Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 12:8
The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.
8. Jehovah will preserve the righteous; although when vileness is exalted among the sons of men, when worthless or profligate men are raised to positions of authority, the wicked stalk insolently everywhere, unabashed and unrestrained. Cp. Psa 11:1-3. The Psalmist returns to the thought of the prevailing corruption, from which he started.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The wicked walk on every side – Everywhere. They have full license, or seem to be wholly unrestrained.
When the vilest men are exalted – Margin, The vilest of the sons of men are exalted. This expression has been very variously translated. Dr. Horsley renders it, When the scorn of the sons of men is exalted. De Wette, They exalt themselves; terror to the sons of men. Luther, Where such wicked people rule among the sons of men. Hengstenberg, Like exaltation is disgrace to the sons of men. Prof. Alexander seems inclined to favor this last view. According to this interpretation, the meaning is, that although the wicked are now in the ascendant, and the righteous are treated with contempt, this disgrace is realy an exaltation, because only … in mans judgment, not in Gods, who will abundantly indemnity his people for the dishonor put upon them. The word rendered in our version the vilest – zulluth – means, according to Gesenius, trembling, terror. It occurs nowhere else in the Scriptures. The verb from which it is derived – zalal – means to shake, to tremble; then (as one shakes out, or casts away worthless things) to be vile, abject, despised, worthless.
Perhaps, however, the common version expresses the idea more accurately than any of these proposed amendments. I would offer the following as a fair translation of the passage: The wicked walk on every side; (it is) as the lifting up, or the exaltation of vileness among the sons of men. That is, the state of things is as if the vilest were exalted, or were honored. It seems to be the very exaltation of wickedness or depravity in the world. A state of things exists in which, from the prevalence of iniquity, the wicked seem to go unrestrained; in which no regard is paid to truth; in which falsehood and flattery abound; and it is as if honor were done to the worst forms of sin, and the most abandoned seem to be the most exalted. This appears to be the reason in the mind of the psalmist why the divine interposition is necessary; with this idea the psalm commences, and with this it appropriately closes. There was a state of widespread depravity and successful iniquity, as if all honor were conferred on wicked and abandoned men, while the virtuous were oppressed and degraded. The psalm expresses confidence in God – confidence in his faithful word and promises; but the psalmist sees a state of things wherein it was eminently desirable that God should interpose, for the righteous seemed to have failed out of the earth, and the wicked seemed to be wholly in the ascendancy.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 8. The wicked walk on every side] The land is full of them. When the vilest men are exalted; rather, As villany gains ground among the sons of Adam. See the Hebrew. The Vulgate has, “In circuito impii ambulant; secundum altitudinem tuam multiplicasti filios hominum;” which is thus translated and paraphrased in my old MS.: –
Trans. In umgang wiked gos: eftir thy heenes thu has multiplied the sons of man.
Par. Us thy kepes; bot wiked gas in umgang; that es, in covatyng of erdley gudes, that turned with the whele of seven daies: in the qwilk covatys, thai ryn ay aboute; for that sett nane endyng of thaire syn: and tharfor settes God na terme of thair pyne, but sons of men that lyfs skilwisly and in ryghtwisnes, thu has multiplied, aftir thi heghnes in vertus; aftir the heghnes of thi consayll, thou hast multiplied men bath il and gude; for na man may perfitely witt in erd, qwy God makes so many men, the qwilk he wote well sal be dampned: bot it es the privete of his counsayle, so ryghtwis, that no thyng may be ryghtwiser.
In this we find a number of singular expressions, which, while they elucidate the text, will not be uninteresting to the antiquary. Here, for instance, we see the true etymology of the words righteous and righteousness, i.e., right wise and right wiseness. For we have it above as a noun, rightwisnes: as an adjective, rightwis; and as an adjective in the comparative degree, rightwiser: and we should have had it as an adverb, ryghtwisely, had not the word skilwisly occurred to the author.
Righteousness is right wiseness, or that which is according to true wisdom. A righteous man is one who is right wise; properly instructed in Divine wisdom, and acts according to its dictates; and among them who act rightwisely, there are some who act rightwiser than others; and nothing can be rightwiser than ever to think and act according to the principles of that wisdom which comes from above.
