They will soon wither

Introduction[ ]

Overview[ ]

The purpose was the psalmist's probable intent or reason for writing this psalm. The Content is a concise summary of the whole psalm's content. The Message is the main idea the psalmist probably wanted the audience to remember upon or after hearing the psalm.

Purpose: To encourage the righteous not to be upset by the success of the wicked, but to trust in YHWH and do good.

Content: The wicked will be destroyed, and the righteous will possess the land. Therefore, don't get upset about the wicked! Trust in YHWH and do good!

Message: The wicked will not last for long. It is the righteous who will possess the land.

Background Ideas

Cultural, historical, and contextual information that is important to know to understand this psalm

YHWH is the judge of all the earth who rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked (see Gen 18:25).
The success of the wicked poses a perennial challenge to the idea of YHWH's justice (see Jer 12:1; Mal 3:14-15; Ps 73; Job 20-21; cf. The Babylonian Theodicy VII, XXIII in COS 1.154).
YHWH promised to give the land of Canaan to Abraham and his descendants (see Gen 12:7; 15:7, 18-21), and in the conquest of Canaan under Joshua, YHWH fulfilled his promise (see Josh 21:43-45; Jdg 2:6; 1 Kgs 8:56). But Israel's continued possession of the land depended on their faithfulness to the covenant (see Lev 26; Deut 28; cf. Ezra 9:10-12; 1 Chron 28:8) (cf. Martin 2013).
In the end, "all of [YHWH's] people will be righteous, and they [i.e., the righteous] will possess the land forever" (Isa 60:21; cf. Isa 57:13; 65:9; Jer 30:3; Gen 13:15; 17:8; 48:4; Exod 32:13; Josh 14:9).

Background Situation

A brief explanation of the "story behind" the psalm--what was going on in the psalmist's life, and/or Israel's history, that prompted the psalmist to pen this psalm? The colors in the boxes correspond to the participants in the psalm (see Participant Analysis).

Sections

These sections divide the content of the psalm into digestible pieces , and are determined based on information from many of our layers, including Semantics, Poetics, and Discourse. The columns, left to right, contain: the verse numbers; the main title of the section; a brief summary of the content of that section (quote marks indicate the text is taken directly from the English text of the psalm (as per our Close-but-Clear translation)); and an icon to visually represent and remember the content.

Videos[ ]

The Overview video is a brief, concise explanation of the psalm, pulling all the most important information specific to this psalm from each of our analytical layers. The video begins with a high-level, birds-eye view of the content of the psalm, then explores and explains the psalm verse by verse. Relevant contextual information is also included. No Hebrew knowledge required--this video serves as an entry point for all users to all our other information about the psalm.

Translation Aids[ ]

Recommended steps for translating the psalms[ ]

To translate poetry accurately and beautifully, a knowledge of both the source language's poetry and the target language's poetry is needed. So, here are the steps we recommend to follow when setting out to translate the psalms:

GAIN AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE TARGET LANGUAGE'S POETRY/ARTS. Research and analyze many examples from numerous genres of poetry, storytelling, and music in the target language and culture, and document findings. See our for help.
GAIN AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE SOURCE LANGUAGE'S (HEBREW) MEANING AND POETRY. The aim of all our materials is to provide exactly this for the translator, poet/musician/artist, and consultant: an understanding of what the psalm means, as well as its poetics.
TRANSLATE THE PSALM IN THE APPROPRIATE LOCAL ART/POETRY GENRE.

Translation and Performance Notes

TPNs are an at-a-glance reference for anyone involved with translating or checking a translation of the psalm. Specific words, phrases, and images that could be difficult to understand or to translate are highlighted, and then briefly discussed. Each note is intended to help the reader understand the meaning of the Hebrew word or phrase in its context, as well as provide a few translation options or suggestions, often pulling from existing translations. Where pertinent, our preferred translation option is given. NOTE: These notes are intended to supplement a robust internalization of the psalm, not replace it. Translation Challenges for Psalm 37 not available yet.

Close-but-Clear Translation

The Close-but-clear translation (CBC) exists to provide a window into the Hebrew text according to how we understand its syntax and word-to-phrase-level semantics. It is not intended to be used as a stand-alone translation or base text, but as a supplement to Layer-by-Layer materials to help users make full use of these resources.

1. Do not get upset about those who act wickedly;

Do not be jealous of those who do wrong.

2. For they will soon wither like grass,

and they will fade like green leaves on plants.

3. Trust in YHWH and do good!

Reside in the land and graze securely!

4. And then you will delight yourself in YHWH,

and he will give you your heart’s desires.

5. Commit your way to YHWH,

and trust in him, and he will act,

6. and he will make your righteousness known like the light,

and [he will make] your justice [known] like midday.

7. Be silent before YHWH and wait for him!

Do not get upset about someone who makes his way successful,

about a person carrying out schemes.

8. Let go of anger and leave wrath behind!

Do not get upset, only to act wickedly!

9. For those who act wickedly will be destroyed;

but those who hope in YHWH—they will possess the land.

10. And just a little bit longer, and the wicked person will be gone;

And you will look closely at the place where he was, and he will not be there.

11. But the humble will possess the land

and delight themselves in great prosperity.

12. The wicked person is plotting against the righteous person

and grinding his teeth at him.

13. The Lord laughs at him,

because he sees that his time will come.

14. The wicked have drawn swords

and strung their bows

in order to bring down the one who is afflicted and poor,

in order to slaughter those whose conduct is upright.

