Psalms 21:9

Psa 21:9 Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: the LORD shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them.

Ver. 9. Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven] i.e. Thou shall lay upon them grievous and exquisite miseries, Lam 5:10. He alludeth to the overthrow of Sodom, saith Vatablus.

The Lord shall swallow them up] As the fire doth the fuel. Some think the prophet here alludeth to that direful kind of punishment which David inflicted upon the Ammonites whom he made to pass through the brickkiln, 2Sa 12:31, perhaps the furnace of their idol Moloch or Milcom, wherein they caused their children to pass through the fire, 2Ki 16:3; 2Ki 23:10.

And the fire shall devour them] Hell fire, saith the Chaldee paraphrast.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psa_21:9

Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of Thine anger.

The deluge of fire

How, then, shall it fare with sinners when, after all, shall come that general fire so often foretold, which shall either fall from heaven or ascend out of hell, or (according to Albertus Magnus) proceed from both, and shall devour and consume all it meets with? Whither shall the miserable fly when that river of flames or (to say better) that inundation and deluge of fire shall so encompass them, as no place of surety shall be left; where nothing can avail but a holy life; when all besides shall perish in that universal ruin of the whole world? What lamentations were in Rome when it burnt for seven days together! What shrieks were heard in Troy when it was wholly consumed with flames! What howling and astonishment in Pentapolis when those cities were destroyed with fire from heaven! What weeping was there in Jerusalem when they beheld the house of God, the glory of their kingdom, the wonder of the world, involved in fire and smoke! Imagine what these people felt; they saw their houses and goods on fire, and no possibility of saving them: when the husband heard the shrieks and cries of his dying wife; the father, of his little children, and, unawares, perceived himself so encompassed with flames that he could neither relieve them nor free himself. (Jeremy Taylor.)

Gods anger

I have read that a frown of Queen Elizabeth killed Sir Christopher Hatton, the Lord Chancellor of England. What, then, shall the frowns of the King of nations do? If the rocks rend, the mountains melt, and the foundations of the earth tremble under His wrath, how will the ungodly sinner appear when He comes in all His royal glory to take vengeance on all that knew Him not, and that obeyed not His glorious Gospel? (Charles Bradbury.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10. (Psa 21:9). Thou shalt make them like a fiery furnace at the time of thy presence; Jehovah in his wrath shall swallow them up, and fire shall devour them. The ascription of this destroying agency to God in the last clause serves to shew that the king acts merely as his instrument. Thou shalt make, literally set or place, i.e. put them in such or such a situation. A fiery furnace, literally a furnace (or oven) of fire. To make them like a furnace here means, not to make them the destroyers of others, but, by a natural abbreviation, to make them as if they were in a fiery furnace. At the time of thy presence, literally thy face, which may be understood to mean, when thou lookest at them.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

21:9 The flaming furnace and fire portray the severity of God’s judgment on the wicked. In the Old Testament, this image often refers to hell (11:6; 18:8; 50:3; 68:2; 78:21; 79:5; 80:16; 89:46; 97:3; 104:4; 140:10; see Isa 66:24).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

This teacheth us patiently to endure the cross till God destroy the adversary.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

The king is only God's agent.

anger--literally, "face," as appearing against them.

as a fiery oven--as in it.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 9. Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven] By thy wrath they shall be burnt up, and they shall be the means of consuming others. One class of sinners shall, in God's judgments, be the means of destroying another class; and at last themselves shall be destroyed.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

9. Thou shalt put them as it were into a furnace of fire. French and Skinner’s translation of these words is the same, and so also is that of Rogers. This last author observes, “The common interpretation, Thou shalt make them like a fiery oven, etc., is not very intelligible. I consider כתור as put by ellipsis for כבתנור Thou shalt place them as it were [in] a furnace of fire.” — (Rogers’ Book of Psalms, in Hebrew, metrically arranged, vol. 2, p. 178.) Poole takes the same view. Calvin, however, in his French version, gives a translation much the same as that of our English version: ”Tu les rendras comme une fournaise de feu en temps de ta cholere.” “Thou shalt make them like a furnace of fire, in the time of thy anger.” This is exactly the rendering of Horsley, in which he is followed by Walford. “It describes,” says the learned prelate, “the smoke of the Messiah’s enemies perishing by fire, ascending like the smoke of a furnace. ‘The smoke of their torment shall ascend for ever and ever.’” “How awfully grand,” says Bishop Mant, “is that description of the ruins of the cities of the plain, as the prospect struck on Abraham’s eye on the fatal morning of their destruction:’And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and lo! the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.’”

The allusion is to the fabulous giants of heathen mythology, who waged war against heaven.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(9) Thou shalt make . . .—As it stands the figure is most obscure. Lam_5:10 is not analogous. Here the fire and not the blackness of the smoky oven is the object of comparison. A very slight literal change gives the sense obviously required: Thou shalt put them into a fiery oven. The figure is not drawn from Sodom and Gomorrah, but from a smelter’s furnace. (Comp. Isa_31:9; Mal_3:3. For the custom in its literal horror, see Jer_48:45; Jer_49:2; Amo_2:1, where the reference is to the Transjordanic tribes.) The Philistines subjected their enemies to a similar treatment (Jdg_15:6).

In the time of thine anger.—Literally, of thy face, i.e., by thy very appearance. The dread majesty of God’s face is often thus spoken of (Psa_34:16; Lev_20:6). Here the same awful power of withering the wicked with a glance is ascribed to the representative of Jehovah. (Comp. Pro_16:14-15; Pro_19:12.) But, as if startled by the boldness of his own figure, the poet instantly refers to Jehovah.

In his wrath.—Literally, in his nostril, in direct parallelism with “face” in last clause.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven] R.V., as a fiery furnace.

The comparison is condensed, and inexact in form; but the sense is clear: thou wilt consume them as fuel in a furnace. The phrase is figurative (Mal_4:1): yet there may be an allusion to the terrible vengeance inflicted on the Ammonites (2Sa_12:31).

in the time of thine anger] Lit. in the time of thy countenance, or presence: when Thou appearest in person. Cp. 2Sa_17:11. ‘The face of Jehovah’ is the manifestation of His Presence in wrath as well as in mercy (Psa_34:16); and the king is His representative.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven,.... Some think the allusion is to David's causing the Ammonites to pass through the brick kiln, Sa2 12:31; others to the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah: it represents what a severe punishment shall be inflicted on the enemies of Christ; they shall be cast into a fiery oven, or furnace of fire, as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, were by the order of Nebuchadnezzar; so some render the words, "thou shalt put them into a fiery oven", "as", being put for "into" (c): wicked men are as dry trees, as stubble, as thorns or briers, and are fit fuel for a fiery oven or furnace; by which is meant the wrath and fury of God, which is poured forth as fire; and this has had its fulfilment in part in the Jews at Jerusalem's destruction; when that day of the Lord burned like an oven, and the proud and haughty Jews, and who dealt wickedly by Christ, were burned up in it, Mal 4:1; and will have an additional accomplishment when the whore of Babylon shall be burnt with fire, and when the beast and false prophet shall be cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone; and still more fully at the general conflagration, when will be the perdition of ungodly men, and the earth and all that is therein shall be burnt up; and especially when all wicked men and devils shall be cast into the lake and furnace of fire, where will be weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth; see Rev 17:16. This will be

in the time of thine anger, or "of thy countenance" (d); not his gracious, but his angry countenance; when he shall put on a fierce look, and appear as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and stir up all his wrath;

the Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath; not that they shall be annihilated; their souls remain after death, and their bodies after the resurrection; and will be tormented with the fire of God's wrath for ever and ever; the phrase is expressive of utter ruin, of the destruction of soul and body in hell; see Psa 35:25; Jarchi takes it to be a prayer, "may the Lord swallow them up", &c.

and the fire shall devour them; that is, as the Targum paraphrases it, the fire of hell; or, however, it designs the wrath of God, who is a consuming fire; or that fiery indignation of his, which shall devour the adversaries; which comes down upon them either in temporal judgments here, or in their everlasting destruction hereafter.

