Psalms 37:1-2

Psalm 37 ¹ 

By David.

37:1 Do not fret ²  when wicked men seem to succeed! ³ 

Do not envy evildoers!

37:2 For they will quickly dry up like grass,

and wither away like plants. ⁴ 

Psalms 37:35

37:35 I have seen ruthless evil men ⁵ 

growing in influence, like a green tree grows in its native soil. ⁶ 

Psalms 37:38

37:38 Sinful rebels are totally destroyed; ⁷ 

evil men have no future. ⁸ 

Psalms 90:5-6

90:5 You bring their lives to an end and they “fall asleep.” ⁹ 

In the morning they are like the grass that sprouts up;

90:6 in the morning it glistens ¹⁰  and sprouts up;

at evening time it withers ¹¹  and dries up.

Psalms 103:15-16

103:15 A person’s life is like grass. ¹² 

Like a flower in the field it flourishes,

103:16 but when the hot wind ¹³  blows by, it disappears,

and one can no longer even spot the place where it once grew.

Isaiah 37:27

37:27 Their residents are powerless; ¹⁴ 

they are terrified and ashamed.

They are as short-lived as plants in the field

or green vegetation. ¹⁵ 

They are as short-lived as grass on the rooftops ¹⁶ 

when it is scorched by the east wind. ¹⁷ 

Isaiah 40:6-7

40:6 A voice says, “Cry out!”

Another asks, ¹⁸  “What should I cry out?”

The first voice responds: ¹⁹  “All people are like grass, ²⁰ 

and all their promises ²¹  are like the flowers in the field.

40:7 The grass dries up,

the flowers wither,

when the wind sent by the Lord ²²  blows on them.

Surely humanity ²³  is like grass.

James 1:10-11

1:10 But the rich person’s pride should be in his humiliation, because he will pass away like a wildflower in the meadow. ²⁴  1:11 For the sun rises with its heat and dries up the meadow; the petal of the flower falls off and its beauty is lost forever. ²⁵  So also the rich person in the midst of his pursuits will wither away.

James 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From James, ²⁶  a slave ²⁷  of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. ²⁸  Greetings!

James 1:24

1:24 For he gazes at himself and then goes out and immediately forgets ²⁹  what sort of person he was.

[37:1]  ¹ sn Psalm 37. The psalmist urges his audience not to envy the wicked, but to trust in and obey the Lord, for he will destroy sinners and preserve the godly. When the smoke of judgment clears, the wicked will be gone, but the godly will remain and inherit God’s promised blessings. The psalm is an acrostic; every other verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

[37:1]  ² tn The verb form is singular (see vv. 3-10 as well, where the second person verbs and pronouns are also singular). The psalmist’s exhortation has a wisdom flavor to it; it is personalized for each member of his audience.

[37:1]  ³ tn Heb “over sinners.” The context indicates that the psalmist has in mind the apparent power and success of sinners. See v. 7b.

[37:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “like green vegetation.”

[37:35]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew uses the representative singular again here.

[37:35]  ⁶ 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.

[37:38]  ⁷ tn Or “destroyed together.” In this case the psalmist pictures judgment sweeping them away as a group.

[37:38]  ⁸ 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.

[90:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “you bring them to an end [with] sleep.” The Hebrew verb זָרַם (zaram) has traditionally been taken to mean “flood” or “overwhelm” (note the Polel form of a root זרם in Ps 77:17, where the verb is used of the clouds pouring down rain). However, the verb form here is Qal, not Polel, and is better understood as a homonym meaning “to make an end [of life].” The term שֵׁנָה (shenah, “sleep”) can be taken as an adverbial accusative; it is a euphemism here for death (see Ps 76:5-6).

[90:6]  ¹⁰ tn Or “flourishes.” The verb is used of a crown shining in Ps 132:18. Perhaps here in Ps 90:6 it refers to the glistening of the grass in the morning dew.

[90:6]  ¹¹ tn The Polel form of this verb occurs only here. Perhaps the form should be emended to a Qal (which necessitates eliminating the final lamed [ל] as dittographic). See Ps 37:2.

[103:15]  ¹² tn Heb “[as for] mankind, like grass [are] his days.” The Hebrew noun אֱנוֹשׁ (’enosh) is used here generically of human beings. What is said is true of all mankind.

[103:16]  ¹³ tn Heb “[the] wind.” The word “hot” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[37:27]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “short of hand”; KJV, ASV “of small power”; NASB “short of strength.”

[37:27]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “they are plants in the field and green vegetation.” The metaphor emphasizes how short-lived these seemingly powerful cities really were. See Ps 90:5-6; Isa 40:6-8, 24.

[37:27]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “[they are] grass on the rooftops.” See the preceding note.

[37:27]  ¹⁷ tc The Hebrew text has “scorched before the standing grain” (perhaps meaning “before it reaches maturity”), but it is preferable to emend קָמָה (qamah, “standing grain”) to קָדִים (qadim, “east wind”) with the support of 1Q Isa^a; cf. J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:657, n. 8.

[40:6]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and he says.” Apparently a second “voice” responds to the command of the first “voice.”

[40:6]  ¹⁹ tn The words “the first voice responds” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The first voice tells the second one what to declare.

[40:6]  ²⁰ tn Heb “all flesh is grass.” The point of the metaphor is explained in v. 7.

[40:6]  ²¹ tn Heb “and all his loyalty.” The antecedent of the third masculine suffix is בָּשָׂר (basar, “flesh”), which refers collectively to mankind. The LXX, apparently understanding the antecedent as “grass,” reads “glory,” but חֶסֶד (khesed) rarely, if ever, has this nuance. The normal meaning of חֶסֶד (“faithfulness, loyalty, devotion”) fits very well in the argument. Human beings and their faithfulness (verbal expressions of faithfulness are specifically in view; cf. NRSV “constancy”) are short-lived and unreliable, in stark contrast to the decrees and promises of the eternal God.

[40:7]  ²² tn The Hebrew text has רוּחַ יְהוָה (ruakh yehvah), which in this context probably does not refer to the Lord’s personal Spirit. The phrase is better translated “the breath of the Lord,” or “the wind of [i.e., sent by] the Lord.” The Lord’s sovereign control over nature, including the hot desert winds that dry up vegetation, is in view here (cf. Ps 147:18; Isa 59:19).

[40:7]  ²³ tn Heb “the people” (so KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[1:10]  ²⁴ tn Grk “a flower of grass.”

[1:11]  ²⁵ tn Or “perishes,” “is destroyed.”

[1:1]  ²⁶ tn Grk “James.” The word “From” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[1:1]  ²⁷ tn Traditionally, “servant” or “bondservant.” Though δοῦλος (doulos) is normally translated “servant,” the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. BDAG notes that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl. and early American times…in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished” (BDAG 260 s.v.). The most accurate translation is “bondservant” (sometimes found in the ASV for δοῦλος), in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another. But as this is archaic, few today understand its force.

[1:1]  ²⁸ tn Grk “to the twelve tribes in the Diaspora.” The Greek term διασπορά (diaspora, “dispersion”) refers to Jews not living in Palestine but “dispersed” or scattered among the Gentiles.

[1:24]  ²⁹ tn Grk “and he has gone out and immediately has forgotten.”