18:8 Smoke ascended from 1 his nose; 2
fire devoured as it came from his mouth; 3
he hurled down fiery coals. 4
46:8 Egypt rises like the Nile,
like its streams turbulent at flood stage.
Egypt says, ‘I will arise and cover the earth.
I will destroy cities and the people who inhabit them.’
9:5 The sovereign Lord who commands armies will do this. 5
He touches the earth and it dissolves; 6
all who live on it mourn.
The whole earth 7 rises like the River Nile, 8
and then grows calm 9 like the Nile in Egypt. 10
1 tn Heb “within”; or “[from] within.” For a discussion of the use of the preposition -בְּ (bÿ) here, see R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 163-64.
2 tn Or “in his anger.” The noun אַף (’af) can carry the abstract meaning “anger,” but the parallelism (note “from his mouth”) suggests the more concrete meaning “nose” here. See also v. 15, “the powerful breath of your nose.”
3 tn Heb “fire from his mouth devoured.” In this poetic narrative context the prefixed verbal form is best understood as a preterite indicating past tense, not an imperfect. Note the two perfect verbal forms in the verse.
4 tn Heb “coals burned from him.” Perhaps the psalmist pictures God’s fiery breath igniting coals (cf. Job 41:21), which he then hurls as weapons (cf. Ps 120:4).
5 tn The words “will do this” are supplied in the translation for clarification.
6 tn Or “melts.” The verb probably depicts earthquakes and landslides. See v. 5b.
7 tn Heb “all of it.”
8 tn Heb “the Nile.” The word “River” is supplied in the translation for clarity.
9 tn Or “sinks back down.”
10 sn See Amos 8:8, which is very similar to this verse.