(c) Vide Aben Ezram in loc. (d) "vultus tui", V. L. so Sept. Aethiop. Gejerus, Muis, Ainsworth; "faciei iratae tuae", Junius & Tremellius; so Michaelis.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger - Thou shalt consume or destroy them, “as if” they “were” burned in a heated oven. Or, they shall burn, as if they were a flaming oven; that is, they would be wholly consumed. The word rendered “oven” - תנור tannûr - means either an “oven” or a “furnace.” It is rendered “furnace and furnaces” in Gen 15:17; Neh 3:11; Neh 12:38; Isa 31:9; and, as here, “oven” or “ovens,” in Exo 8:3; Lev 2:4; Lev 7:9; Lev 11:35; Lev 26:26; Lam 5:10; Hos 7:4, Hos 7:6-7; Mal 4:1. It does not occur elsewhere. The oven among the Hebrews was in the form of a large “pot,” and was heated from within by placing the wood inside of it. Of course, while being heated, it had the appearance of a furnace. The meaning here is that the wicked would be consumed or destroyed “as if” they were such a burning oven; as if they were set on fire, and burned up.

The Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath - The same idea of the utter destruction of the wicked is here presented under another form - that they would be destroyed as if the earth should open and swallow them up. Perhaps the allusion in the language is to the case of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, Num 16:32; compare Psa 106:17.

And the fire shall devour them - The same idea under another form. The wrath of God would utterly destroy them. That wrath is often represented under the image of “fire.” See Deu 4:24; Deu 32:22; Psa 18:8; Mat 13:42; Mat 18:8; Mat 25:41; Mar 9:44; 2Th 1:8. Fire is the emblem by which the future punishment of the wicked is most frequently denoted.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven; or, thou shalt put them, (as the Hebrew word properly signifies,) as it were, into (so there is only an ellipsis of the preposition beth, which is most frequent) a fiery oven, i.e. like wood, which when it is cast in there, is quickly consumed.

Shall swallow them up, i.e. destroy them, as this phrase is oft used, as 2Sa 20:19,20; Psa 56:1,2; Pr 1:12.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 9. Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger. They themselves shall be an oven to themselves, and so their own tormentors. Those who burned with anger against thee shall be burned by thine anger. The fire of sin will be followed by the fire of wrath. Even as the smoke of Sodom and Gomorrah went up to heaven, so shall the enemies of the Lord Jesus be utterly and terribly consumed. Some read it, "thou shalt put them as it were into a furnace of fire." Like faggots cast into an oven they shall burn furiously beneath the anger of the Lord; "they shall be cast into a furnace of fire, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." These are terrible words, and those teachers do not well who endeavour by their sophistical reasonings to weaken their force. Reader, never tolerate slight thoughts of hell, or you will soon have low thoughts of sin. The hell of sinners must be fearful beyond all conception, or such language as the present would not be used. Who would have the Son of God to be his enemy when such an overthrow awaits his foes? The expression, "the time of thine anger, "reminds us that as now is the time of his grace, so there will be a set time for his wrath. The judge goes upon assize at an appointed time. There is a day of vengeance of our God; let those who despise the day of grace remember this day of wrath.

The Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them. Jehovah will himself visit with his anger the enemies of his Son. The Lord Jesus will, as it were, judge by commission from God, whose solemn assent and cooperation shall be with him in his sentences upon impenitent sinners. An utter destruction of soul and body, so that both shall be swallowed up with misery, and be devoured with anguish, is here intended. Oh, the wrath to come! The wrath to come! Who can endure it? Lord, save us from it, for Jesu's sake.

