20:5 that the elation of the wicked is brief, 1
the joy of the godless 2 lasts but a moment. 3
37:10 Evil men will soon disappear; 4
you will stare at the spot where they once were, but they will be gone. 5
37:35 I have seen ruthless evil men 6
growing in influence, like a green tree grows in its native soil. 7
37:36 But then one passes by, and suddenly they have disappeared! 8
I looked for them, but they could not be found.
73:19 How desolate they become in a mere moment!
Terrifying judgments make their demise complete! 9
92:7 When the wicked sprout up like grass,
and all the evildoers glisten, 10
it is so that they may be annihilated. 11
5:1 Come now, you rich! Weep and cry aloud 13 over the miseries that are coming on you. 5:2 Your riches have rotted and your clothing has become moth-eaten. 5:3 Your gold and silver have rusted and their rust will be a witness against you. It will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have hoarded treasure! 14
1 tn The expression in the text is “quite near.” This indicates that it is easily attained, and that its end is near.
2 tn For the discussion of חָנֵף (khanef, “godless”) see Job 8:13.
3 tn The phrase is “until a moment,” meaning it is short-lived. But see J. Barr, “Hebrew ’ad, especially at Job 1:18 and Neh 7:3,” JSS 27 (1982): 177-88.
4 tn Heb “and yet, a little, there will be no wicked [one].”
5 tn Heb “and you will carefully look upon his place, but he will not be [there].” The singular is used here in a representative sense; the typical evildoer is in view.
6 tn The Hebrew uses the representative singular again here.
7 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.
8 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).
9 tn Heb “they come to an end, they are finished, from terrors.”
10 tn Or “flourish.”
11 tn Heb “in order that they might be destroyed permanently.”
12 tn Or “perishes,” “is destroyed.”
13 tn Or “wail”; Grk “crying aloud.”
14 tn Or “hoarded up treasure for the last days”; Grk “in the last days.”