Psalms 18:42

42 I beat them as fine as windblown dust; I trampled them^[a] like mud in the streets.

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Psalms 18:42 in Other Translations

KJV

42 Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind: I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets.

ESV

42 I beat them fine as dust before the wind; I cast them out like the mire of the streets.

NLT

42 I ground them as fine as dust in the wind. I swept them into the gutter like dirt.

MSG

42 I ground them to dust; they gusted in the wind. I threw them out, like garbage in the gutter.

CSB

42 I pulverize them like dust before the wind; I trample them like mud in the streets.

Psalms 18:42 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 18:42

Then did I beat them small, as the dust before the wind
They being given up by God, and he not answering to their cries; the phrase denotes the utter ruin and destruction of them, and represents their case as desperate and irrecoverable; being, as it were, pounded to dust, and that driven away with the wind: just as the destruction of the four monarchies is signified by the iron, clay, brass, silver, and gold, being broken to pieces, and made like the chaff of the summer threshing floor, and carried away with the wind, so that no place is found for them any more, ( Daniel 2:35 ) ;

I did cast them out as the dirt of the streets;
expressing indignation and contempt: in ( 2 Samuel 22:43 ) ; it is, "I did stamp them as the mire of the street, [and] did, spread them abroad"; which also denotes the low and miserable condition to which they were reduced, and the entire conquest made of them, and triumph over them; see ( Isaiah 10:6 ) ( Micah 7:10 ) ; compare with this ( 2 Samuel 12:31 ) .

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Psalms 18:42 In-Context

40 You made my enemies turn their backs in flight, and I destroyed my foes.

41 They cried for help, but there was no one to save them— to the LORD, but he did not answer.

42 I beat them as fine as windblown dust; I trampled them like mud in the streets.

43 You have delivered me from the attacks of the people; you have made me the head of nations. People I did not know now serve me,

44 foreigners cower before me; as soon as they hear of me, they obey me.

Cross References 1

1. S Deuteronomy 9:21; S Isaiah 2:22

Footnotes 1

[a]. Many Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint, Syriac and Targum (see also 2 Samuel 22:43); Masoretic Text "I poured them out"