Nations, like the rushing of many waters, they rush, and He shall rebuke them, and he shall flee from afar, and he shall be pursued like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like the thistle blossoms before the tempest.

לְאֻמִּים כִּשְׁאוֹן מַיִם רַבִּים יִשָּׁאוּן וְגָעַר בּוֹ וְנָס מִמֶּרְחָק וְרֻדַּף כְּמֹץ הָרִים לִפְנֵי רוּחַ וּכְגַלְגַּל לִפְנֵי סוּפָה

and He shall rebuke them: [lit.] him i.e., the Holy One, blessed be He, [shall rebuke] that rushing [or throng].

like the chaff of the mountains: He likens the wicked to the most inferior of all species and the most inferior of that species. The chaff of the mountains is drier than that of the valleys.

and like the thistle blossoms: Heb. וּכְגַלְגַל. That is from the blossom of the thistles called kardouns in O.F. [chardons in modern French] similar to those with which they pull woolen garments, and they are not hard. When the end of the summer arrives, they burst open by themselves and the wind scatters them. Now that bursting is made like a round wheel (גַלְגַּל) [var. like a wagon wheel], like a sort of eye in the center with five spokes around it.