kingdom and underscores the urgency of taking refuge in his anointed (Ps 2:12).

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 26

  • Mal 4:1“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of Hosts. “Not a root or branch will be left to them.”
  • Ps 50:3Our God approaches and will not be silent! Consuming fire precedes Him, and a tempest rages around Him.
  • Ps 18:8Smoke rose from His nostrils, and consuming fire came from His mouth; glowing coals blazed forth.
  • 2 Th 1:8in blazing fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
  • Lam 2:2Without pity the Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob. In His wrath He has demolished the fortified cities of the Daughter of Judah. He brought to the ground and defiled her kingdom and its princes.
  • Nah 1:6Who can withstand His indignation? Who can endure His burning anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; even rocks are shattered before Him.
  • Deut 32:22For a fire has been kindled by My anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol; it consumes the earth and its produce, and scorches the foundations of the mountains.
  • Isa 26:11O LORD, Your hand is upraised, but they do not see it. They will see Your zeal for Your people and be put to shame. The fire set for Your enemies will consume them!
  • Gen 19:28He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the plain, and he saw the smoke rising from the land like smoke from a furnace.
  • Matt 3:12His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
  • Dan 3:20–22and he commanded some mighty men of valor in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and throw them into the blazing fiery furnace.
  • Ps 2:12Kiss the Son, lest He be angry and you perish in your rebellion, when His wrath ignites in an instant. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.
  • Rev 20:14Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death—the lake of fire.
  • Ps 2:5Then He rebukes them in His anger, and terrifies them in His fury:
  • Matt 13:50and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
  • Matt 13:42And they will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
  • Matt 22:7The king was enraged, and he sent his troops to destroy those murderers and burn their city.
  • Ps 106:17The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan; it covered the assembly of Abiram.
  • Rev 19:15And from His mouth proceeds a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.
  • Matt 25:46And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
  • Matt 3:10The axe lies ready at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
  • Matt 25:41Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
  • Rev 6:16–17And they said to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the One seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.
  • 1 Th 2:16hindering us from telling the Gentiles how they may be saved. As a result, they continue to heap up their sins to full capacity; the utmost wrath has come upon them.
  • Ps 56:1–2For the choirmaster. To the tune of “A Dove on Distant Oaks.” A Miktam of David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath. Be merciful to me, O God, for men are hounding me; all day they press their attack.
  • Job 6:3For then it would outweigh the sand of the seas—no wonder my words have been rash.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (3)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Psalms videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Psalms 21:9YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on PsalmsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    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 21:9 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.