Mazmur 37:35

37:35 I have seen ruthless evil men ¹ 

growing in influence, like a green tree grows in its native soil. ² 

Mazmur 92:12

92:12 The godly ³  grow like a palm tree;

they grow high like a cedar in Lebanon. ⁴ 

[37:35]  ¹ tn The Hebrew uses the representative singular again here.

[37:35]  ² 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.

[92:12]  ³ tn The singular is used in a representative sense, with the typical godly person being in view.

[92:12]  ⁴ sn The cedars of the Lebanon forest were well-known in ancient Israel for their immense size.