Psalms 37:2

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

and wither away like plants. ¹ 

Psalms 37:35-36

37:35 I have seen ruthless evil men ² 

growing in influence, like a green tree grows in its native soil. ³ 

37:36 But then one passes by, and suddenly they have disappeared! ⁴ 

I looked for them, but they could not be found.

[37:2]  ¹ tn Heb “like green vegetation.”

[37:35]  ² tn The Hebrew uses the representative singular again here.

[37:35]  ³ 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.

[37:36]  ⁴ 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).