A modern English translation drawn directly from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. Translated word-for-word where possible, by a committee with scholarly oversight.
Uses the same source texts as the ESV, NASB, and most academic Bibles, including the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and the Nestle-Aland critical edition.
Psalm 1
Psalm 1 is the opening psalm of the nineteenth book of the Bible. The 6-verse poem is short and sets the frame for the entire collection by contrasting two ways of life: the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked.
The psalm opens with the famous line "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of mockers." The opening verse builds in three steps, with each verb suggesting deeper commitment to wrongdoing: walking, standing, sitting.
Instead, the blessed person delights in God's law and meditates on it day and night. The psalm pictures this person as a tree planted by streams of water, yielding fruit in season, with leaves that never wither, prospering in everything.
The contrast follows. The wicked are not like the tree. They are like chaff, the dry husks blown away by the wind at the threshing floor. They will not stand in the judgment, and they will not belong in the assembly of the righteous.
The psalm closes with a single summary verse. The Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
Verse 1. Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or set foot on the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers.
Verse 2. But his delight is in the Law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night.
Verse 3. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither, and who prospers in all he does.
Verse 4. Not so the wicked! For they are like chaff driven off by the wind.
Verse 5. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
Verse 6. For the LORD guards the path of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
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