Psalms 37:35
I have seen a wicked, ruthless man flourishing like a well-rooted native tree,
BSB
ASV
I have seen the wicked in great power, And spreading himself like a green tree in its native soil.
KJV
I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree.
You see a cedar raised to a great height on the loftiest peak, yet it can be shattered by the wind; it can be burned down by fire; it can grow old and decay. Such are the rich in this world. They make a grand display and shine, with a worldly sort of splendor, like Mount Lebanon. They are propped up by the powers of this world and positively exult in their money and their riches. To you the rich person seems to be something, that is, until you are able to say, "Passing over, I shall see."
A second time David turns to his diary, and this time in poetic imagery tells us of what he had observed. It were well if we too took notes of divine providences. I have seen the wicked in great power. The man was terrible to others, ruling with much authority, and carrying things with a high hand, a Caesar in might, a Croesus in wealth. And spreading himself like a green bay tree. Adding house to house and field to field, rising higher and higher in the state.
The walk5
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Job 5:3I have seen a fool taking root, but suddenly his house was cursed.
leads to
Surely You set them on slick ground; You cast them down into ruin.
that though the wicked sprout like grass, and all evildoers flourish, they will be forever destroyed.
For what is the hope of the godless when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?
I have seen a wicked, ruthless man flourishing like a well-rooted native tree,
May their place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in their tents.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
