O my God, scatter them like tumbleweed, 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.
- 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.
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, Yahweh’s angel driving them on.
- Job 21:18How often is it that they are as stubble before the wind, as chaff that the storm carries away?
- Isa 40:24They are planted scarcely. They are sown scarcely. Their stock has scarcely taken root in the ground. He merely blows on them, and they wither, and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble.
- Ps 74:11–12Why do you draw back your hand, even your right hand? Take it out of your pocket and consume them!
- Job 13:25Will you harass a driven leaf? Will you pursue the dry stubble?
- Jer 13:24“Therefore I will scatter them, as the stubble that passes away, by the wind of the wilderness.
- Isa 17:12–14Ah, the uproar of many peoples, who roar like the roaring of the seas; and the rushing of nations, that rush like the rushing of mighty waters!
- Exod 15:7In the greatness of your excellency, you overthrow those who rise up against you. You send out your wrath. It consumes them as stubble.
- Matt 3:12His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor. He will gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire.”
- Isa 41:2Who has raised up one from the east? Who called him to his foot in righteousness? He hands over nations to him, and makes him rule over kings. He gives them like the dust to his sword, like the driven stubble to his bow.
- Ps 68:1–2For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. A song. Let God arise! Let his enemies be scattered! Let them who hate him also flee before him.
- Ps 22:1For the Chief Musician; set to “The Doe of the Morning.” A Psalm by David. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning?
- Ps 44:4You are my King, God. Command 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.