Bible Strands
Psalms 21:9
You will place them in a fiery furnace at the time of Your appearing. In His wrath the LORD will engulf them, and the fire will consume them.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses God directly following a deliverance, projecting forward to the moment of divine intervention against hostile forces.
The words — תּשיתמו (te.shi.te.mov) translates literally as "you will make them," and יבלעם (ye.va.le.'e.m) means "he will swallow them up."
The thread — The imagery of a consuming fire precedes God’s appearance in Psalms 18:8 and Psalms 50:3, while Malachi 4:1 explicitly links a furnace-like day to the coming judgment of evildoers.
Why it lands — The text states that divine wrath operates through irreversible consumption, leaving no room for negotiated survival or partial preservation.
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
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.
Cross-references
- Malachi 4:1 “For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of Hosts. “Not a root or branch will be left to them.”
- Psalms 18:8 Smoke rose from His nostrils, and consuming fire came from His mouth; glowing coals blazed forth.
- Psalms 50:3 Our God approaches and will not be silent! Consuming fire precedes Him, and a tempest rages around Him.
- 2 Thessalonians 1:8 in blazing fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
- Lamentations 2:2 Without pity the Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob. In His wrath He has demolished the fortified cities of the Daughter of Judah. He brought to the ground and defiled her kingdom and its princes.
- Nahum 1:6 Who can withstand His indignation? Who can endure His burning anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; even rocks are shattered before Him.
- Deuteronomy 32:22 For a fire has been kindled by My anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol; it consumes the earth and its produce, and scorches the foundations of the mountains.
- Isaiah 26:11 O LORD, Your hand is upraised, but they do not see it. They will see Your zeal for Your people and be put to shame. The fire set for Your enemies will consume them!
- Matthew 3:12 His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
- Genesis 19:28 He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the plain, and he saw the smoke rising from the land like smoke from a furnace.