Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 18:42
Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind: I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets.
42. Two figures are combined to express the annihilation of David’s enemies. They were, as it were, pounded to dust (2Ki 13:7), and then scattered like that dust driven before the wind. Cp. Isa 29:5; Isa 41:2. 2 Sam. reads only “as the dust of the earth.”
I did cast them out &c.] Flung them away as worthless refuse (Zep 1:17). But the mire of the streets is usually spoken of as trampled under foot (Isa 10:6; Mic 7:10; Zec 10:5), and it suits the parallelism better to read with the LXX and 2 Sam., I did stamp them (Mic 4:13). The variation is again due to the confusion of similar letters ( ). The addition at the end of the verse in 2 Sam., “and did spread them abroad,” is probably a gloss.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind – As the fine dust is driven by the wind, so they fled before me. There could be no more striking illustration of a defeated army flying before a conqueror. DeWette says correctly that the idea is, I beat them small, and scattered them as dust before the wind.
I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets – In the corresponding place in 2Sa 22:43, this is, I did stamp them as the mire of the street, and did spread them abroad. The idea in the place before us is, that he poured them out, for so the Hebrew word means, as the dirt or mire in the streets. As that is trodden on, or trampled down, so they, instead of being marshalled for battle, were wholly disorganized, scattered, and left to be trodden down, as the most worthless object is. A similar image occurs in Isa 10:6, where God is speaking of Sennacherib: I will send him against an hypocritical nation … to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 42. Then did l beat them] God was with him, and they had only an arm of flesh. No wonder then that his enemies were destroyed.
Small as the dust before the wind] This well expresses the manner in which he treated the Moabites, Ammonites, and the people of Rabbah: “He put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron; and made them pass through the brick-kiln,” c. See 2Sa 12:31, and the notes there.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Or, rid them away, as dirt is usually swept or carried out of houses or streets. Or, tread them down, or bruise them, as men do dirt when they walk in the streets.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
42. This conquest was complete.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then did I beat them small, as the dust before the wind,…. They being given up by God, and he not answering to their cries; the phrase denotes the utter ruin and destruction of them, and represents their case as desperate and irrecoverable; being, as it were, pounded to dust, and that driven away with the wind: just as the destruction of the four monarchies is signified by the iron, clay, brass, silver, and gold, being broken to pieces, and made like the chaff of the summer threshing floor, and carried away with the wind, so that no place is found for them any more, Da 2:35;
I did cast them out as the dirt of the streets; expressing indignation and contempt: in 2Sa 22:43; it is, “I did stamp them as the mire of the street, [and] did, spread them abroad”; which also denotes the low and miserable condition to which they were reduced, and the entire conquest made of them, and triumph over them; see Isa 10:6; compare with this 2Sa 12:31.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(42) Before the wind.In Samuel, the weaker of the earth.
Cast them outi.e., sweep them before me. In Samuel stamp and tread them out. So LXX. here grind, or pound.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 18:42. I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets As the mire in the streets I trampled them down. Chandler. I beat them flat. Mudge.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 18:42 Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind: I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets.
Ver. 42. Then did I beat them as small as the dust ] When God once withdraws his protection and help from a people it is an easy matter to tread them down and beat them in pieces. Lay hold upon him, therefore, as the Church did, and hang on. Say, as Jer 14:21 , Do not abhor us for thy name’s sake; for as Bodin said well of obtaining, so for retaining, religion and civil rights, Non disputationibus, sed rogationibus agendum, prayer is most prevalent. If once our shadow depart, &c., woe be unto them when I depart from them.
I did cast them out, &c.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
wind. Hebrew. ruach. App-9.
cast them out: or scatter them. Some codices, with Aramaean, Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate, read “crush”. Compare 2Sa 22:43.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
beat: Psa 50:22, 2Ki 13:7, Isa 41:2, Isa 41:15, Isa 41:16
cast: Isa 10:6, Isa 25:10, Zec 10:5, Mal 4:3
Reciprocal: 1Sa 30:17 – and there 2Sa 22:43 – as the mire 2Ch 34:4 – made dust Psa 2:1 – Why Psa 108:13 – tread Mic 7:10 – now