Bible Strands
Psalms 68:2
As smoke is blown away, You will drive them out; as wax melts before the fire, the wicked will perish in the presence of God.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — David speaks to God within a liturgical song assigned to the choirmaster. The declaration follows the previous verse's statement that God arises and scatters His enemies, placing this verse in the immediate context of divine judgment.
The words — The Hebrew nouns עָשָׁן ('a.Shan, "smoke") and דּוֹנַג (Do.nag, "wax") anchor the verse's imagery. These pair with the verbs כְּהִנְדּוֹף (ke./hin.Dof, "as driven about") and כְּהִמֵּס (ke./hi.Mes, "as melts") to establish the simile.
The thread — The melting wax and blowing smoke motif appears in Micah 1:4 where mountains melt like wax before fire, and in Psalms 37:20 where the wicked vanish like smoke. Hosea 13:3 similarly uses transient natural phenomena to describe the fate of the unfaithful.
Why it lands — The text states that the wicked perish in God's presence just as smoke disperses and wax dissolves before fire. Readers must acknowledge that proximity to God's active presence eliminates opposition and demands a realistic assessment of one's own standing.
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
As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
Cross-references
- Micah 1:4 The mountains will melt beneath Him, and the valleys will split apart, like wax before the fire, like water rushing down a slope.
- Psalms 37:20 But the wicked and enemies of the LORD will perish like the glory of the fields. They will vanish; like smoke they will fade away.
- Hosea 13:3 Therefore they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that vanishes, like chaff blown from a threshing floor, like smoke through an open window.
- Psalms 97:5 The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth.
- Isaiah 9:18 For wickedness burns like a fire that consumes the thorns and briers and kindles the forest thickets, which roll upward in billows of smoke.
- Revelation 6:16 And they said to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the One seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.
- Psalms 80:16 Your vine has been cut down and burned; they perish at the rebuke of Your countenance.
- Psalms 22:14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are disjointed. My heart is like wax; it melts away within me.
- Psalms 76:7 You alone are to be feared. When You are angry, who can stand before You?
- Isaiah 64:2 as fire kindles the brushwood and causes the water to boil, to make Your name known to Your enemies, so that the nations will tremble at Your presence!