Mazmur 37:10

37:10 Evil men will soon disappear; ¹ 

you will stare at the spot where they once were, but they will be gone. ² 

Mazmur 37:35-36

37:35 I have seen ruthless evil men ³ 

growing in influence, like a green tree grows in its native soil. ⁴ 

37:36 But then one passes by, and suddenly they have disappeared! ⁵ 

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

Mazmur 73:19

73:19 How desolate they become in a mere moment!

Terrifying judgments make their demise complete! ⁶ 

Mazmur 92:7

92:7 When the wicked sprout up like grass,

and all the evildoers glisten, ⁷ 

it is so that they may be annihilated. ⁸ 

[37:10]  ¹ tn Heb “and yet, a little, there will be no wicked [one].”

[37:10]  ² tn Heb “and you will carefully look upon his place, but he will not be [there].” The singular is used here in a representative sense; the typical evildoer is in view.

[37:35]  ³ tn The Hebrew uses the representative singular again here.

[37:35]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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).

[73:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “they come to an end, they are finished, from terrors.”

[92:7]  ⁷ tn Or “flourish.”

[92:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “in order that they might be destroyed permanently.”

[92:7]  sn God allows the wicked to prosper temporarily so that he might reveal his justice. When the wicked are annihilated, God demonstrates that wickedness does not pay off.