the face (as the part that turns) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
wind
רֽוּחַRu.ach
H7307
wind · noun, common feminine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Job 21:18 They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away.
Psalms 35:5 Let them be as chaff before the wind: and let the angel of the LORD chase them.
Isaiah 40:24 Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon…
Job 13:25 Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble?
Psalms 74:11-12 Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? pluck it out of thy bosom.
Jeremiah 13:24 Therefore will I scatter them as the stubble that passeth away by the wind of the wilderness.
Exodus 15:7 And in the greatness of thine excellency thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee: thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed t…
Psalms 22:1 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 83:9–end
The psalmist here, in the name of the church, prays for the destruction of those confederate forces, and, in God's name, foretels it; for this prayer that it might be so amounts to a prophecy that it shall be so, and this prophecy reaches to all the enemies of the gospel-church; whoever they be that oppose the kingdom of Christ, here they may read their doom. The prayer is, in short, that these enemies, who were confederate against Israel, might be defeated in all their attempts, and that they might prove their own ruin, and so God's Israel might be preserved and perpetuated. Now this is here illustrated,
I. By some precedents. Let that be their punishment which has been the fate of others w…
O my God, make them like a wheel,.... Which, as the Targum adds, is rolled, and goes on, and rests not in a declivity; let them be as fickle and inconstant as a wheel; being in high, let them be in slippery places, and brought down to desolation in a moment; like a wheel set running down hill, so let them swiftly and suddenly come to ruin; or be in all kind of calamities, and continual troubles (k) as the wheel is always turning: some think there is an allusion to the wheel by which bread corn was bruised; see Isaiah 28:28, but the word (l) signifies a rolling thing before the wind, as a wisp of straw or stubble, which is easily carried away with it: Jarchi interprets it of the tops or down…
Psalm 83:13-18
13. O my God! make them like a whirling ball, [447] like stubble before the wind. 14. As fire burns a forest [448] and as the flame kindles the mountains, [449] 15. So pursue them with thy tempest, [450] and terrify them with thy whirlwind. 16. Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O Jehovah! 17. Let them be ashamed, and terrified perpetually, and let them be confounded, and perish. 18. And let them know that thou art, thy name Jehovah, thou alone the Most High over all the earth. [451]
13. O my God! make them like a whirling ball. As the ungodly, when they gird and prepare themselves for destroying the Church, are usually inflated with intolerable pride,…
The Church Fathers
What does he mean by this? As I take it, that goodness can with difficulty gain a hold on human nature, like fire on green wood; while most people are ready and disposed to join in evil, like stubble, I mean, ready for a spark and a wind, which is easily kindled and consumed from its dryness. For a person will engage more quickly and fully in evil with the slightest inducement than in good with only little encouragement.
O my God, make them as a wheel. See the clemency of the prophet: he does not pray against them, but for them. See what he says. O my God — you who are the God of all, but properly my God: O my God, make them as a wheel. Those who have, as it were, a foundation in malice, let them have no foundation, but let them totter, and not stand firm in malice. As stubble before the face of the wind. As stubble: not as wheat, but as stubble. What he says is this: if there is among them anything that is stubble and chaff, let it perish.
But what follows? "My God, make them like a wheel" [Psalm 83:13]. This is fitly taken as meaning that they should be constant in nothing that they think; but I think it may also be rightly explained, make them like a wheel, because a wheel is lifted up on the part of what is behind, is thrown down on the part of what is in front; and so it happens to all the enemies of the people of God. For this is not a wish, but a prophecy. He adds: "as the stubble in the face of the wind." By face he means presence; for what face has the wind, which has no bodily features, being only a motion, in that it is a kind of wave of air? But it is put for temptation, by which light and vain hearts are hurried away.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Wheel — (Heb. galgal; rendered “wheel” in Ps. 83:13, and “a rolling thing” in Isa. 17:13; R.V. in both, “whirling dust”). This word has been supposed to mean the wild artichoke, which assumes the form of a…
Stubble · .Of wicked people — .Of wicked people
Wicked, The, Are Compared To · Wheels — Wheels
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
With the אלהי, which constrains God in faith, the "thundering down" begins afresh. גּלגּל signifies a wheel and a whirling motion, such as usually arises when the wind changes suddenly, then also whatever is driven about in the whirling, Isa 17:13.
(Note: Saadia, who renders the גּלגּל in Psa 77:19 as an astronomical expression with Arab. 'l-frk, the sphere of the heavens, here has professedly Arab. kâlgrâblt, which would be a plural from expanded out of Arab. grâbı̂l, "sieves" or "tambourines;" it is, however, to be read, as in Isa 17:13, Codex Oxon., Arab. kâlgirbâlt. The verb Arab. garbala, "to sift," is transferred to the wind, e.g., in Mutanabbi (edited with Wahidi's commentary by…
tumbleweed . . . chaff: This dry plant material easily blows away (see Isa 17:13).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 83:13
O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind.
O my God, make them like a wheel; like a rolling thing which cannot rest, but is made to move with every breath. Let them have no quiet. May their minds eternally revolve and never come to peace. Blow them away like thistle down, as the stubble before the wind. Scatter them, chase them, drive them to destruction. Every patriot prays thus against the enemies of his country, he would be no better than a traitor if he did not.
