9:6 The enemy’s cities have been reduced to permanent ruins; 1
you destroyed their cities; 2
all memory of the enemies has perished. 3
68:2 As smoke is driven away by the wind, so you drive them away. 4
As wax melts before fire,
so the wicked are destroyed before God.
1 tn Heb “the enemy – they have come to an end [in] ruins permanently.” The singular form אוֹיֵב (’oyev, “enemy”) is collective. It is placed at the beginning of the verse to heighten the contrast with יְהוָה (yÿhvah, “the
2 tn Heb “you uprooted cities.”
3 tn Heb “it has perished, their remembrance, they.” The independent pronoun at the end of the line is in apposition to the preceding pronominal suffix and lends emphasis (see IBHS 299 §16.3.4). The referent of the masculine pronoun is the nations/enemies (cf. v. 5), not the cities (the Hebrew noun עָרִים [’arim, “cities”] is grammatically feminine). This has been specified in the present translation for clarity; many modern translations retain the pronoun “them,” resulting in ambiguity (cf. NRSV “their cities you have rooted out; the very memory of them has perished”).
4 tn Heb “as smoke is scattered, you scatter [them].”