Make them like tumbleweed, O my God, like chaff before the wind.
Parallel translations
- WEB My God, make them like tumbleweed; like chaff before the wind.
- KJV O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind.
- NKJV O my God, make them like the whirling dust, Like the chaff before the wind!
- NASB ¶My God, make them like the whirling dust, Like chaff before the wind.
- NLT O my God, scatter them like tumbleweed, like chaff before the wind!
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
The psalmist prays that God make the enemies like tumbleweed and chaff blown away by the wind. He asks that their power be scattered and unstable.
Overview
The images of rolling tumbleweed and wind-driven chaff depict the enemies as rootless, weightless, and easily dispersed by God's power. This echoes Psalm 1's portrait of the wicked as chaff. The prayer entrusts to God the undoing of those who seemed so threatening, confident He can scatter them in a moment.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Ps 35:5May they be like chaff in the wind, as the angel of the LORD drives them away.
- Job 21:18Are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a storm?
- Isa 40:24No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner have their stems taken root in the ground, than He blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like stubble.
- Ps 74:11–12Why do You withdraw Your strong right hand? Stretch it out to destroy them!
- Job 13:25Would You frighten a windblown leaf? Would You chase after dry chaff?
- Jer 13:24“I will scatter you like chaff driven by the desert wind.
- Isa 17:12–14Alas, the tumult of many peoples; they rage like the roaring seas and clamoring nations; they rumble like the crashing of mighty waters.
- Exod 15:7You overthrew Your adversaries by Your great majesty. You unleashed Your burning wrath; it consumed them like stubble.
- 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.”
- 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.
- Ps 68:1–2For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. A song. God arises. His enemies are scattered, and those who hate Him flee His presence.
- Ps 22:1For the choirmaster. To the tune of “The Doe of the Dawn.” A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from saving me, so far from my words of groaning?
- Ps 44:4You are my King, O God, who ordains victories for Jacob.
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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 83:13 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.