Text -- Psalms 37:16-40 (NET)

37:16 The little bit that a godly man owns is better than the wealth of many evil men, 37:17 for evil men will lose their power, but the Lord sustains the godly. 37:18 The Lord watches over the innocent day by day and they possess a permanent inheritance. 37:19 They will not be ashamed when hard times come; when famine comes they will have enough to eat. 37:20 But evil men will die; the Lord’s enemies will be incinerated– they will go up in smoke. 37:21 Evil men borrow, but do not repay their debt, but the godly show compassion and are generous. 37:22 Surely those favored by the Lord will possess the land, but those rejected by him will be wiped out. 37:23 The Lord grants success to the one whose behavior he finds commendable. 37:24 Even if he trips, he will not fall headlong, for the Lord holds his hand. 37:25 I was once young, now I am old. I have never seen a godly man abandoned, or his children forced to search for food. 37:26 All day long he shows compassion and lends to others, and his children are blessed. 37:27 Turn away from evil! Do what is right! Then you will enjoy lasting security. 37:28 For the Lord promotes justice, and never abandons his faithful followers. They are permanently secure, but the children of evil men are wiped out. 37:29 The godly will possess the land and will dwell in it permanently. 37:30 The godly speak wise words and promote justice. 37:31 The law of their God controls their thinking; their feet do not slip. 37:32 Evil men set an ambush for the godly and try to kill them. 37:33 But the Lord does not surrender the godly, or allow them to be condemned in a court of law. 37:34 Rely on the Lord! Obey his commands! Then he will permit you to possess the land; you will see the demise of evil men. 37:35 I have seen ruthless evil men growing in influence, like a green tree grows in its native soil. 37:36 But then one passes by, and suddenly they have disappeared! I looked for them, but they could not be found. 37:37 Take note of the one who has integrity! Observe the godly! For the one who promotes peace has a future. 37:38 Sinful rebels are totally destroyed; evil men have no future. 37:39 But the Lord delivers the godly; he protects them in times of trouble. 37:40 The Lord helps them and rescues them; he rescues them from evil men and delivers them, for they seek his protection.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Psa 37:16

¹ tn Heb “Better [is] a little to the godly one than the wealth of many evil ones.” The following verses explain why this is true. Though a godly individual may seem to have only meager possessions, he always has what he needs and will eventually possess the land. The wicked may prosper for a brief time, but will eventually be destroyed by divine judgment and lose everything.

NET Notes: Psa 37:17

¹ tn Heb “for the arms of the evil ones will be broken.”

² tn The active participle here indicates this is characteristically true.

NET Notes: Psa 37:18

¹ tn Heb “the Lord knows the days of the innocent ones.” He “knows” their days in the sense that he is intimately aware of and involved in their daily struggles. He meets their needs and sustains them.

² tn Heb “and their inheritance is forever.”

NET Notes: Psa 37:19

¹ tn Heb “in a time of trouble.”

² tn Heb “in days of famine they will be satisfied.”

NET Notes: Psa 37:20

¹ tn Or “for,” but Hebrew כי in this case would have to extend all the way back to v. 17a. Another option is to understand the particle as asseverative, “surely” (see v. 22).

² tc The meaning of the MT (כִּיקַר כָּרִים [kiqar karim], “like what is precious among the pastures/rams”) is uncertain. One possibility is to take the noun כָּרִים as “pastures” and interpret “what is precious” as referring to flowers that blossom but then quickly disappear (see v. 2 and BDB 430 s.v. יָקָר 3). If כָּרִים is taken as “rams,” then “what is precious” might refer to the choicest portions of rams. The present translation follows a reading in the Dead Sea Scrolls (4QpPs37), כיקוד כורם (“like the burning of an oven”). The next line, which pictures the Lord’s enemies being consumed in smoke, supports this reading, which assumes confusion of the Hebrew letters resh (ר) and dalet (ד) at the end of the first word in the sequence.

³ tn Heb “they perish in smoke, they perish.” In addition to repeating the verb for emphasis, the psalmist uses the perfect form of the verb to picture the enemies’ demise as if it had already taken place. In this way he draws attention to the certitude of their judgment.

NET Notes: Psa 37:21

¹ tn Heb “an evil [man] borrows and does not repay; but a godly [man] is gracious and gives.” The singular forms are used in a representative sense; the typical evildoer and godly individual are in view. The three active participles and one imperfect (“repay”) draw attention to the characteristic behavior of the two types.

NET Notes: Psa 37:22

¹ tn The particle כִּי is best understood as asseverative or emphatic here.

² tn Heb “those blessed by him.” The pronoun “him” must refer to the Lord (see vv. 20, 23), so the referent has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Heb “cursed.”

⁴ tn Or “cut off”; or “removed” (see v. 9).

NET Notes: Psa 37:23

¹ tn Heb “from the Lord the steps of a man are established, and in his way he delights.” The second line qualifies the first. The man whose behavior is commendable in God’s sight is the one whose ways are established by God. Another option is that the second line refers to the godly man delighting in God’s “way,” namely the lifestyle which he prescribes for men. In this case one might translate, “The Lord grants success to the one who desires to obey his commands.”

