Psalms 18:42

42 I ground them as dust in the face of the wind; I trampled them ^[a] 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 ) .

Psalms 18:42 In-Context

40 You have made my enemies retreat before me; I destroyed those who hated me.

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

42 I ground them as dust in the face of the wind; I trampled them like mud in the streets.

43 You have delivered me from the strife of the people; You have made me the head of nations; a people I had not known shall serve me.

44 When they hear me, they obey me; foreigners cower before me.

Footnotes

• [a]. Some Hebrew manuscripts, LXX, and Syriac (see also 2 Samuel 22:43); MT I poured them out