Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 37:20
But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the LORD [shall be] as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.
20. Stanza of Kaph. The end of the wicked.
the enemies of the Lord ] For His people’s enemies are His enemies. Cp. Psa 92:9.
as the fat of lambs ] A rendering derived from the Targum. But the consumption of the fat of the sacrifice upon the altar would be a strange simile for the evanescence of the wicked: and we must render as the excellency of the pastures, or, (R.V.) as the splendour of the meadows. The gay show of flowers, so quickly vanishing, is an apt emblem for the short-lived pomp of the wicked.
The force of the comparison is hardly realised in our moist northern climate, where verdure is perpetual. “But let a traveller ride over the downs of Bethlehem in February, one spangled carpet of brilliant flowers, and again in May, when all traces of verdure are gone; or let him push his horse through the deep solid growth of clovers and grasses in the valley of the Jordan in the early spring, and then return and gallop across a brown, hard-baked, gaping plain in June, and the Scriptural imagery will come home to him with tenfold power.” Tristram’s Natural History of the Bible, p. 455. Cp. Psa 37:2; Mat 6:29-30; Jas 1:10-11.
they shall consume &c. Lit. they are consumed; in smoke (or, like smoke) are they consumed away. Smoke is in itself a natural figure of speedy and complete disappearance (Hos 13:3): possibly, however, the idea of the preceding line is continued, and we are to think of “the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven” (Mat 6:30). The perfect tense, as in Psa 36:12, forcibly expresses the realising certainty of faith.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
But the wicked shall perish – The general sentiment here is the same as in Psa 1:1-6, that the righteous shall be prospered and saved, and that the wicked shall perish. See the notes at Psa 1:4-5. The word perish here would be applicable to any form of destruction – death here, or death hereafter – for it is equivalent to the idea that they shall be destroyed. Whether the psalmist means here to refer to the fact that they will be cut off from the earth, or will be punished hereafter in the world of woe, cannot be determined from the word itself. It is most probable, as appears from other parts of the psalm, that he refers particularly to the fact that they will be cut down in their sins; that their lives will be shortened by their crimes; that they will by their conduct expose themselves to the displeasure of God, and thus be cut off. The word used, however, would also express the idea of destruction in the future world in any form, and may have a significance beyond anything that can befall men in this life. Compare 2Th 1:8; Mat 25:46.
And the enemies of the Lord – All the enemies of God; all who can properly be regarded as his foes.
Shall be as the fat of lambs – Margin, the preciousness of lambs. Gesenius renders this, like the beauty of the pastures. Prof. Alexander, like the precious (part) of lambs; that is, the sacrificial parts, or the parts that were consumed in sacrifice. De Wette, as the splendor of the pasture. The Vulgate and the Septuagint render it: the enemies of the Lord, as soon as they are honored and exalted, shall fail as if they were smoke. Rosenmuller renders it as it is in our common version. It is not easy to determine the meaning. The word rendered fat – yaqar – means properly that which is precious, costly, weighty, as precious gems; then, anything dear, beloved, or valuable; then, that which is honored, splendid, beautiful, rare. It is in no other instance rendered fat; and it cannot be so rendered here, except as fat was considered valuable or precious. But this is a forced idea. The word kar, properly and commonly means a lamb; but it also may the pasture or meadow where lambs feed. Psa 65:13 : the pastures – kariym – are clothed with flocks. Isa 30:23, in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures – where the same word occurs. It seems to me, therefore, that the interpretation of Gesenius, DeWette, and others, is the correct interpretation, and that the idea is, that the wicked in their pride, beauty, and wealth, shall be like the meadow covered with grass and flowers, soon to be cut down by the scythe of the mower, or by the frosts of winter. This image often occurs: Mat 6:30; Psa 90:5-6; Isa 40:6-8; Jam 1:10; 1Pe 1:24.
They shall consume – The word used here means to be completed or finished; to be consumed or spent, as by fire, or in any other manner; to pine away by weeping, Lam 2:11; to vanish as a cloud or smoke, Job 7:9.
Into smoke – The meaning here is not that they will vanish as the fat of lambs does in sacrifice, but simply that they will pass away as smoke entirely disappears. All that there was of them – their wealth, their splendor, their power – shall utterly vanish away. This is spoken in contrast with what would be the condition of the righteous.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 20. The enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs] This verse has given the critics some trouble. Several of the Versions read thus: “But the enemies of the Lord, as soon as they are exalted to honour, shall vanish; like smoke they vanish.” If we follow the Hebrew, it intimates that they shall consume as the fat of lambs. That is, as the fat is wholly consumed in sacrifices by the fire on the altar, so shall they consume away in the fire of God’s wrath.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Fat of lambs, which in an instant melteth before the fire. Consume into smoke, i.e. utterly and irrecoverably,
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
20. While the wicked, howevermighty, are destroyed, and that utterly, as smoke which vanishes andleaves no trace.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But the wicked shall perish,…. In a time of famine, in an evil day, and particularly at the day of judgment: for this is to be understood, not merely of being in bodily distress and want; nor of perishing by death, common to the righteous and the wicked; nor of being in a lost perishing condition, as all men by nature are, but of eternal perdition in hell;
and the enemies of the Lord [shall be] as the fat of lambs, they shall consume; that is, either they shall consume away as the fat of lambs burnt upon the altar, which evaporates, or as lambs fattened on purpose to be killed, and so prepared for the day of slaughter; in like manner the wicked, who have waxed fat and kicked, will be destroyed; they being the enemies of God, yea, enmity to him, to Father, Son, and Spirit, to the Gospel and ordinances of Christ, and to his people, and will be treated as such. Some render the word, “like the excellency of pastures” s; the grass of the field, which is cut down and withers presently; see Ps 37:2;
into smoke shall they consume away, or “with” t it; that is, as it; see Ps 68:1; or “in smoke” u; in the smoke of eternal torments, or hell, as the Targum.