NET Notes: Psa 37:24

¹ tn Other translation options for כִּי in this context are “when” (so NASB) or “though” (so NEB, NIV, NRSV).

² tn Heb “be hurled down.”

³ tn The active participle indicates this is characteristically true. See v. 17.

NET Notes: Psa 37:25

¹ tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”

² tn Heb “or his offspring searching for food.” The expression “search for food” also appears in Lam 1:11, where Jerusalem’s refugees are forced to search for food and to trade their valuable possessions for something to eat.

NET Notes: Psa 37:26

¹ tn The active participles describe characteristic behavior.

² tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”

NET Notes: Psa 37:27

¹ tn Or “Do good!” The imperatives are singular (see v. 1).

² tn Heb “and dwell permanently.” The imperative with vav (ו) is best taken here as a result clause after the preceding imperatives.

NET Notes: Psa 37:28

¹ tn Heb “loves.” The verb “loves” is here metonymic; the Lord’s commitment to principles of justice causes him to actively promote these principles as he governs the world. The active participle describes characteristic behavior.

² tn The imperfect verbal form draws attention to this generalizing statement.

³ tn Or “protected forever.”

⁴ tn Or “offspring”; Heb “seed.”

⁵ tn Or “cut off”; or “removed.” The perfect verbal forms in v. 28b state general truths.

NET Notes: Psa 37:30

¹ tn Heb “The mouth of the godly [one] utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice.” The singular form is used in a representative sense; the typical godly individual is in view. The imperfect verbal forms draw attention to the characteristic behavior of the godly.

NET Notes: Psa 37:31

¹ tn Heb “the law of his God [is] in his heart.” The “heart” is here the seat of one’s thoughts and motives.

² tn Heb “his.” The pronoun has been translated as plural to agree with the representative or typical “godly” in v. 30.

NET Notes: Psa 37:32

¹ tn Heb “an evil [one] watches the godly [one] and seeks to kill him.” The singular forms are used in a representative sense; the typical evildoer and godly individual are in view. The active participles describe characteristic behavior.

NET Notes: Psa 37:33

¹ tn Heb “the Lord does not abandon him into his hand or condemn him when he is judged.” The imperfects draw attention to the Lord’s characteristic behavior in this regard.

NET Notes: Psa 37:34

¹ tn Or “wait.”

² tn Heb “keep his way.” The Lord’s “way” refers here to the “conduct required” by the Lord. In Ps 25 the Lord’s “ways” are associated with his covenantal demands (see vv. 4, 9-10). See also Ps 119:3 (cf. vv. 1, 4), as well as Deut 8:6; 10:12; 11:22; 19:9; 26:17; 28:9; 30:16.

³ tn Heb “and he will lift you up.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) is best taken here as a result clause following the imperatives in the preceding lines.

⁴ tn Heb “when evil men are cut off you will see.”

NET Notes: Psa 37:35

¹ tn The Hebrew uses the representative singular again here.

² tn Heb “being exposed [?] like a native, luxuriant.” The Hebrew form מִתְעָרֶה (mit’areh) appears to be a Hitpael participle from עָרָה (’arah, “be exposed”), but this makes no sense in this context. Perhaps the form is a dialectal variant of מִתְעָלָה (“giving oneself an air of importance”; see Jer 51:3), from עָלָה (’alah, “go up”; see P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1-50 [WBC], 296). The noun אֶזְרָח (’ezrakh, “native, full citizen”) refers elsewhere to people, but here, where it is collocated with “luxuriant, green,” it probably refers to a tree growing in native soil.

NET Notes: Psa 37:36

¹ tn Heb “and he passes by and, look, he is not [there].” The subject of the verb “passes by” is probably indefinite, referring to any passerby. Some prefer to change the form to first person, “and I passed by” (cf. NEB; note the first person verbal forms in preceding verse and in the following line).

NET Notes: Psa 37:37

¹ tn Or “upright.”

² tn Heb “for [there is] an end for a man of peace.” Some interpret אַחֲרִית (’akharit, “end”) as referring to offspring (see the next verse and Ps 109:13; cf. NEB, NRSV).

NET Notes: Psa 37:38

¹ tn Or “destroyed together.” In this case the psalmist pictures judgment sweeping them away as a group.

² tn Heb “the end of evil men is cut off.” As in v. 37, some interpret אַחֲרִית (’akharit, “end”) as referring to offspring (see Ps 109:13). The perfect verbal forms in v. 38 probably express general truths. Another option is that they are used emphatically to state with certitude that the demise of the wicked is as good as done.

NET Notes: Psa 37:39

¹ tn Heb “and the deliverance of the godly [ones] [is] from the Lord.”

² tn Heb “[he is] their place of refuge in a time of trouble.”

NET Notes: Psa 37:40

¹ tn The prefixed verbal forms with vav (ו) consecutive carry on the generalizing tone of the preceding verse.