What Does Psalm 68:2 Mean?
As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; as wax melts before the fire, so let the wicked lose their way before God.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.THE KEY
The Hebrew repeats one verb for smoke being driven off and for God driving the wicked away, making their disappearance the verse’s central image.
THE MEANING
Before God’s presence, opposition is driven off like smoke, and the wicked perish like wax before fire. The verse holds both images without softening them: one is scattered; the other melts away.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The wicked can remain intact and untouched in God’s presence.
THE ROOT
הִנְדֹּף
hinnodoph
GROWS FROM
נדף
nadaph
To drive away, scatter, or blow away.
The verse uses this root first for smoke being driven off, then for God driving the wicked away. The same Hebrew verb links the two actions more tightly than the English wording shows.
ALSO GROWS
niddaph: Driven away or scattered.
נִדָּף
This form names what is scattered, echoing the smoke’s disappearance.
tindoph: You drive away.
תִּנְדֹּף
This is the repeated verb in the verse, now naming God’s action toward the wicked.
הִמֵּס
himmes
GROWS FROM
נמס
namas
To melt or dissolve.
“melteth” in this verse is himmes. The root carries the sense of melting away, not merely becoming soft. The wax loses its form before fire, an image that sharpens the verse’s description of the wicked perishing.
ALSO GROWS
namas: Melted or dissolved.
נָמַס
This form shows the root’s basic movement: a solid thing loses its form.
yimmas: Will melt or dissolve.
יִמַּס
The same root can describe melting as it happens, matching the verse’s image of wax before fire.
יֹאבְדוּ
yovdu
GROWS FROM
אבד
avad
To perish, be lost, or disappear.
“lose their way” in this verse is yovdu. This root holds together perishing and being lost. It deepens the smoke image: the wicked do not simply withdraw from the scene; they disappear.
ALSO GROWS
avad: To perish or be lost.
אָבַד
This is the root’s basic sense, stated directly in the verse’s final image.
avedah: A lost thing or lost property.
אֲבֵדָה
This related word makes visible the root’s connection between loss and disappearance.
THE PATTERN
In the presence of God, what rises against him is consumed or scattered.
In the greatness of your height you tore down those who rose against you. You sent forth your burning, and it devoured them as stubble.By the breath of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils they are spent.For our God is a fire that devours.THE THREAD
But the wicked will lose the way, and the enemies of the LORD will be like the weight of the pastures. They will run out, and in smoke they will run out.Both verses use the אבד root for the wicked perishing. Psalm 37 adds the image of enemies vanishing into smoke, returning to the same disappearance pictured in Psalm 68.
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