Adam Clarke's Bible Commentary Verse 4. The ungodly are not so ] The Vulgate and Septuagint, and the versions made from them, such as the AEthiopic and Arabic, double the last negation, and add a clause to the end of the verse, "Not so the ungodly, not so; they shall be like the dust which the wind scatters away from the face of the earth." There is nothing solid in the men; there is nothing good in their ways. They are not of God's planting; they are not good grain; they are only chaff, and a chaff that shall be separated from the good grain when the fan or shovel of God's power throws them up to the wind of his judgments. The manner of winnowing in the eastern countries is nearly the same with that practiced in various parts of these kingdoms before the invention of winnowing machines. They either throw it up in a place out of doors by a large wooden shovel against the wind; or with their weights or winnowing fans shake it down leisurely in the wind. The grain falls down nearly perpendicularly; and the chaff, through its lightness, is blown away to a distance from the grain.
An ungodly man is never steady; his purposes are abortive; his conversation light, trifling, and foolish; his professions, friendships, &c., frothy, hollow, and insincere; and both he and his works are carried away to destruction by the wind of God's judgments.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 4-6 - The ungodly are the reverse of the righteous, both in character an condition. The ungodly are not so, ver. 4; they are led by the counse of the wicked, in the way of sinners, to the seat of the scornful; the have no delight in the law of God; they bring forth no fruit but what is evil. The righteous are like useful, fruitful trees: the ungodly ar like the chaff which the wind drives away: the dust which the owner of the floor desires to have driven away, as not being of any use. The are of no worth in God's account, how highly soever they may valu themselves. They are easily driven to and from by every wind of temptation. The chaff may be, for a while, among the wheat, but He is coming, whose fan is in his hand, and who will thoroughly purge his floor. Those that, by their own sin and folly, make themselves a chaff, will be found so before the whirlwind and fire of Divine wrath The doom of the ungodly is fixed, but whenever the sinner become sensible of this guilt and misery, he may be admitted into the compan of the righteous by Christ the living way, and become in Christ a ne creature. He has new desires, new pleasures, hopes, fears, sorrows companions, and employments. His thoughts, words, and actions ar changed. He enters on a new state, and bears a new character. Behold all things are become new by Divine grace, which changes his soul int the image of the Redeemer. How different the character and end of the ungodly _________________________________________________
Original Hebrew לא3808 כן3651 הרשׁעים7563 כי3588 אם518 כמץ4671 אשׁר834 תדפנו5086 רוח׃7307
