Discovery BoxPsalms 37:13-22 
Context37:13 The Lord laughs in disgust 1 at them,
for he knows that their day is coming. 2
37:14 Evil men draw their swords
and prepare their bows,
to bring down 3 the oppressed and needy,
and to slaughter those who are godly. 4
37:15 Their swords will pierce 5 their own hearts,
and their bows will be broken.
37:16 The little bit that a godly man owns is better than
the wealth of many evil men, 6
37:17 for evil men will lose their power, 7
but the Lord sustains 8 the godly.
37:18 The Lord watches over the innocent day by day 9
and they possess a permanent inheritance. 10
37:19 They will not be ashamed when hard times come; 11
when famine comes they will have enough to eat. 12
37:20 But 13 evil men will die;
the Lord’s enemies will be incinerated 14 –
they will go up in smoke. 15
37:21 Evil men borrow, but do not repay their debt,
but the godly show compassion and are generous. 16
37:22 Surely 17 those favored by the Lord 18 will possess the land,
1 tn Heb “laughs.” As the next line indicates, this refers to derisive laughter (see 2:4). The Hebrew imperfect verbal form describes the action from the perspective of an eye-witness who is watching the divine response as it unfolds before his eyes.
2 tn Heb “for he sees that his day is coming.” As the following context makes clear (vv. 15, 17, 19-20), “his day” refers to the time when God will destroy evildoers.
3 tn Heb “to cause to fall.”
4 tn Heb “the upright in way,” i.e., those who lead godly lives.
5 tn Heb “enter into.”
6 tn Heb “Better [is] a little to the godly one than the wealth of many evil ones.” The following verses explain why this is true. Though a godly individual may seem to have only meager possessions, he always has what he needs and will eventually possess the land. The wicked may prosper for a brief time, but will eventually be destroyed by divine judgment and lose everything.
7 tn Heb “for the arms of the evil ones will be broken.”
8 tn The active participle here indicates this is characteristically true.
9 tn Heb “the
10 tn Heb “and their inheritance is forever.”
11 tn Heb “in a time of trouble.”
12 tn Heb “in days of famine they will be satisfied.”
13 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).
14 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
15 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.
16 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.
17 tn The particle כִּי is best understood as asseverative or emphatic here.
18 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.
19 tn Heb “cursed.”
