Psalms Chapter 1 verse 3 Holy Bible
And he shall be like a tree planted by the streams of water, That bringeth forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also doth not wither; And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
read chapter 1 in ASV
He will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, which gives its fruit at the right time, whose leaves will ever be green; and he will do well in all his undertakings.
read chapter 1 in BBE
And he [is] as a tree planted by brooks of water, which giveth its fruit in its season, and whose leaf fadeth not; and all that he doeth prospereth.
read chapter 1 in DARBY
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
read chapter 1 in KJV
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth its fruit in season; its leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he doeth shall prosper.
read chapter 1 in WBT
He will be like a tree planted by the streams of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also does not wither. Whatever he does shall prosper.
read chapter 1 in WEB
And he hath been as a tree, Planted by rivulets of water, That giveth its fruit in its season, And its leaf doth not wither, And all that he doth he causeth to prosper.
read chapter 1 in YLT
Psalms 1 : 3 Bible Verse Songs
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 3. - And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. The comparison of a man to a. tree is frequent in the Book of Job (Job 8:16, 17; 14:7-10; 15:32, 33, etc.), and occurs once in the Pentateuch (Numbers 24:6). We find it again in Psalm 92:12-14, and frequently in the prophets. The "rivers of water" spoken of (פַּלְגַ־מָיִם) are undoubtedly the "streams" (Revised Version) or "canals of irrigation" so common both in Egypt and in Babylonia, by which fruit trees were planted, as especially date-palms, which need the vicinity of water. That such planting of trees by the waterside was known to the Israelites is evident, both from this passage and from several others, as Numbers 24:6; Ecclesiastes 2:5; Jeremiah 17:8; Ezekiel 17:5, 8, etc. It is misplaced ingenuity to attempt to decide what particular tree the writer had in his mind, whether the palm, or the oleander, or any other, since he may not have been thinking of any particular tree. That bringeth forth his fruit in his season. Therefore not the oleander, which has no fruit, and is never planted in the East, but grows naturally along the courses of streams. His leaf also shall not wither. Compare the contrary threat of Isaiah against the wicked of his time, "Ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water" (Isaiah 1:30). And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper; rather, perhaps, in whatsoever he doeth he shall prosper.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(3) And he.--Better, So is he. For the image so forcible in an Eastern clime, where vegetation depends on proximity to a stream, comp. Psalm 52:8; Psalm 92:12; Isaiah 44:4; and its development in Jeremiah 17:7-8. The full moral bearing of the image appears in our Lord's parabolic saying, "a good tree cannot bring forth corrupt fruit, nor an evil tree good fruit." The physical growth of a tree has in all poetry served as a ready emblem of success, as its decay has of failure. (Recall Wolsey's comment on his fall in Shakespeare's Henry VIII.) Nor has the moral significance of vegetable life been ignored. "If," says a German poet, "thou wouldest attain to thy highest, go look upon a flower, and what that does unconsciously do thou consciously." In Hebrew poetry a moral purpose is given to the grass on the mountain side and the flower in the field, and we are taught that "there is not a virtue within the widest range of human conduct, not a grace set on high for man's aspiration, which has not its fitting emblem in vegetable life."--Bible Educator, ii, p. 179.For the general comparison of a righteous man to a tree, comp. Psalm 3:8 (the olive), Psalm 128:3 (vine); Hosea 14:6 (olive and cedar). Naturally the actual kind of tree in the poet's thought interests us. The oleander suggested by Dean Stanley (Sinai and Palestine, 146), though answering the description in many ways, fails from its want of fruit to satisfy the principal condition. For, as Bishop Hall says, "Look where you will in God's Book, you shall never find any lively member of God's house, any true Christian, compared to any but a fruitful tree." Probably the palm meets all the conditions best. (Comp. Psalm 92:12.) . . .