Right, [Anglo-Saxon] rectus, straight, is opposed to wrong, from [A.S.] injury, and that from [A.S.], to twist. As [A.S.] rehtan signifies to direct, so [A.S.] wrangen signifies to twist, or turn out of a straight or direct line. Right is straight, and wrong, crooked. Hence the righteous man is one who goes straight forward, acts and walks by line and rule; and the unrighteous is he who walks in crooked paths, does what is wrong, and is never guided by true wisdom. Such a person is sometimes termed wicked, from the Anglo-Saxon [A.S.], to act by witch-craft, (hence [A.S.] wicca, a witch,) that is to renounce God and righteousness, and to give one’s self to the devil, which is the true character of a wicked man. Let him that readeth understand.
The vilest men are exalted] Were we to take this in its obvious sense, it would signify that at that time wickedness was the way to preferment, and that good men were the objects of persecution.
ANALYSIS OF THE TWELFTH PSALM
There are four parts in this Psalm: –
I. A prayer, and the reason of it; Ps 12:1-2.
II. A prophecy of the fall of the wicked Ps 12:3, whose arrogance he describes, Ps 12:4.
III. God’s answer to the petition, with a promise full of comfort, Ps 12:5; ratified, Ps 12:6.
IV. A petitory, or affirmative conclusion: Keep them; or a confident affirmation that God will keep them from the contagion of the wicked, Ps 12:7, of which there were too many, Ps 12:8.
I. The prayer, which is very short, for he breaks in upon God with one word, Hoshiah! Help! Save, Lord! Ps 12:1. For which he gives two reasons:-
1. The scarcity of good men: “For the godly man ceaseth,” c. There is neither piety nor fidelity among men.
2. The great abundance of the wicked, the licentious times the perfidiousness, hypocrisy, and dissimulation of the men among whom he lived. “They speak vanity every one with his neighbour,” c. Ps 12:2. They take no care to perform what they promise.
II. The prophecy. This shows the end of their dissembling: “The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips;” Ps 12:3. These are described,
1. As proud boasters: “With our tongues will we prevail,” c.
2. As persons restrained by no authority: “Who is the Lord over us?” Ps 12:4.
III. God’s answer to the petition, Help, Lord! is it so that the wicked are so numerous, so tyrannous, so proud, and so arrogant?
1. “I will arise, saith the Lord.”
2. I will not delay: “Now I will arise” Ps 12:5.
3. “I will set him in safety (my followers) from him that puffeth,” c.
4. I am moved to it by his sighs and groans: “For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy,” c. Ps 12:5.
I. And of this let no man doubt: “The words of the Lord are pure words.” There is no more fallacy in the words of God than there is impurity in silver seven times refined Ps 12:6.
IV. A petitory, or affirmative conclusion: Thou shalt keep them, O Lord; or, O keep them! The overflowings of wickedness are great.
1. Keep them. For unless God keep them they will be infected.
2. Keep them from this generation. For they are a generation of vipers.
3. Keep them for ever. For unless thou enable them to persevere, they will fall.
4. And keep them. For the power, pride, and influence of these impious men are very great. 1. “The wicked walk on every side.” As wolves they seek whom they may devour. 2. And wickedness is the way to preferment: “The vilest men are exalted;” Ps 12:8.
Thy people call on thee for help; they know thou canst help, and therefore are they confident that thou wilt help, because they know that thou art good.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The wicked walk on every side; which phrase may note,
1. Their great numbers; they fill all places.
2. Their freedom and safety; they are not restrained nor punished, but go about boldly and securely whither they please.
3. Their proficiency and success, which is sometimes signified by this verb, as Gen 26:13; 1Sa 2:21; Isa 40:31. They grow worse and worse, and prosper in and by their wickedness.
4. Their incessant and unwearied industry in doing mischief to good men. Compare 1Pe 5:8. And this is very fitly here added, as another argument to prevail with God to arise to help his poor people who are oppressed by wicked men.