Ver. 9. Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger: the Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them. How then shall it fare with sinners, when, after all, shall come that general fire so often foretold, which shall either fall from heaven, or ascend out of hell, or (according to Albertus Magnus), proceed from both, and shall devour and consume all it meets with? Whither shall the miserable fly, when that river of flames, or (to say better), that inundation and deluge of fire shall so encompass them, as no place of surety shall be left; where nothing can avail but a holy life; when all besides shall perish, in that universal ruin of the whole world? What lamentations were in Rome, when it burnt for seven days together! What shrieks were heard in Troy, when it was wholly consumed with flames! What howling and astonishment in Pentapolis, when those cities were destroyed with fire from heaven! What weeping there was in Jerusalem, when they beheld the house of God, the glory of their kingdom, the wonder of the world, involved in fire and smoke! Imagine what these people felt; they saw their houses and goods on fire, and no possibility of saving them; when the husband heard the shrieks and cries of his dying wife; the father, of his little children; and, unawares, perceived himself so encompassed with flames, that he could neither relieve them, nor free himself. What shall it then profit the worldlings, to have rich vessels of gold and silver, curious embroideries, precious tapestries, pleasant gardens, sumptuous palaces, and all what the world now esteems, when they shall with their own eyes, behold their costly palaces burnt, their rich and curious pieces of gold melted, and their flourishing and pleasant orchards consumed, without power to preserve them or themselves? All shall burn, and with it the world, and all the memory and fame of it shall die; and that which mortals thought to be immortal, shall then end and perish. Jeremy Taylor.

Ver. 9. Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger. They shall not only be cast into a furnace of fire (Mt 13:42), but he shall make them themselves as a fiery oven or furnace, they shall be their own tormentors, the reflections and terrors of their own consciences will be their hell. Those that might have had Christ to rule and save them, but rejected him, and fought against him, even the remembrance of that will be enough to make them to eternity a fiery oven to themselves. Matthew Henry.

Ver. 9. Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven: thou shalt make them on fire within, by the consciousness of their ungodliness: "In the time of thy countenance; "in the time of thy manifestation. Augustine.

Ver. 9. As a fiery oven, where the burning is extremely hot, the heat striking upon what is in it from all sides, above, below, and about, on all hands, and the door closed from going out, or from suffering any cool refreshment to come in. David Dickson.

Ver. 9. As a fiery oven. Shall make them like a vault of fire, literally, "an oven, "as in our translation, or "furnace of fire." Bishop Horsley remarks, "It describes the smoke of the Messiah's enemies perishing by fire, ascending like the smoke of a furnace. `The smoke of their torments shall ascend for ever and ever.'" How awfully grand is that description of the ruins of the cities of the plain, as the prospect struck on Abraham's eye on the fatal morning of their destruction! "And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace." Milton puts it

"Overhead the dismal hiss Of fiery darts in flaming volleys flew, And flying vaulted either host with fire."

Richard Mant.

Ver. 9. The Chaldee reads: "The fire of Gehenna, or hell." John Morison.

Ver. 9. The time of thine anger. If God be willing to pour out his heavy displeasure upon those that displease him, what can hinder his mighty arm from performing? Creatures indeed may be angry, but oftentimes, like drones without stings, cannot hurt; as cannons charged with powder without shot only make a roaring; like the Pope's Bulls, threaten many, hurt none but those whose conscience is enslaved. Saul may be angry at David, but cannot find him out; but from God's all piercing eye none can hide himself. Satan may desire to kill Job, Jonah may be angry till death for Nineveh's preservation; yet God puts a bit in both their mouths, who, if he be angry, nothing can be holden out of his reach. Princes, if they take captives, may have them rescued from them again, as Lot was from the King of Sodom; bought with a price, as Joseph of the Ishmaelites. But no power can rescue us from God's anger, no ransom but Christ's blood redeem us. God's will being set afoot, all his attributes follow; if his will say, Be angry, his eye seek out the object of his anger, and finds it; his wisdom tempers the cup, his hand whets the sword, his arm strikes the blow. Thus you see there is a time of God's anger for sin, because he will have it so. John Cragge.

Ver. 9. The fire shall devour them. Being troubled by the vengeance of the Lord, after the accusation of their conscience, they shall be given up to eternal fire to be devoured. Augustine.

