Psalms 21:9-10

21:9 You burn them up like a fiery furnace ¹  when you appear; ² 

the Lord angrily devours them; ³ 

the fire consumes them.

21:10 You destroy their offspring ⁴  from the earth,

their descendants ⁵  from among the human race. ⁶ 

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¹ tn Heb “you make them like a furnace of fire.” Although many modern translations retain the literal Hebrew, the statement is elliptical. The point is not that he makes them like a furnace, but like an object burned in a furnace (cf. NEB, “at your coming you shall plunge them into a fiery furnace”).

² tn Heb “at the time of your face.” The “face” of the king here refers to his angry presence. See Lam 4:16.

³ tn Heb “the Lord, in his anger he swallows them, and fire devours them.” Some take “the Lord” as a vocative, in which case he is addressed in vv. 8-9a. But this makes the use of the third person in v. 9b rather awkward, though the king could be the subject (see vv. 1-7).

⁴ tn Heb “fruit.” The next line makes it clear that offspring is in view.

⁵ tn Heb “seed.”

⁶ tn Heb “sons of man.”