The vilest men, Heb. vilenesses, i.e. all manner of wickedness, lying and slandering, profaneness; oppression, cruelty, and the like; or, vile persons, the abstract being put for the concrete, which is frequent, as pride, Psa 36:11, for a proud man, and many such like; both comes to one, vile persons and vile practices were both advanced and encouraged through Sauls misgovernment, whereby all the foundations were destroyed, as he complained, Psa 11:3. The Hebrew word zolel (whence this zuloth comes) signifies first a glutton or drunkard, as Deu 21:20; Pro 23:21, and thence any vile person, as Jer 15:19; Lam 1:11.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. The wicked roam undisturbeddoing evil, when vileness and vile men are exalted.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The wicked walk on every side,…. Of the poor and needy, of the righteous ones, to watch them, lay snares for them, and hurt them; therefore, Lord, keep and preserve them: the wicked are everywhere in great numbers, the whole world lies in wickedness; and the men of it are like their father the devil, they go about to do all the mischief they can to the saints; wherefore they stand in need continually of divine preservation;
when the vilest men are exalted: either to great dignities and high offices, to be magistrates and rulers; see Pr 29:2; or are highly esteemed and caressed; which shows the sad degeneracy and badness of the times, and the unsafe and dangerous condition the people of God are in, unless kept by him; see Mal 3:15; or else these words may be considered as expressive of the judgment of God upon wicked men, and so confirm what the psalmist had said of God’s regard to and preservation of his own people; and the sense be, that the wicked shall walk up and down here and there, as outcasts and vagabonds, in a most desolate, destitute, and miserable condition; and as the latter clause may be rendered, “according to [their] exaltation [shall be] the vileness”, depression, or humiliation “of the children of men” r; they shall be brought as low as they have been made high; by how much the more highly they have been exalted, by so much the more deeply they shall be humbled: or else the meaning is, they shall walk about here and there fretting and vexing, when they shall see such who in their opinion are the meanest and basest of men, of low degree, and of a mean extract, exalted to the highest posts of honour and dignity; as David, who was taken from the sheepfold, and placed on the throne of Israel; so Jarchi, who observes that the Haggadah explains it of the Israelites, who will be exalted in time to come.
r “secundum superelevationem, vilitas (erit vel est)”, Cocceius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
8. The ungodly walk about on every side. The Hebrew word סביב, sabib, which we have translated on every side, signifies a circuit, or a going round; and, therefore, some explain it allegorically thus: the ungodly seize upon all the defiles or narrow parts of roads, in order to shut up or besiege the good on all sides; and others expound it even more ingeniously, thus: that they lay snares by indirect means, and by inventions full of art and deception. But I think the simple meaning is, that they possess the whole land, and range about through every part of it; as if the Psalmist had said, Wherever I turn my eyes, I see troops of them on every side. In the next clause he complains that mankind are shamefully and basely oppressed by their tyranny. This is the meaning, provided the clause is read as a distinct one by itself, separate from the preceding, a point about which interpreters differ, although this view seems to come nearer to the mind of the inspired writer. Some render the verse in one continuous sentence, thus: The ungodly fly about every where, when the reproaches among the children of men (that is to say, when the worthless and the refuse of men) are exalted, an exposition which is not unsuitable. It commonly happens, that as diseases flow from the head into the members, so corruptions proceed from princes, and infect the whole people. As, however, the former exposition is more generally received, and the most learned grammarians tell us that the Hebrew word זלות, zuluth, which we have translated reproach, is a noun of the singular number, I have adopted the former exposition, not that I am dissatisfied with the latter, but because we must needs choose the one or the other.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(8) The wicked.Gesenius translates this verse, The wicked walk on every side like the rising of a tempest upon the sons of men. There seems no reason to question his rendering of the word zullth (Authorised Version, vilest), which is peculiar to this passage; but by comparison with Psa. 39:6; Psa. 58:7, we may render the first clause, the wicked vanish on every side; and a slight change gives for the second clause, at the rising of a tempest on the sons of men.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. The wicked walk on every side They walk round and round. The phrase not only intimates numerically their multitude, (Isa 49:18; Isa 60:4,) but also, that they wear an air of wantonness and arrogance, as conscious of holding the sway of public affairs.
