Psalms 83:13

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

Make them like tumble-weed, O my God, like chaff before the wind.

O my God, make them like the whirling dust, Like chaff before the wind.

O my God, blow them away like whirling dust, like chaff before the wind!

My God! I've had it with them! Blow them away! Tumbleweeds in the desert waste,

O my God, make them like the rolling dust; like dry stems before the wind.

O my God, make them like whirling dust, like chaff before the wind.

O my God, make them like the whirling dust, Like the chaff before the wind!

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

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.”