Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us:

perhaps they had swallowed us up alive. When their fury was enkindled against us,

Then they had swallowed us up alive, when their anger was kindled against us;

Then alive they had swallowed us up, In the burning of their anger against us,

They would have made a meal of us while still living, in the heat of their wrath against us:

Then they had swallowed us up quick - There was no other help, and ruin - utter ruin - would have soon come upon us. The word quick here means alive; and the idea is derived from persons swallowed up in an earthquake, or by the opening of the earth, as in the case of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Numbers 16:32-33. Compare Psalm 106:17. The meaning here is, that they would have been destroyed as if they were swallowed up by the opening of the earth; that is, there would have been complete destruction.
When their wrath was kindled against us - Hebrew, In the kindling of their wrath against us. Wrath is often represented in the Scriptures as burning or heated - as that which consumes all before it.

Then they had swallowed us up (b) quick, when their wrath was kindled against us:
(b) So unable were we to resist.

Then they had swallowed us up quick,.... Or "alive"; as the earth swallowed up Korah and his company; or as the fish swallowed up Jonah; or rather as ravenous beasts swallow their prey; to which the allusion is. The people of God are comparable to sheep and lambs, and such like innocent creatures: and the wicked to lions, tigers, wolves, bears, and such like beasts of prey that devour living creatures;
when their wrath was kindled against us; which is cruel and outrageous; there is no standing against it, nor before it; it is like a fierce flame of fire that burns furiously, and there is no stopping it; none but God can restrain it.

Then--that is, the time of our danger.
quick--literally, "living" (Numbers 16:32-33), description of ferocity.