Psalm 37:10

For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(10) For yet a little . . .—Better,

For yet a little while, and the wicked is not;

Thou lookest at his place, and he is not;

i.e., he has dropped out of his place in society, his tribe knows him no more.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

37:7-20 Let us be satisfied that God will make all to work for good to us. Let us not discompose ourselves at what we see in this world. A fretful, discontented spirit is open to many temptations. For, in all respects, the little which is allotted to the righteous, is more comfortable and more profitable than the ill-gotten and abused riches of ungodly men. It comes from a hand of special love. God provides plentifully and well, not only for his working servants, but for his waiting servants. They have that which is better than wealth, peace of mind, peace with God, and then peace in God; that peace which the world cannot give, and which the world cannot have. God knows the believer's days. Not one day's work shall go unrewarded. Their time on earth is reckoned by days, which will soon be numbered; but heavenly happiness shall be for ever. This will be a real support to believers in evil times. Those that rest on the Rock of ages, have no reason to envy the wicked the support of their broken reeds.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be - The thee will soon come when they shall pass away. The language "shall not be" cannot mean that they will cease to exist altogether, for the connection does not demand this interpretation. All that is intended is that they would be no longer on the earth; they would no longer live to give occasion for anxious thoughts and troubled feelings in the hearts of good people.

Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place - The place where he lived; the house in which he dwelt; the office which he filled; the grounds which he cultivated.

And it shall not be - Or rather, perhaps, as in the former member of the verse, "he is not." That is, you will not see him there. His seat at the table is vacant; he is seen no more riding over his grounds; he is no more in the social circle where he found his pleasure, or in the place of business or of revelry: you are impressed with the feeling that "he is gone." You look where he was, but he is not there; you visit every place where you have been accustomed to see him, "but he is gone." Alas! where has he gone? Compare Job 14:10.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

10, 11. shall not be—literally, "is not"—is not to be found.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Their time and prosperity is very short, and therefore no matter of envy.

Shall not be, to wit, in the land of the living. He shall be dead and gone, as this phrase is commonly taken.

Diligently consider his place; industriously seeking to find him.

It shall not be, i.e. his place, and estate, and glory shall be gone. Or, he shall not be, as before.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be,.... Not that they shall be annihilated or reduced to nothing, because nonentities have no place nor being any where; when they die they shall lift up their eyes in hell; their bodies will rise again at the last day; they shall stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and go into everlasting punishment; but they shall be no more in the world, and in the same flourishing and prosperous circumstances they were: and this their destruction will be in a short time, very quickly;

yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be; his dwelling place, called after his own name, to perpetuate the memory of him; see Job 7:10; an instance of this the psalmist gives of his own knowledge, Psalm 37:35.

Geneva Study Bible

{h} For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.

(y) He corrects the impatience of our nature, which cannot abide till the fulness of God's time is come.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

10. Cp. Psalm 37:36 : Isaiah 29:20.

his place] His abode. Cp. Job 7:10; Job 8:18; Job 20:9.

and it shall not be] Better, as R.V., and he shall not be.

10, 11. Stanza of Vâv; expanding the preceding verse.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 10. - For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be (compare the comment on ver. 2). Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be; or, he shall not be. He shall have been swept away; his "place shall know him no more" (Psalm 103:16). Psalm 37:10

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The protasis in Psalm 37:10 is literally: adhuc parum (temporis superest), עוד מעט ו, as e.g., Exodus 23:30, and as in a similar connection מעט ו, Job 24:24. והתבּוננתּ also is a protasis with a hypothetical perfect, Ges. ֗155, 4, a. This promise also runs in the mouth of the Preacher on the Mount (Matthew 5:5) just as the lxx renders Psalm 37:11: οἱ δὲ πρᾳεῖς κληρονομήσουσι γῆν. Meekness, which is content with God, and renounces all earthly stays, will at length become the inheritor of the land, yea of the earth. Whatever God-opposed self-love may amass to itself and may seek to acquire, falls into the hands of the meek as their blessed possession.