Bible Strands
Psalms 18:42
I ground them as dust in the face of the wind; I trampled them like mud in the streets.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist speaks to God, describing the immediate result of divine judgment on enemies who cried out but received no rescue. This declaration sits between the note that God refused to answer those foes and the promise that God will elevate the psalmist over nations.
The words — The Hebrew verb אֶשְׁחָקֵם ('eshchaqem) literally means "I crushed them," paired with כְּעָפָר (ke'afar), "like dust," to describe the enemies' complete disintegration. The parallel phrase uses טִיט (tit), "mud," to emphasize their reduction to worthless, trampled earth.
The thread — This imagery of total defeat echoes the threshing and scattering motifs found in Isaiah 41:15 and the dispatch of armies against godless nations in Isaiah 10:6. The theme of divine judgment reducing enemies to dust also aligns with the military depletion described in 2 Kings 13:7.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition that God's judgment leaves no room for enemy recovery or appeal. It requires the reader to accept that divine deliverance operates through absolute, unyielding force rather than negotiation or partial victory.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind: I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 10:6 I will send him against a godless nation; I will dispatch him against a people destined for My rage, to take spoils and seize plunder, and to trample them down like clay in the streets.
- 2 Kings 13:7 Jehoahaz had no army left, except fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand foot soldiers, because the king of Aram had destroyed them and made them like the dust at threshing.
- Isaiah 41:15 Behold, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff.
- Zechariah 10:5 They will be like mighty men in battle, trampling the enemy in the mire of the streets. They will fight because the LORD is with them, and they will put the horsemen to shame.
- Psalms 50:22 Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you:
- Isaiah 25:10 For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain. But Moab will be trampled in his place as straw is trodden into the dung pile.
- Isaiah 41:2 Who has aroused one from the east and called him to his feet in righteousness? He hands nations over to him and subdues kings before him. He turns them to dust with his sword, to windblown chaff with his bow.
- Malachi 4:3 Then you will trample the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day I am preparing,” says the LORD of Hosts.