Psalms 37:18-24

37:18 The Lord watches over the innocent day by day ¹ 

and they possess a permanent inheritance. ² 

37:19 They will not be ashamed when hard times come; ³ 

when famine comes they will have enough to eat. ⁴ 

37:20 But ⁵  evil men will die;

the Lord’s enemies will be incinerated ⁶  –

they will go up in smoke. ⁷ 

37:21 Evil men borrow, but do not repay their debt,

but the godly show compassion and are generous. ⁸ 

37:22 Surely ⁹  those favored by the Lord ¹⁰  will possess the land,

but those rejected ¹¹  by him will be wiped out. ¹² 

37:23 The Lord grants success to the one

whose behavior he finds commendable. ¹³ 

37:24 Even if ¹⁴  he trips, he will not fall headlong, ¹⁵ 

for the Lord holds ¹⁶  his hand.

[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.

[37:18]  ² tn Heb “and their inheritance is forever.”

[37:19]  ³ tn Heb “in a time of trouble.”

[37:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “in days of famine they will be satisfied.”

[37:20]  ⁵ 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).

[37:20]  ⁶ 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.

[37:20]  ⁷ 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.

[37:21]  ⁸ 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.

[37:22]  ⁹ tn The particle כִּי is best understood as asseverative or emphatic here.

[37:22]  ¹⁰ 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.

[37:22]  ¹¹ tn Heb “cursed.”

[37:22]  ¹² tn Or “cut off”; or “removed” (see v. 9).

[37:23]  ¹³ 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.”

[37:24]  ¹⁴ tn Other translation options for כִּי in this context are “when” (so NASB) or “though” (so NEB, NIV, NRSV).

[37:24]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “be hurled down.”

[37:24]  ¹⁶ tn The active participle indicates this is characteristically true. See v. 17.