Bible Strands
Psalms 37:10
Yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — David (or a psalmist in the Davidic tradition) addresses the righteous who are watching the wicked prosper and grow impatient. The moment is one of reassurance: the gap between the wicked's present flourishing and their eventual removal is shorter than it appears.
The words — מְעַט (me'at, "a little") is a fixed idiom for a brief, unremarkable span of time, not a long wait. The Hithpael וְהִתְבּוֹנַנְתָּ (ve.hitbo'nentā, "you will look carefully") is an intensive, deliberate searching — not a casual glance but a full search that comes up empty.
The thread — The "place no longer remembers" motif appears in Psalms 103:16, where the wind passes and the spot forgets. Job 24:24 uses the same cut-off-and-gathered-up imagery, and Psalms 37:35 within this very psalm admits the wicked can look well-rooted before the same verdict lands.
Why it lands — It asks the reader to hold the conviction that the wicked will vanish while they are still visibly present, trusting a timeline that has not yet closed. The demand is patience, not proof.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.
Cross-references
- Job 24:24 They are exalted for a moment, then they are gone; they are brought low and gathered up like all others; they are cut off like heads of grain.
- Psalms 37:35 I have seen a wicked, ruthless man flourishing like a well-rooted native tree,
- Psalms 103:16 when the wind passes over, it vanishes, and its place remembers it no more.
- Psalms 107:42 The upright see and rejoice, and all iniquity shuts its mouth.
- 1 Peter 4:7 The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear-minded and sober, so that you can pray.
- Job 7:10 He never returns to his house; his place remembers him no more.
- Psalms 52:5 Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin; He will snatch you up and tear you away from your tent; He will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
- Psalms 58:10 The righteous will rejoice when they see they are avenged; they will wash their feet in the blood of the wicked.
- Hebrews 10:36 You need to persevere, so that after you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised.
- Job 20:8 He will fly away like a dream, never to be found; he will be chased away like a vision in the night.