Psalms 17:43
And I shall beat them as small as the dust before the wind; I shall bring them to nought, like the dirt in the streets.
Open Psalms 17:43 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et comminuam eos ut pulverem ante faciem venti ; ut lutum platearum delebo eos.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ λεπτυνῶ αὐτοὺς ὡς χνοῦν κατὰ πρόσωπον ἀνέμου, ὡς πηλὸν πλατειῶν λεανῶ αὐτούς.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 18:43
- וְֽאֶשְׁחָקֵ֗ם כְּעָפָ֥ר עַל פְּנֵי ר֑וּחַ כְּטִ֖יט חוּצ֣וֹת אֲרִיקֵֽם
Haydock's commentary
Streets. Thus he treated the Ammonites, &c., 2 Kings viii. 2., and xii. 31. (Calmet)
Jesus Christ will rule over his enemies with a rod of iron. (Berthier)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm XVIII
43. “And I will beat them as small as dust before the face of the wind” ( ver. 42 ). And I will beat them small; for dry they are, receiving not the shower of God’s mercy; that borne aloft and puffed up with pride they may be hurried along from firm and unshaken hope, and as it were from the earth’s solidity and stability. “As the clay of the streets I will destroy them.” In their wanton and loose course along the broad ways of perdition, which many walk, will I destroy them.
St Hilary of Poitiers Homilies on Psalms I., LIII., CXXX, Homily on Psalm I
19. The next point after the prophet had set forth the man’s perfect happiness was for him to declare what punishment remained for the ungodly. Thus there ensues: The ungodly are not so, but are like the dust which the wind driveth away from the face of the earth . The ungodly have no possible hope of having the image of the happy tree applied to them; the only lot that awaits them is one of wandering and winnowing, crushing, dispersion and unrest; shaken out of the solid framework of their bodily condition, they must be swept away to punishment in dust, a plaything of the wind. They shall not be dissolved into nothing, for punishment must find in them some stuff to work on, but ground into particles, imponderable, unsubstantial, dry, they shall be tossed to and fro, and make sport for the punishment that gives them never rest. …