What Does Psalm 37:35 Mean in the King James?
I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew casts the wicked person’s power as terror that appears to have taken root and become native.
THE MEANING
Wrongdoing can take up space and look imposing, vigorous, and at home. The verse holds the discomfort plainly: the wicked can appear to flourish before their end is visible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that wickedness must look weak or defeated; the verse shows it can occupy great power and spread like a flourishing native tree.
THE ROOT
עָרִיץ
ʿārîṣ
GROWS FROM
ערץ
ʿ-r-ṣ
To tremble or dread, and to cause terror.
The Hebrew term rendered “great power” carries the shade of terror and trembling. It presents might as a force that makes others fear, not just as strength someone possesses.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāraṣ: To tremble or dread.
עָרַץ
The response of trembling belongs to the same root family as the imposing power described here.
ʿārîṣ: Formidable, violent, or tyrannical.
עָרִיץ
This branch names the person whose force inspires fear, sharpening what kind of power the verse depicts.
אֶזְרָח
ʾezrāḥ
GROWS FROM
זרח
z-r-ḥ
To rise, spring forth, or shine.
The Hebrew image describes a native-grown tree, so the wicked person appears at home in the landscape, not merely visible for a moment. The root’s rising and springing-forth sense deepens the picture of flourishing presence, while the next verse exposes how temporary that appearance is.
ALSO GROWS
zāraḥ: To rise or shine, as the sun.
זָרַח
This verb evokes something breaking into view, like the person’s conspicuous rise in power.
mizrāḥ: East, the direction of sunrise.
מִזְרָח
This related word carries the image of the place where light rises, echoing the tree’s appearance of vigorous growth.
THE PATTERN
The wicked can appear to flourish, but visible rise and vigor do not establish lasting life.
When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever:That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:THE THREAD
Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.The next verse breaks the tree-like image: the wicked person passes away and cannot be found. It turns the lush appearance of someone native and established into a sharp picture of impermanence.
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