Let them be as chaff before the wind: and let the angel of the LORD chase them.

PSALMS 35:5KJV
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Psalms 35:5 (KJV)

What does Psalms 35:5 mean?

Psalms 35:5 is a prayer asking the LORD to drive away those who are pursuing the speaker. The speaker wants his enemies to lose their power to stand against him, with the angel of the LORD actively chasing them.

Chaff is the light outer material separated from grain when it is processed. Wind can carry chaff away easily, so the image presents the enemies as having little weight or resistance.

The Hebrew behind Psalms 35:5

  • “chaff” — מֹץ (mots): This means the light material separated from grain. The word would bring to mind the familiar sight of wind carrying away what remained after threshing.
  • “angel” — מַלְאָךְ (malʾakh): This word means a messenger. Here the messenger belongs to the LORD and is pictured as taking part in the pursuit.
  • “LORD” — יהוה (YHWH): This is the personal name of Israel’s God. The KJV represents the name with “LORD” in capital letters.

Why Psalms 35:5 matters

  • The request is directed against the speaker’s pursuers. Verse 4 asks that those who seek his life be turned back, giving the “them” in verse 5 its setting.
  • The picture combines helplessness with pursuit. “Chaff before the wind” shows the enemies being swept away, while “the angel of the LORD” adds a pursuer to the scene.
  • The movement continues into verse 6, where the speaker asks that their way be “dark and slippery.” The danger has shifted from the speaker toward those who pursued him.

Where else these words appear

“chaff” Hebrew H4671 · used in 8 verses

  • Job 21:18 They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away.
  • Isaiah 17:13 The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
  • Isaiah 41:15 Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.

“chase” Hebrew H1760 · used in 10 verses

  • Psalms 36:12 There are the workers of iniquity fallen: they are cast down, and shall not be able to rise.
  • Psalms 140:4 Keep me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from the violent man; who have purposed to overthrow my goings.
  • Isaiah 11:12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.