Psalms 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.

Ge 19:28; De 32:22; Job 6:3; Ps 2:5,12; Ps 18:8; Ps 56:1,2; Ps 106:17; Isa 26:11; La 2:2; Da 3:20-22; Na 1:6; Mal 4:1; Mt 3:10,12; Mt 13:42,50; Mt 22:7; Mt 25:41,46; 1Th 2:16; 2Th 1:8; Re 6:16,17; Re 19:15; Re 20:14

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).