Bilangan 16:26

16:26 And he said to the community, “Move away from the tents of these wicked ¹  men, and do not touch anything they have, lest you be destroyed because ²  of all their sins.” ³ 

Ayub 21:18

21:18 How often ⁴  are they like straw before the wind,

and like chaff swept away ⁵  by a whirlwind?

Mazmur 58:10

58:10 The godly ⁶  will rejoice when they see vengeance carried out;

they will bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked.

¹ tn The word רָשָׁע (rasha’) has the sense of a guilty criminal. The word “wicked” sometimes gives the wrong connotation. These men were opposing the Lord, and so were condemned as criminals – they were guilty. The idea of “wickedness” therefore applies in that sense.

² tn The preposition bet (בְּ) in this line is causal – “on account of their sins.”

³ sn The impression is that the people did not hear what the Lord said to Moses, but only what Moses said to the people as a result. They saw the brilliant cloud, and perhaps heard the sound of his voice, but the relaying of the instructions indicates they did not hear the actual instruction from the Lord himself.

⁴ tn To retain the sense that the wicked do not suffer as others, this verse must either be taken as a question or a continuation of the question in v. 17.

⁵ tn The verb used actually means “rob.” It is appropriate to the image of a whirlwind suddenly taking away the wisp of straw.

⁶ tn The singular is representative here, as is the singular from “wicked” in the next line.