Ver. 9. I have read that a frown of Queen Elizabeth killed Sir Christopher Hatton, the Lord Chancellor of England. What then shall the frowns of the King of nations do? If the rocks rend, the mountains melt, and the foundations of the earth tremble under his wrath; how will the ungodly sinner appear when he comes in all his royal glory to take vengeance on all that knew him not, and that obeyed not his glorious gospel? Charles Bradbury.

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

9. As a fiery oven—See Mal_4:1. The ovens of the Hebrews were heated mostly with dry thorns and grass, (Mat_6:30,) material the most inflammable and destructible, which is the point of the figure.

Swallow them up—As the oven receives and quickly devours the light fuel thrown into it. See Psa_18:8

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of his anger. Some suppose a reference to the event mentioned in 2Sa_12:31, "He (David) made them (the Ammonites) to pass through the brick-kiln. ;" but the expression "fiery oven" is probably not intended to be taken literally, but metaphorically. Severe suffering is continually compared in Scripture to confinement in an oven or furnace. (see Deu_4:20 1Ki_8:51 Isa_48:10 Jer_11:4 Eze_22:18, Eze_22:20, 22 Mal_4:1) And we may best understand the present passage to mean simply that in the time of his anger David would subject such of his enemies as fell into his hands to very terrible sufferings. (See, as showing what extreme severities David did sometimes inflict on captured enemies, 2Sa_12:31 which is to the point, as also is 1Ki_11:15, 1Ki_11:16) The Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them. The metaphor is followed up, with the addition that what was previously attributed to David alone is here declared to have the sanction of God.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Oven - Like wood, which when it is cast in there, is quickly consumed.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

(Heb.: 21:10-11) Hitherto the Psalm has moved uniformly in synonymous dipodia, now it becomes agitated; and one feels from its excitement that the foes of the king are also the people's foes. True as it is, as Hupfeld takes it, that לעת פּניך sounds like a direct address to Jahve, Psa 21:10 nevertheless as truly teaches us quite another rendering. The destructive effect, which in other passages is said to proceed from the face of Jahve, Psa 34:17; Lev 20:6; Lam 4:16 (cf. ἔχει θεὸς ἔκδικον ὄμμα), is here ascribed to the face, i.e., the personal appearing (Sa2 17:11) of the king. David's arrival did actually decide the fall of Rabbath Ammon, of whose inhabitants some died under instruments of torture and others were cast into brick-kilns, Sa2 12:26. The prospect here moulds itself according to this fate of the Ammonites. כּתנּוּר אשׁ is a second accusative to תּשׁיתנו, thou wilt make them like a furnace of fire, i.e., a burning furnace, so that like its contents they shall entirely consume by fire (synecdoche continentis pro contento). The figure is only hinted at, and is differently applied to what it is in Lam 5:10, Mal 4:1. Psa 21:10 and Psa 21:10 are intentionally two long rising and falling wave-like lines, to which succeed, in Psa 21:11, two short lines; the latter describe the peaceful gleaning after the fiery judgment of God that has been executed by the hand of David. פּרימו, as in Lam 2:20; Hos 9:16, is to be understood after the analogy of the expression פּרי הבּטן. It is the fate of the Amalekites (cf. Psa 9:6.), which is here predicted of the enemies of the king.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

At the time of your anger

"When you appear in your anger"

your anger ... You will destroy

Possible meaning for all occurrences of "your" and "you" are 1) they refer to God or 2) they refer to the king.

you will burn them up as in a fiery furnace

Yahweh or the king destroying their enemies is spoken of as if their enemies are wood and Yahweh or the king will throw them into a furnace. (See: Metaphor)

Yahweh will consume them in his wrath, and the fire will devour them

Both clauses mean basically the same thing. Yahweh completely destroying his enemies is spoken of as if his wrath is a fire that completely burns up his enemies. (See: Parallelism and Metaphor)

from the earth ... from among the human race

Both phrases mean the same thing. They emphasize that absolutely none of their enemies will survive. (See: Parallelism)

translationWords

anger

fire

furnace

consume

wrath

devour

offspring

descend

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Your hand shall suffice for all Your enemies All the smiting of Your hand that You have to bring, bring upon Your enemies.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.