¹⁸ Are they as ^(A)straw before the wind,
And like ^(B)chaff which the storm carries away?

^24 [a]Scarcely have they been planted,
^[b]Scarcely have they been sown,
^[c]Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth,
But He merely blows on them, and they wither,
And the ^(A)storm carries them away like stubble.

²⁴ Therefore I will ^(A)scatter them like drifting straw
To the desert ^(B)wind.