When the vilest men are exalted This gives the cause of the degeneracy of the times. Pro 28:12. Base, low, weak, and worthless men in power will ruin any age. Let Christian voters of this country see to it. The psalmist ends where he begins, with an echo of Psa 12:1-2, but sustained by the wordof Jehovah, who (Psa 12:5) promises deliverance.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 12:8. The wicked walk on every side Dr. Hammond observes that this verse is very obscure, and Bishop Hare ingenuously acknowledges that he does not understand it. Mudge renders it thus: The wicked walk up and down on every side; as thou art on high, thou art become contemptible to the sons of men. I make the Psalmist, says he, apply here to the jealousy of God, as he frequently does, that his honour may arouse him to do justice upon the wicked; “Because thou residest up on high, thou art become disregarded by men; and that makes the wicked walk up and down in such numbers.” It is a very frequent sentiment in the Psalms, Is there knowledge in the Most High, &c.?
REFLECTIONS.1st, It has been the just complaint of God’s saints in every age, how few faithful could be found. David here with deep concern bewails it; and since he could find so few like-minded with himself, while in general all pursued the ways of sin and vanity, he flies to God for help. Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men: Bad times indeed, when piety towards God is decayed, and honesty to men ceases; when all seek their own, not the things which be of Jesus Christ!
2nd, What David prays for, his faith sees ready to be accomplished. The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips, by judgments, from the earth, and give them shortly their portion with liars in the burning lake; and the tongue that speaketh proud things; none so high but God can humble them; his sword shall smite all the children of pride. The character of the proud is here described, Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; by eloquence carry the cause against truth and justice; or, as if they need but speak the word and it is done. Such high conceits does pride generate. Our lips are our own: who is Lord over us? casting off the government of God, and deifying themselves, as if bound to give account of none of their words, and renouncing the authority of the Almighty. But they will be disappointed; there is one who observes all the high imaginations and hard speeches of ungodly sinners, and will not suffer them to pass with impunity: for, in the height of their insolence,
God will make bare his arm, and shew them to their cost who is Lord over them. For the oppression of the poor, who groan like Israel in Egypt under the afflictions they endure, and for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord, when the arrogance of the proud is at the height, and his people’s patience ready to fail; in that critical time he will arise to confound the one, and to rescue the other; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him, or lays snares for him, which shall be broken in pieces, and the souls of the righteous delivered as a bird from the net of the fowler. Note; God’s time is the best time; and if we have but faith, he will not fail; for the words of the Lord are pure words, proceeding from the fountain of purity, and therefore can never disappoint or deceive those who trust in them; as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times, or more precious than the most refined silver, and pure from all human mixture and adulteration. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord; namely, the poor and needy, who trust in thee, from all the power of evil, and from the snares of the enemy; thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever; from the wickedness of it, that they be not corrupted, and from their persecutors that they be not destroyed. Blessed be God, we are not in our own keeping, but in so much better hands; so able to preserve us from falling, and so faithful to his promises: we are safe therefore, though the wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted, have the power and dominion here below: or, as the latter clause may be rendered, according to their exaltation shall be their vileness. They shall fall as low in misery as they have been exalted in dignity.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
REFLECTIONS
READER, there never was a period of the Church, when this Psalm seemed to be more applicable. How few are there asking the way to Zion! How many the vacancies made by death in the congregations of the faithful! And who is there pleading, crying, wrestling with Zion’s King in prayer, and determined to take no denial, that the Lord would fill those vacancies, and raise up a generation to call him blessed? Alas, alas! may it not with too much truth be said, all seek their own, and not the things of Jesus Christ? Blessed Lord, help us to look to thee. O for grace to be poured out from on high on churches, ministers, people; that the Lord would yet make Zion a praise in the earth. Oh! that the cause of truth, of God, and of his Christ, were become the most interesting concern of all his people. Oh! ye servants of Jesus, cry, cry mightily to the Lord; and tell him how Zion languisheth. And ye who love her courts and ordinances, pray, pray for the peace of Jerusalem; for they shall prosper that love Zion. But oh! from men, my soul, look thou to the Lord. Tell thy Jesus, that Zion must be dear to him, when her walls are always before him, and her name graven on the palms of his sacred hands. O, then, Lord, let my soul hear, by the ear of faith, thine own most precious promise, again and again repeated. Now for the oppressions of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord. Come, Lord! take thy glorious cause into thine own most glorious hand: then wilt thou turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon thy name, and serve thee with one consent; even from beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, thy suppliants, even the daughters of thy dispersed, shall bring thine offering.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 12:8 The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.
