Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.
The verse sits inside a lesson in the fear of the Lord, offered to anyone who wants life and good days. It asks two things at once: a clean break with evil, and an active chase after peace. Commentators treat it as the daily shape of a life lived before God.
Negative and Positive
The instruction has two halves. One writer names each half, and ties the pursuit of peace to righteousness:
Let him order his life so as to depart from evil — the negative side — and do good — the positive. Let him seek peace like this, as "the effect of righteousness" (Isa. 32:17), and earnestly "pursue it."
Departing, Not Just Avoiding
The ESV reads "Turn away from evil"; older translations read "Depart from evil." One writer presses that stronger word, and shows what fills the time it frees up:
We are not only to keep away from evil, but to depart from it. That is, we are to have no association with it, and to leave the very place where it is practiced. This is the negative side, but a positive side follows at once: "and do good." Do we take advantage of the many opportunities we have for doing good? If so, we should not have time for useless pursuits.
Pursuing Peace
Peace here is not left to chance. It reaches into every relationship a person has:
Along with this, we are to seek peace — the grace of harmony and well-being — in whatever relationships we are in. And we are to "pursue it" with steady purpose.
There is no neutral ground here. One writer traces the failure to make peace back to a lack of care before God:
The man that is not a peace-maker is, in the spirit of his soul, a peace-breaker. Why? Because he is not walking in carefulness before God.
A Path Through a Hostile World
The two commands together set out a whole way of life. Notice where they put us when others oppose us:
The verses that follow set before us the path of quietness and peace through a restless and hostile world. Do we want to find "life" in a world of death, and to "see good" while passing through a world of evil? Then let us live in the fear of God. Let us keep our tongues from the evil that would slander or injure others, and our lips from the lies we tell to excuse ourselves. Let us depart from evil and do good, and, instead of striving with our opponents, let us seek peace and pursue it.
The Limit of Peace
Peace has a limit. One writer names it, and points to Paul as the man who paid for faithfulness with a life of conflict:
You are to seek peace and pursue it. Even so, you must never sacrifice truth or principle to keep it, either with the world or with Christians. The love of popularity traps many. Even a Peter could be drawn aside by it for a moment. But Paul could not have peace on such terms. (Gal. 2) The great apostle loved peace and wanted it. Yet because he was faithful, he knew very little of it his whole life.
Taken Up in the New Testament
The New Testament takes these words up and applies them to Christians. That makes the verse a rule of life now, and not only an ancient one:
But grace gives the Christian to understand and make good the moral government God carries on with His children. The apostle in verses 10-12 cites Psalm 34 for this even now… From that scripture he urges them to turn away from evil and do good, and to seek peace in practice, and to do it earnestly. For the Lord's eyes are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayer, while His face is against those who do evil.
Seen Perfectly in One Man
The same pairing returns in Psalm 37:27. One writer names the one Man who lived it out in full:
So the important principle of departing from evil and doing good is stressed again in verse 27, taken from the earlier Psalm 34:14… This active, practical pursuit of good, in separation from evil, was seen in perfection in the altogether "Perfect Man" (v. 37). He is the One whose wonderful ways, works and words made our blessed God and Father fully known.
Summary
- Depart — not just distance from evil, but departure: leaving the place where it is practiced.
- Do — fill the empty space with good, and there is no time left for useless pursuits.
- Seek — peace grows out of righteousness, and it is to be sought in every relationship.
- Pursue — chase it with purpose; the one who does not make peace is already breaking it.
- Stop — peace has a boundary: never trade truth or principle to keep it.