O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind.
Parallel translations
- WEB My God, make them like tumbleweed; like chaff before the wind.
- BSB Make them like tumbleweed, O my God, like chaff 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 35:5Let them be as chaff before the wind: and let the angel of the LORD chase them.
- Job 21:18They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away.
- Isa 40:24Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.
- Ps 74:11–12Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? pluck it out of thy bosom.
- Job 13:25Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble?
- Jer 13:24Therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passeth away by the wind of the wilderness.
- Isa 17:12–14Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
- Exod 15:7And in the greatness of thine excellency thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee: thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble.
- 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.
- Isa 41:2Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings? he gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow.
- Ps 68:1–2Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him.
- Ps 22:1My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
- Ps 44:4Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances 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.