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.
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.
- BSB 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.
- 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 4:1For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
- Ps 50:3Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.
- Ps 18:8There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.
- 2 Th 1:8In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
- Lam 2:2The LORD hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to the ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof.
- Nah 1:6Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.
- Deut 32:22For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
- Isa 26:11LORD, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see: but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them.
- Gen 19:28And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.
- Matt 3:12Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
- Dan 3:20–22And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace.
- Ps 2:12Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.
- Rev 20:14And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
- Ps 2:5Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.
- Matt 13:50And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
- Matt 13:42And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
- Matt 22:7But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.
- Ps 106:17The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram.
- Rev 19:15And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
- Matt 25:46And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
- Matt 3:10And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
- Matt 25:41Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
- Rev 6:16–17And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
- 1 Th 2:16Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.
- Ps 56:1–2Be merciful unto me, O God: for man would swallow me up; he fighting daily oppresseth me.
- Job 6:3For now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea: therefore my words are swallowed up.
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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
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