genitive (Ges. §115). המון is a noisy multitude, here used of earthly possessions. רבּים is not per attract. (cf. Psa 38:11, הם for הוּא) equivalent to רב, but the one righteous man is contrasted with many unrighteous. The arms are here named instead of the bow in Psa 37:15. He whose arms are broken can neither injure others nor help himself. Whereas Jahve does for the righteous what earthly wealth and human power cannot do: He Himself upholds them.
Verses 18-19
The life of those who love Jahve with the whole heart is, with all its vicissitudes, an object of His loving regard and of His observant providential care, Psa 1:6; Psa 31:8, cf. Psa 16:1-11. He neither suffers His own to lose their heritage nor to be themselves lost to it. The αἰώνιος κληρονομία is not as yet thought of as extending into the future world, as in the New Testament. In Psa 37:19 the surviving refers only to this present life.
Verse 20
With כּי the preceding assertion is confirmed by its opposite (cf. Psa 130:4). כּיקר בּרים forms a fine play in sound; יקר is a substantivized adjective like גּדל ekil evitcejda, Exo 15:16. Instead of בעשׁן, it is not to be read כּעשׁן, Hos 13:3; the ב 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 (Rosenmüller, Hupfeld, Hitzig); both expressions are admissible as to fact and as to the language, and the latter is commended by בּהבל, Psa 78:33, cf. בּצלם, Psa 39:7. בעשׁן belongs to the first, regularly accented כּלוּ; for the Munach by בעשׂן 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 כּלוּ has the accent on the penult. for a change (Ew. §194, c), i.e., variation of the rhythm (cf. למה למה, Psa 42:10; Psa 43:2; עורי עורי, Jdg 5:12, and on Psa 137:7), and in particular here on account of its pausal position (cf. ערוּ, Psa 137:7).
Verses 21-22
It is the promise expressed in Deu 15:6; Deu 28:12, Deu 28:44, which is rendered in Psa 37:21 in the more universal, sententious form. לוה signifies to be bound or under obligation to any one = to borrow and to owe (nexum esse). The confirmation of Psa 37:22 is not inappropriate (as Hitzig considers it, who places Psa 37:22 after Psa 37:20): in that ever deeper