s “sicut pretiosum pratorum”, Muis; so some in Piscator; “vel gloria”, Michaelis. t “cum fumo”, Gejerus, Tigurine version; so Ainsworth. u “In fumo”, Montanus, Musculus, Michaelis.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
With the preceding assertion is confirmed by its opposite (cf. Psa 130:4). forms a fine play in sound; is a substantivized adjective like ekil evitcejda , Exo 15:16. Instead of , it is not to be read , Hos 13:3; the is secured by Psa 102:4; Psa 78:33. The idea is, that they vanish into smoke, i.e., are resolved into it, or also, that they vanish in the manner of smoke, which is first thick, but then becomes thinner and thinner till it disappears (Rosenmller, Hupfeld, Hitzig); both expressions are admissible as to fact and as to the language, and the latter is commended by , Psa 78:33, cf. , Psa 39:7. belongs to the first, regularly accented ; for the Munach by is the substitute for Mugrash, which never can be used where at least two syllables do not precede the Silluk tone (vid., Psalter ii. 503). The second has the accent on the penult. for a change (Ew. 194, c), i.e., variation of the rhythm (cf. , Psa 42:10; Psa 43:2; , Jdg 5:12, and on Psa 137:7), and in particular here on account of its pausal position (cf. , Psa 137:7).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
20 For the wicked shall perish. The causal particle כי, ki, which is here translated for, might also be rendered as if used adversatively by but or although, unless, perhaps, some would prefer to expound the sentence as of much higher import. But the preferable interpretation is, that there is here a contrast between the subjects spoken of, namely, that the righteous are satisfied in the time of famine, whereas the ungodly shall perish in the midst of their affluence; for, while they trust in their abundance, God brings them to nought by the use of means that are secret and hidden. In calling them the enemies of Jehovah, he teaches us, that they are justly overwhelmed by his vengeance, which they bring upon themselves by their own wickedness. When he says, that they shall be consumed as the excellency of lambs, this is understood by some to refer to the fat of them. But as יכר, yakar, signifies excellency, as I have said elsewhere, I have no doubt that this expression denotes the very best of lambs, and such as are of extraordinary fatness: and this is very suitable to the contrast here stated. We learn from this what another prophet likewise teaches, that the ungodly are fattened for the day of slaughter; so that the more sumptuously they shall have lived, the more suddenly shall their destruction come upon them. To be consumed into smoke is of the same import as to vanish away quickly; as if it had been said, There is no stability or substance in them. Those who understand the term יקר, yakar, to mean fat, explain this latter clause in this sense: that the wicked are consumed into smoke as fat melts or wastes away. (37) But the reader will see that the first interpretation is better.
(37) It is generally supposed that there is here an allusion to the sacrificial services of the former dispensation. Lambs were then offered in large numbers as burnt-offerings; and if the allusion is to these sacrifices, as is highly probable, the doctrine taught is, that as the fat of them melted away, and was wholly and rapidly consumed by the fire of the altar of burnt-offering, so the wicked shall melt away and be quickly consumed in the fire of Jehovah’s wrath. The Chaldee paraphrases the last clause thus: — “They shall be consumed in the smoke of Gehenna,” or of hell.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(20) As the fat of lambs.It is now generally allowed that this should be rendered as the glory of the meadows, recurring to the image of Psa. 37:2. The next clause may then be either, they are consumed, with smoke they are consumed; or, they pass away, like smoke they pass away.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
20. The fat of lambs The fat pieces of the lamb which were offered upon the altar in sacrifice, and which, being oily, were the more quickly consumed by the fire; herein lies the point of the comparison.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 37:20 But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the LORD [shall be] as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.
Ver. 20. But the wicked shall perish ] In tbe midst of their wealth and greatest abundance; their money shall perish with them.
And the enemies of the Lord
Shall be as the fat of lambs
Into smoke shall they consume away
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
into. Some codices, with Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate, read “like”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
But the: Psa 68:2, Psa 92:9, Jdg 5:31, Luk 13:3, Luk 13:5, 2Pe 2:12
as the fat of lambs: Heb. preciousness, That is, as the fat was wholly consumed in sacrifices, by the fire on the altar, so the wicked shall consume away in the fire of God’s anger. Deu 33:14-16
smoke: Psa 102:3, Gen 19:28, Lev 3:3-11, Lev 3:16, Deu 29:20, Heb 12:29
Reciprocal: Gen 6:7 – I will Lev 6:10 – consumed Psa 73:18 – thou castedst Pro 2:22 – the wicked Pro 10:29 – but Isa 9:18 – mount Isa 65:13 – my servants shall eat Jer 51:40 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
37:20 But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the LORD [shall be] as the {n} fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.
(n) They will vanish away suddenly for they are fed for the day of slaughter.