Mazmur 37:10

37:10 Evil men will soon disappear; ¹ 

you will stare at the spot where they once were, but they will be gone. ² 

Mazmur 83:13

83:13 O my God, make them like dead thistles, ³ 

like dead weeds blown away by ⁴  the wind!

[37:10]  ¹ tn Heb “and yet, a little, there will be no wicked [one].”

[37:10]  ² tn Heb “and you will carefully look upon his place, but he will not be [there].” The singular is used here in a representative sense; the typical evildoer is in view.

[83:13]  ³ tn Or “tumbleweed.” The Hebrew noun גַּלְגַּל (galgal) refers to a “wheel” or, metaphorically, to a whirling wind (see Ps 77:18). If taken in the latter sense here, one could understand the term as a metonymical reference to dust blown by a whirlwind (cf. NRSV “like whirling dust”). However, HALOT 190 s.v. II גַּלְגַּל understands the noun as a homonym referring to a “dead thistle” here and in Isa 17:13. The parallel line, which refers to קַשׁ (qash, “chaff”), favors this interpretation.

[83:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “before.”