Psalm 73:8

8 They thought and spake waywardness; they spake wickedness on high (they spoke wickedness out loud).

Psalm 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.

Psalm 73:8 In-Context

6 Therefore pride hath held them; they were covered with their wickedness and unfaithfulness.

7 The wickedness of them came forth as of fatness; they went into desire of heart. (Their wickedness came forth like fatness; and they went forth in the desire of their hearts.)

8 They thought and spake waywardness; they spake wickedness on high (they spoke wickedness out loud).

9 They putted their mouth into heaven; and their tongue passed in earth. (They put their mouths against heaven; and their tongues went about over all the earth.)

10 Therefore my people shall be turned again here; and full days shall be found in them. (And so my people followed them; and found nothing to condemn them for.)