For I was envious at the foolish, [when] I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
Ver. 3. For I was envious at the foolish] Heb. at the braggadocios, the vain glorious, the mad boasters; factabundis, I emulated, and stomached their prosperity, compared with mine own far worse condition. Godly men, though cured of their spiritual frensy, yet play oft many mad tricks; one while fretting at the prosperity of their adversaries, and another while murmuring at their own afflictions, or plotting courses how to conform themselves to the world, &c.
When I saw the prosperity of the wicked] This hath ever been a pearl in the eyes, not of the heathens only, but of better men. See Jer 12:1-2 Habakkuk 1:3 Psalms 37:1,2. Yet Seneca writes a treatise of it, and shows the reasons, if at least he believed himself therein. Erasmus passes this censure of him; read him as a Pagan, and he writes Christian like; read him as a Christian, and he writeth Pagan like.