15. Their swords will go into their own hearts

and their bows will be broken.

16. A little belonging to the righteous person is better

than the abundance of many wicked people.

17. For the arms of the wicked will be broken,

but YHWH is upholding the righteous.

18. YHWH knows the days of the blameless,

and their inheritance will be forever.

19. They will not come to shame during hard times,

and they will eat their fill during times of famine.

20. For the wicked will perish,

and YHWH’s enemies [will perish] like flowers in a pasture.

They are finished like smoke! They are finished!

21. The wicked person is borrowing and will not repay,

but the righteous person is giving generously.

22. For those blessed by him will possess the land,

and those cursed by him will be destroyed.

23. When a person’s steps are made steadfast by YHWH,

then he will be pleased with his way.

24. When he falls, he will not fall flat,

because YHWH is supporting his hand.

25. I was once a young man, and now I am old,

and I have not seen a righteous person abandoned

or his children looking for food.

26. He is always lending generously,

and his children will become a blessing.

27. Turn away from evil and do good,

and you will reside forever!

28A. For YHWH loves justice,

and he will not abandon those who are loyal to him.

30. A righteous person’s mouth utters what is wise,

and his tongue speaks what is just.

31. The instruction of his God is in his heart.

His steps will not slip.

28B. Wrong-doers are exterminated,

and the children of the wicked are destroyed!

29. The righteous will possess the land

and reside on it forever.

32. The wicked person is watching for the righteous person

and trying to kill him.

33. YHWH will not abandon him into his hand,

and he will not let him be condemned as guilty when he enters into judgment.

34. Hope in YHWH and keep his way,

and he will exalt you to possess the land.

You will see when the wicked are destroyed.

35. I once saw a ruthless wicked person,

and he was ascending like a native tree.

36. Then I passed by, and—get this!—he was gone;

then I looked for him, and he was not found.

37. Pay attention to the blameless one, and look at the upright one,

because the future of a [blameless] person is peace.

38. But those who rebel are completely exterminated!

The future of the wicked is destroyed!

39. But the salvation of the righteous comes from YHWH,

their fortress during times of trouble,

40. and YHWH helps them and rescues them.

He will rescue them from the wicked and save them,

because they have sought refuge in him.

Explore the Layers

Exegetical Issues[ ]

The Hebrew of the psalms can be difficult to understand at times. In this section, you can explore (in either video or text format) what we've deemed to be the three most important difficulties in the Hebrew, and follow our reasoning as we do a deep dive in scholarly work and explain our conclusions.

The Text, Grammar, and Meaning of Ps 37:20

The Text of Ps 37:28

The Text and Meaning of Ps 37:35b

Grammar[ ]

A full, detailed diagram showing the grammatical function of each word/morpheme in the Hebrew text, along with accompanying notes.

Explore the Grammar layer

Semantics[ ]

Lexical and Phrase-level Semantics[ ]

Lexical semantics is the study of word meanings. It examines semantic range (=possible meanings of a word), the relationship between words (e.g. synonymy, hyponymy), as well as the relationship between words and larger concepts (conceptual domains). One component of our approach involves not only the study of the Hebrew word meaning, but also of our own assumptions about word meaning in modern languages. Because the researcher necessarily starts with their own cultural assumptions (in our case, those of Western-trained scholars), this part of the analysis should ideally be done afresh for every culture. Phrase-level semantics analyses the meaning of syntactic units which are larger than the level of the word and smaller than the level of the clause. Specifically, this layer analyses the meaning of prepositional phrases , construct phrases (a special type of construction in Hebrew), phrases formed by a coordinating waw conjunction, and noun phrases which consist of a noun plus a determiner (such as "the") or a quantifier (such as "all").

Explore Lexical and Phrasal Semantics

Verbal Semantics[ ]

Verbal Semantics focuses on the relationship between verbs, time and modality, and gives details about each verb in the psalm. This is important for interpretation and translation, and how one analyses a verb can have a significant effect on how it is rendered.

Explore Verbal Semantics

Story Behind the Psalm (Unit-level Semantics)

The Story Behind triangle tells the "story" (reading from left to right, beginning at the bottom left corner) of what might have prompted the psalmist to write this psalm. The events and ideas on the triangle are taken from the Propositions and Assumptions table below. Propositional content is the part of the meaning of a clause or sentence that is constant, despite changes in such things as voice, illocutionary force, tense/aspect/mode, person/gender/number, etc. It refers to “the kind of situation or event described by the underlying proposition.” Once we have identified the propositional content, we ask, “what would the world have to be like for this [proposition] to be true?” That is, what does this proposition presuppose about the world? What does it entail? What might be implied? In what kind of situation does this make sense? In other words, what assumptions are bound up with this proposition? We distinguish three kinds of assumptions:

Common-ground assumptions
Local-ground assumptions
Playground assumptions

See the Legend accompanying the chart for more details on the types of assumptions.

Understanding the assumptions involved will help translators understand the implicit information present in the text, so that they can decide which of these to make explicit in the translation or biblical helps for their audience to understand the text's larger meaning.

Explore the Story Behind the Psalm

Discourse[ ]

Participant Analysis

This layer examines each participant in the psalm, whether they have speaking roles in the psalm, or are just referenced in the poem. Often, the relationships and interactions among participants sheds much light on the understanding and translation of a psalm. The summary visuals give a view of the participants in the psalm as a whole, while the tables list the participant information for each clause.