Texts in Conversation
Isaiah 17 and Psalm 83 both use the image of nations scattered like chaff or dry weeds in the wind, a common ancient figure for weakness and impermanence. The same image appears elsewhere to describe things easily swept away, like dust or locusts. In both passages, the noise of many nations is reduced to silence.
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Isaiah 17:13
Hebrew Bible
12 Beware, you many nations massing together, those who make a commotion as loud as the roaring of the sea’s waves. Beware, you people making such an uproar, those who make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves. 13 Though these people make an uproar as loud as the roaring of powerful waves, when he shouts at them, they will flee to a distant land, driven before the wind like dead weeds on the hills or like dead thistles before a strong gale. 14 In the evening there is sudden terror; by morning they vanish. This is the fate of those who try to plunder us, the destiny of those who try to loot us!
Date: 7th-5th Centuries B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Psalm 83:13
Hebrew Bible
11 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, and all their rulers like Zebah and Zalmunna, 12 who said, “Let’s take over the pastures of God.” 13 O my God, make them like dead thistles, like dead weeds blown away by the wind. 14 Like the fire that burns down the forest, or the flames that consume the mountainsides, 15 chase them with your gale winds and terrify them with your windstorm.
Date: 6th-3rd Centuries B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Job is not just distressed at the offensive behavior of his critics; he sees in their attack a cosmic assault upon him, in which malign superhuman forces are ranged against him (it is not that he has nightmares of being attacked by the desert dwellers of verses 2–8, with their “loathsome appearance and repulsive manners,” as Hartley). For the image of the wind driving objects away, see Psalm 1:4; and for that of the cloud that vanishes, compare 7:9–10. It is usually insubstantial and light objects that are driven away by the wind, stubble (Psalm 83:13; Jeremiah 13:24) or chaff (Isaiah 17:13; Psalm 1:4; 35:5) or dust (Psalm 18:42) or locusts (Exodus 10:13, 19). And as for the cloud that vanishes, its significance is that it is never again seen (7:9; compare Hosea 13:3). Job can only mean that what he once prized so highly, his dignity and his security, were, in the end, of little consequence and no permanence ..."
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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