Psalms 83:13

O my God, make them like dead thistles, ¹  like dead weeds blown away by ²  the wind!

Ex 15:7; Job 13:25; Job 21:18; Ps 22:1; Ps 35:5; Ps 44:4; Ps 68:1,2; Ps 74:11,12; Isa 17:12-14; Isa 40:24; Isa 41:2; Jer 13:24; Mt 3:12

¹ tn Or “tumbleweed.” The Hebrew noun גַּלְגַּל (galgal) refers to a “wheel” or, metaphorically, to a whirling wind (see Ps 77:18). If taken in the latter sense here, one could understand the term as a metonymical reference to dust blown by a whirlwind (cf. NRSV “like whirling dust”). However, HALOT 190 s.v. II גַּלְגַּל understands the noun as a homonym referring to a “dead thistle” here and in Isa 17:13. The parallel line, which refers to קַשׁ (qash, “chaff”), favors this interpretation.

² tn Heb “before.”