Psalms 73:8

8 They 1mock and wickedly speak of oppression; They 2speak from on high.

Psalms 73:8 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 73:8

They are corrupt
In themselves, in their principles, and in their practices, being shapen and conceived in sin, and born of the flesh; and are corrupters, or "corrupt" themselves, and their ways, and also others by their corrupt speech, evil communications, and bad examples: or "they consume away"; like smoke, or into it, as ( Psalms 37:20 ) or as wax melteth at the fire, ( Psalms 68:2 ) ( Zechariah 14:12 ) , where the same word is used as here: or "they cause to consume away" F15; "they melt or dissolve others"; they consume them, and waste their estates by their oppression and violence; they make their hearts to melt with their threatening and terrifying words; or they make them dissolute in their lives by keeping them company:

and speak wickedly concerning oppression;
they speak oppression and revolt, threaten with it, ( Isaiah 59:13 ) , and speak in vindication of it, and in a boasting glorying manner; so Arama; which is speaking wickedly concerning it:

they speak loftily:
proudly, arrogantly, in a haughty and imperious manner: or "from on high" F16; as if they were in heaven, and above all creatures, and even God himself; and as if what they said were oracles, and to be received as such, without any scruple and hesitation. Thus Pharaoh, Sennacherib, and Nebuchadnezzar spake, ( Exodus 5:2 ) ( Isaiah 36:20 ) ( Daniel 3:15 ) and the little horn, or antichrist, ( Daniel 7:20 ) ( 2 Thessalonians 2:4 ) ( Revelation 13:6 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F15 (wqymy) "dissolutos reddunt", Vatablus; "reddent se dissolutos", Montanus; "faciunt tabescere", Cocceius, Gejerus, Michaelis.
F16 (Mwrmm) "a sublimi", Musculus, Tigurine version, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "ex alto", Cocceius, Gejerus, Michaelis.

Psalms 73:8 In-Context

6 Therefore pride is their necklace; The garment of violence covers them.
7 Their eye bulges from fatness; The imaginations of their heart run riot.
8 They mock and wickedly speak of oppression; They speak from on high.
9 They have set their mouth against the heavens, And their tongue parades through the earth.
10 Therefore his people return to this place, And waters of abundance are drunk by them.

Cross References 2

  • 1. Psalms 1:1
  • 2. Psalms 17:10; 2 Peter 2:18; Jude 16

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Or "they speak in wickedness; From on high they speak of oppression"
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