What Does Psalm 37:2 Mean?
For like the grass they will soon be cut down, and like the green herb they will wither.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.THE KEY
The apparent strength of those who do wrong is already pictured as grass losing its life.
THE MEANING
The people who seem to thrive through wrongdoing are not secure: their flourishing is brief, like grass that withers. The verse speaks now of a power whose end is already visible in its fading.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that people who prosper through wrongdoing are secure because they look strong; their apparent flourishing is temporary.
THE ROOT
יִמָּלוּ
yimmālû
GROWS FROM
מלל
m-l-l
To wither or languish; by extension, to be cut off.
“cut down” in this verse is yimmālû. This verb carries both being cut off and withering, so the image moves from loss of standing to loss of vitality. Its parallel with the next clause makes the fading of the grass the measure of their strength.
ALSO GROWS
yemōlēl: Is cut down or withers; Psalm 90:6 uses this form for grass fading by evening.
יְמוֹלֵל
The same root makes the grass image recur as a picture of how quickly apparent flourishing can end.
wayyimmāl: Is cut down; Job 14:2 uses this form of a flower.
וַיִּמָּל
A flower described with the same root extends the image from grass to any life that appears briefly and then fades.
יִבּוֹלוּן
yibbōlûn
GROWS FROM
נבל
n-b-l
To wither, fade, or lose vitality.
“wither” in this verse is yibbōlûn. This second verb names the fading directly, and its root also describes the flower that fades in Isaiah’s picture of people as grass. The verse’s green herb is already carrying the image of life draining away.
ALSO GROWS
nāvēl: To fade or wither; Isaiah 40:7 uses this root for a flower fading.
נָבֵל
The same root joins the fading plant in this verse to Isaiah’s image of human life as grass.
nevēlāh: A carcass or dead body, a noun from the same root family.
נְבֵלָה
This branch names the lifeless end of the fading process, giving the image a full arc from green growth to lost vitality.
THE PATTERN
The apparent flourishing of people and wealth is temporary, like vegetation that withers.
In the morning it blossoms and fades; by evening it is pinched off and dries.The grass dries, the flower withers, because the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people is grass.For the sun rises with its scorching heat, and dries the grass, and its flower falls, and the beauty of its shape perishes; so also the rich one withers in his goings.THE THREAD
In the morning it blossoms and fades; by evening it is pinched off and dries.Psalm 90:6 uses the same root as “cut down” for grass that fades by evening, and pairs it with withering. The repeated root makes the image precise: flourishing can give way to fading within a day.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us