Commentary for Psalms 1:4

like chaff An expression of straw, come bale in Old French (comme paille), like straw.

Not so the wicked ! But they are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. – He says that the wicked, and in these the sinners and the scornful are included, are not so, for the children of men are not profited by them and by their good (fortune), but they (only) do them harm. Their impulse also for evil is like the chaff - that is, the light stubble in the straw, which is no use to the sons of men, which the wind driveth away very quickly, and which does harm in its movement, for it strikes passers - by in the face and eyes; or the wind driveth it into houses or gardens, and it does harm (there). And according to the latter interpretation which we have adopted of the previous verse - of requital and good reward - the interpretation of this verse will be, that the wicked will perish very quickly like the chaff which the wind driveth away.