Click
here to show/hide instructions.
Instructions on how to use the page:
The commentary for the selected verse is is displayed below.
All commentary was produced against the King James, so the same verse from that translation may appear as well. Hovering your mouse over a commentary's scripture reference attempts to show those verses.
Use the browser's back button to return to the previous page.
Or you can also select a feature from the Just Verses menu appearing at the top of the page.
Selected Verse: Psalms 37:35 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Ps 37:35 |
King James |
I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
| of which a picture is given, under the figure of a flourishing tree (compare Margin), which soon withers. |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
I have seen - I have had an opportunity, in my long life Psa 37:25, of witnessing the accuracy of the statement just made, that a righteous man may live to see a confirmation of the truth that wickedness, however prosperous the wicked man may be, will lead to ultimate ruin - as I have had an opportunity of seeing Psa 37:25-26 the effect of a course of righteousness on the ultimate prosperity and happiness of its possessor. The same experience, with the same result, is referred to in Job 5:3.
In great power - The word used here - עריץ ‛ârı̂yts - means properly "terrible; inspiring terror." It is applied to God in Jer 20:11; and to powerful nations, Isa 25:3. It is also used in a bad sense, as denoting violent, fierce, lawless, or a tyrant, Isa 13:11; Isa 25:4-5; Job 15:20; Job 27:13. Here it may be used in the sense of one who was prosperous and mighty, and as referring to a man who wielded vast power; but there is connected with that also, undoubtedly, the idea that that power was wielded, not for purposes of benevolence, but for injustice, oppression, and wrong. It was a "wicked" man that was thus powerful.
And spreading himself - The word used here means properly to be naked; to make naked; to empty; then, to pour oneself out; and then, to spread oneself abroad. It is applied here to a tree that seems to pour itself out, or to spread itself out in every direction - sending its limbs aloft, and its branches far on every side.
Like a green bay tree - Margin: "a green tree that groweth in its own soil." The "bay tree" is a species of laurel, but there is no evidence that the original word here refers particularly to this, or specifically to any other tree. The original word אזרח 'ezrâch - is derived from זרח zârach, to rise; and then, to spring up as a plant does, and it properly means here, as expressed in the margin, "a native tree;" that is, a tree that grows in its own soil, or that has not been transplanted. Then, also, it comes to denote a native; one born in the country, not a foreigner: Lev 16:29; Lev 18:26, et al. The idea here is that a tree which thus remains in its own soil is more vigorous, and will attain to a larger growth, than one which is transplanted; and thus the figure becomes an emblem of a prosperous and mighty man. "Perhaps," also, there is included here, respecting the man, the idea that he has grown up where he is; that he has not been driven from place to place; that he has had uniform prosperity; that on the very soil which gave him birth he has risen to rank, to wealth, to power. His life has been spent in tranquil scenes, where everything seemed to be stable and secure; what his end will be, the psalmist states in the next verse. |
| Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
| עריץ (after the form צדּיק) is coupled with רשׁע, must as these two words alternate in Job 15:20 : a terror-inspiring, tyrannical evil-doer; cf. besides also Job 5:3. The participle in Psa 37:35 forms a clause by itself: et se diffundens, scil. erat. The lxx and Jerome translate as though it were כארז הלבנן, "like the cedars of Lebanon," instead of כאזרח רענן. But אזרח רענן is the expression for an oak, terebinth, or the like, that has brown from time immemorial in its native soil, and has in the course of centuries attained a gigantic size in the stem, and a wide-spreading overhanging head. ויּעבר does not mean: then he vanished away (Hupfeld and others); for עבר in this sense is not suitable to a tree. Luther correctly renders it: man ging vorber, one (they) passed by, Ges. ֗137, 3. The lxx, Syriac, and others, by way of lightening the difficulty, render it: then I passed by. |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| Bay - tree - Which is continually green and flourishing even in winter. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
| I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay-tree - Does not this refer to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and to the vision he had of the great tree which was in the midst of the earth, the head of which reached up to heaven? See Dan 4:10, etc. |
26 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you:
29 And this shall be a statute for ever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojourneth among you:
13 This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage of oppressors, which they shall receive of the Almighty.
20 The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.
4 For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
5 Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.
11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
3 Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee.
11 But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.
3 I have seen the foolish taking root: but suddenly I cursed his habitation.
25 I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.
26 He is ever merciful, and lendeth; and his seed is blessed.
25 I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.
35 I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree.
3 I have seen the foolish taking root: but suddenly I cursed his habitation.
20 The wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor.
10 Thus were the visions of mine head in my bed; I saw, and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great.