Discovery BoxPsalms 18:8 
Context18:8 Smoke ascended from 1 his nose; 2
fire devoured as it came from his mouth; 3
he hurled down fiery coals. 4
Psalms 21:9
Context21:9 You burn them up like a fiery furnace 5 when you appear; 6
the Lord angrily devours them; 7
the fire consumes them.
Psalms 50:3
Context50:3 Our God approaches and is not silent; 8
consuming fire goes ahead of him
and all around him a storm rages. 9
Psalms 74:7
Context74:7 They set your sanctuary on fire;
they desecrate your dwelling place by knocking it to the ground. 10
Psalms 78:14
Context78:14 He led them with a cloud by day,
and with the light of a fire all night long.
Psalms 89:46
Context89:46 How long, O Lord, will this last?
Will you remain hidden forever? 11
Will your anger continue to burn like fire?
Psalms 105:39
Context105:39 He spread out a cloud for a cover, 12
and provided a fire to light up the night.
1 tn Heb “within”; or “[from] within.” For a discussion of the use of the preposition -בְּ (bÿ) here, see R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 163-64.
2 tn Or “in his anger.” The noun אַף (’af) can carry the abstract meaning “anger,” but the parallelism (note “from his mouth”) suggests the more concrete meaning “nose” here. See also v. 15, “the powerful breath of your nose.”
3 tn Heb “fire from his mouth devoured.” In this poetic narrative context the prefixed verbal form is best understood as a preterite indicating past tense, not an imperfect. Note the two perfect verbal forms in the verse.
sn Fire devoured as it came from his mouth. For other examples of fire as a weapon in OT theophanies and ancient Near Eastern portrayals of warring gods and kings, see R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 165-67.
4 tn Heb “coals burned from him.” Perhaps the psalmist pictures God’s fiery breath igniting coals (cf. Job 41:21), which he then hurls as weapons (cf. Ps 120:4).
5 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”).
6 tn Heb “at the time of your face.” The “face” of the king here refers to his angry presence. See Lam 4:16.
7 tn Heb “the
8 tn According to GKC 322 §109.e, the jussive (note the negative particle אַל, ’al) is used rhetorically here “to express the conviction that something cannot or should not happen.”
9 tn Heb “fire before him devours, and around him it is very stormy.”
10 tn Heb “to the ground they desecrate the dwelling place of your name.”
11 tn Heb “How long, O
12 tn Or “curtain.”
