Blow them away like smoke. Melt them like wax in a fire. Let the wicked perish in the presence of God.
Parallel translations
- WEB As smoke is driven away, so drive them away. As wax melts before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
- KJV As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
- BSB As smoke is blown away, You will drive them out; as wax melts before the fire, the wicked will perish in the presence of God.
- NKJV As smoke is driven away, So drive them away; As wax melts before the fire, So let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
- NASB As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; As wax melts before a fire, So the wicked will perish before God.
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
As smoke and melting wax vanish before fire, so the wicked perish before God. It pictures the certain undoing of evil in God's presence.
Overview
David uses images of dispersing smoke and melting wax to show how the wicked cannot stand before the holy God. Evil simply cannot endure His presence. This points to the final judgment, when all that opposes God will be removed before the glory of Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Mic 1:4The mountains melt under him, and the valleys split apart, like wax before the fire, like waters that are poured down a steep place.
- Ps 37:20But the wicked shall perish. The enemies of Yahweh shall be like the beauty of the fields. They will vanish — vanish like smoke.
- Hos 13:3Therefore they will be like the morning mist, and like the dew that passes away early, like the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the threshing floor, and like the smoke out of the chimney.
- Isa 9:18For wickedness burns like a fire. It devours the briers and thorns; yes, it kindles in the thickets of the forest, and they roll upward in a column of smoke.
- Ps 97:5The mountains melt like wax at the presence of Yahweh, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.
- Rev 6:16–17They told the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb,
- Ps 80:16It’s burned with fire. It’s cut down. They perish at your rebuke.
- Ps 22:14I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; it is melted within me.
- Isa 64:2As when fire kindles the brushwood, and the fire causes the water to boil; Make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence!
- Ps 76:7You, even you, are to be feared. Who can stand in your sight when you are angry?
- Nah 1:5–6The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, yes, the world, and all who dwell in it.
- 2 Th 1:8–9giving vengeance to those who don’t know God, and to those who don’t obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 68:2 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.