Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind: I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets.

And I shall beat them as small as the dust before the wind; I shall bring them to nought, like the dirt in the streets.

And I beat them as dust before wind, As mire of the streets I empty them out.

Then they were crushed as small as dust before the wind; they were drained out like the waste of the streets.

They cried, but there was none to save; even unto the LORD, but He answered them not.

Then I beat them small as the dust before the wind. I trample them like the mud of the streets.

Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind - As the fine dust is driven by the wind, so they fled before me. There could be no more striking illustration of a defeated army flying before a conqueror. DeWette says correctly that the idea is, "I beat them small, and scattered them as dust before the wind."
I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets - In the corresponding place in 2-Samuel 22:43, this is, "I did stamp them as the mire of the street, and did spread them abroad." The idea in the place before us is, that he poured them out, for so the Hebrew word means, as the dirt or mire in the streets. As that is trodden on, or trampled down, so they, instead of being marshalled for battle, were wholly disorganized, scattered, and left to be trodden down, as the most worthless object is. A similar image occurs in Isaiah 10:6, where God is speaking of Sennacherib: "I will send him against an hypocritical nation to tread them down like the mire of the streets."

Then did I beat them - God was with him, and they had only an arm of flesh. No wonder then that his enemies were destroyed.
Small as the dust before the wind - This well expresses the manner in which he treated the Moabites, Ammonites, and the people of Rabbah: "He put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron; and made them pass through the brick-kiln," etc. See 2-Samuel 12:31 (note), and the notes there.

Then did I beat them small, as the dust before the wind,.... They being given up by God, and he not answering to their cries; the phrase denotes the utter ruin and destruction of them, and represents their case as desperate and irrecoverable; being, as it were, pounded to dust, and that driven away with the wind: just as the destruction of the four monarchies is signified by the iron, clay, brass, silver, and gold, being broken to pieces, and made like the chaff of the summer threshing floor, and carried away with the wind, so that no place is found for them any more, Daniel 2:35;
I did cast them out as the dirt of the streets; expressing indignation and contempt: in 2-Samuel 22:43; it is, "I did stamp them as the mire of the street, and did, spread them abroad"; which also denotes the low and miserable condition to which they were reduced, and the entire conquest made of them, and triumph over them; see Isaiah 10:6; compare with this 2-Samuel 12:31.

This conquest was complete.