Psalms 37:34-40

37:34 Rely ¹  on the Lord! Obey his commands! ² 

Then he will permit you ³  to possess the land;

you will see the demise of evil men. ⁴ 

37:35 I have seen ruthless evil men ⁵ 

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

37:36 But then one passes by, and suddenly they have disappeared! ⁷ 

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

37:37 Take note of the one who has integrity! Observe the godly! ⁸ 

For the one who promotes peace has a future. ⁹ 

37:38 Sinful rebels are totally destroyed; ¹⁰ 

evil men have no future. ¹¹ 

37:39 But the Lord delivers the godly; ¹² 

he protects them in times of trouble. ¹³ 

37:40 The Lord helps them and rescues them;

he rescues them from evil men and delivers them, ¹⁴ 

for they seek his protection.

[37:34]  ¹ tn Or “wait.”

[37:34]  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.

[37:34]  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.

[37:34]  ⁴ tn Heb “when evil men are cut off you will see.”

[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.

[37:36]  ⁷ 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).

[37:37]  ⁸ tn Or “upright.”

[37:37]  ⁹ 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).

[37:38]  ¹⁰ tn Or “destroyed together.” In this case the psalmist pictures judgment sweeping them away as a group.

[37:38]  ¹¹ 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.

[37:39]  ¹² tn Heb “and the deliverance of the godly [ones] [is] from the Lord.”

[37:39]  ¹³ tn Heb “[he is] their place of refuge in a time of trouble.”

[37:40]  ¹⁴ tn The prefixed verbal forms with vav (ו) consecutive carry on the generalizing tone of the preceding verse.