Ver. 8. The wicked walk on every side ] In circuitu, saith the Vulgate; the circular motion is most subtle, the devil walketh the rounds to do mischief; but better render it circumquaque, on every side, to show their numbers and their insolence. All places are full of them, such dust heaps are found in every corner; when as the godly are as the salt of the earth, sprinkled here and there, as salt useth to be, to keep the rest from putrefying.
When the vilest men are exalted
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
wicked = lawless. Hebrew. rasha’. App-44.
men: i.e. the sons of Adam, as in Psa 12:1.
To the chief Musician. See App-64.
Title. A Psalm. See App-65.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 12:8
Psa 12:8
“The wicked walk on every side,
When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.”
The elevation of evil men to high places of authority results in the proliferation of all kinds of shameful conduct in the land; and it would appear that this verse outlines just such a situation. It corresponds very closely to verse 1 of this psalm and seems to be just another way of saying “The current situation in society remains the same.”
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 12:8. When vile men are suffered to be in the ascendency the wicked ones will strut about all over the place. Their presence will be encouraged by the support of the vile rulers, which proves the objectionable character of such overseers. The opposite will be the case if righteous men are placed in authority.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
wicked: Pro 29:12, Hos 5:11, Mic 6:16
when: Jdg 9:18-57, 1Sa 18:17, 1Sa 18:18, Est 3:6-15, Isa 32:4-6, Mar 14:63-65
men: Heb. of the sons of men, Job 30:8, Dan 11:21
Reciprocal: 1Ki 18:10 – they found thee not 2Ki 11:3 – And Athaliah 2Ki 21:9 – seduced 2Ch 22:12 – Athaliah Est 3:1 – promote Haman Job 22:8 – But as Job 34:30 – General Pro 26:1 – so Ecc 10:6 – Folly Jer 26:22 – men Dan 4:17 – the basest
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 12:8. The wicked walk on every side They fill all places, and go about boldly and securely, seeking to deceive, corrupt, and destroy others, being neither afraid nor ashamed to discover themselves; when the vilest of men are exalted To places of trust and power, who, instead of putting the laws in execution against vice and injustice, and punishing the wicked according to their deserts, patronize and protect them, or give them countenance and support by their own example. The Hebrew, , cherum zulloth, is literally, when vilenesses are exalted, when all manner of wickedness, lying, slandering, profaneness, oppression, cruelty, and the like, instead of being punished and suppressed, are countenanced and encouraged by magistrates and persons of power and influence. Both these interpretations come to one. For when vile persons are exalted, so also are vile practices. Both these, it appears, were advanced and encouraged under Sauls government, which caused David to complain that the foundations were destroyed, Psa 11:3.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
12:8 The wicked walk on every side, {g} when the vilest men are exalted.
(g) For they suppress the godly and maintain the wicked.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
When people pursue lives of vanity and vile conduct, verbal deception abounds, but God will preserve the godly. "The sons of men," repeated from Psa 12:1 and so an inclusio for this psalm, stresses the mortality of the wicked (cf. Isa 2:22). David did not resolve the problem of evil, but he recognized that evil is under the full sovereignty of Yahweh who will care for His children.
"Vileness (’cheapness’) is promoted and exalted in the media: immorality, brutality, murder, lies, drunkenness, nudity, the love of money, the abuse of authority. The things that God condemns are now a means of universal entertainment, and the entertainment industry gives awards to the people who produce these things. People boast about things they ought to be ashamed of (Php 3:18-19)." [Note: Wiersbe, The . . . Wisdom . . ., p. 111.]
Some believers live and work in environments very similar to the one David pictured in this psalm. This psalm should be a comfort when they feel that speaking the truth is futile. God will preserve those who purpose to follow Him when they must live in atmospheres polluted by deceit and corrupt speech. Though no one else’s word may be reliable, His is.
"The church is always one generation short of extinction, so we must be faithful to win the lost and teach the believers, or vileness will conquer the land." [Note: Ibid., p. 112.]