The punishment that Yahweh sends (or, better, “will send,” with Revised Standard Version and others) is described as consisting of coals of fire (that is, live coals), brimstone (“burning sulfur”), and a scorching wind.
He will rain: “he will cause to come down (like rain)” (see also 78.24, 27). This expression may also be rendered “he will cause to fall like rain” or “he will cause the sky to send down.”
The first punishment in the Masoretic text is the plural of the word for “trap” (so Septuagint, Vulgate), which seems to be a scribal error for the plural of the word for “coal” (so Briggs), which is nearly the same in Hebrew. Therefore Briggs, Anderson, and others (Bible de Jérusalem, New Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible, New English Bible) correct the Hebrew text, following the Greek translation by Symmachus. But some translations like Revised Standard Version take the Masoretic text as though it meant “coals” (New Jerusalem Bible, New International Version). Hebrew Old Testament Text Project says that the Masoretic text means “snares” and has there the wider sense of “misfortunes.” It seems best to stay with Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, “burning coals” or “flaming coals.” It should be remembered that coals refers to charcoal, not mineral coal.
Brimstone (or “burning sulfur”) is associated with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19.24-25). Sulfur is a yellow substance which burns with a great heat and produces an unpleasant smell; it is found in volcanic regions, either as a solid or as a gas. Fire and burning sulfur are used in the biblical descriptions of the destruction which God sends or will send on various nations and peoples (see Isa 30.33; 34.9; Ezek 38.22; Rev 14.10; 19.20; 20.10; 21.8). “Burning sulfur” may sometimes be rendered “flames which smell bad” or “yellow flames with bad odor.”
Scorching wind is a reference to the hot desert wind that kills plants (see 90.5-6; 103.15-16; Isa 40.6-7). People who live near major deserts usually have specific terms to describe hot winds which blow from the desert. Such winds may also be rendered “winds that scorch things,” “winds that dry things up,” or “winds that burn the plants.” The Hebrew word translated wind also means breath, spirit, or (God’s) Spirit, depending on the context. Here wind is meant. Scorching translates a word that is found only here, in 119.53, and in Lamentations 5.10.
The figure the portion of their cup means that which is allotted to a person by God, what that person receives as his or her destiny, or lot, in this life (see 16.5; 23.5; 75.8; Rev 14.10). It is never an impersonal destiny or fate, but God’s doing. It usually, but not always, refers to something unpleasant or painful. The portion of their cup must often be recast as a clause; for example, “that which God gives to them,” or idiomatically in some languages, “the way God cuts their affairs,” meaning God’s evaluation or judgment of their lives. Since the reference is to the destruction which God determines for their wickedness, the notion may sometimes be rendered, for example, “God cuts the affairs of the wicked with a scorching wind” or, in nonfigurative terms, “in the end God gives the wicked a burning wind.”
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .