He is green before the sun, and his branch shooteth forth in his garden.
Before the sun, х lipneey (H6440) shemesh (H8121)] - i:e., He (the godless) is green only before the sun rises; but he cannot bear its heat, and withers. So succulent plants, like the gourd of Jonah (Jonah 4:7-8). But the wide spreading in the garden does not quite accord with this merely nocturnal duration of the fruit. Better, 'in sunshine;' the sun representing the smiling fortune of the hypocrite, during which he wondrously progresses (Umbreit). The Chaldaic supports the English version (cf. also James 1:11 - "The sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.")
In his garden - the garden in which it spreads its roots and grows. The image is that of weeds growing in rank luxuriance, and spreading over even heaps of stones and walls, and then being speedily torn away.