Slide for Agatha Christie lovers:
This has been bugging me for a decade: in several of her books, Christie has a character mulling the fact that the wicked “flourish like the green bay tree.” They say it’s in the Bible. But I’ve never been able to find the passage that has green bay tree in it in reference to the wicked.
Has anyone ever seen those words in the Bible?
Psalm 37:35 I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree.
Bay tree = laurel.
Psalms 37:35
32The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay him. 33The LORD will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged. 34Wait on the LORD, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it. 35I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. 36Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found. 37Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace. 38But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of the wicked shall be cut off.
https://biblehub.com/kjv/psalms/37-35.htm
Psalm 37:35
Parallel Verses
King James Version
I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree
“I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree.” Psalm 37:35. KJV (which would be the version she would have been familiar with.)