the Week of Christ the King / Proper 29 / Ordinary 34
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King James Version
Psalms 12:8
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even though the wicked strut about, and evil is praised throughout the land.
The wicked walk on every side, when vileness is exalted among the sons of men.
The wicked walk on every side, When vileness is exalted among the sons of man.
But the wicked are all around us; everyone loves what is wrong.
for the wicked seem to be everywhere, when people promote evil.
The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.
The wicked walk on every side, When what is vile is exalted among the sons of men.
The wicked strut about [in pompous self-importance] on every side, As vileness is exalted and baseness is prized among the sons of men.
On every side the wicked prowl, as vileness is exalted among the children of man.
Wickid men goen in cumpas; bi thin hiynesse thou hast multiplied the sones of men.
The wicked wander freely, and vileness is exalted among men.
But all who are wicked will keep on strutting, while everyone praises their shameless deeds.
The wicked walk on every side, When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.
The sinners are walking on every side, and evil is honoured among the children of men.
You, Adonai , protect us; guard us forever from this generation — the wicked strut about everywhere when vileness is held in general esteem.
The wicked walk about on every side, when vileness is exalted among the children of men.
The wicked are all around us, and everyone thinks evil is something to be praised!
Thou wilt keep them, O LORD; Thou wilt preserve us from this generation for ever. The wicked walk on every side, when vileness is exalted among the sons of men.
The wicked walke on euery side, when the vilest men are exalted.
The sinful walk on every side when bad actions are held in honor among the sons of men.
On every side the wicked prowl, as vileness is exalted among humankind.
The wicked walke on euery side: when they are exalted, it is a shame for the sonnes of men.
For the wicked walk everywhere with contemptible pride like the children of Edom.
On every side, the lawless, march about, - when worthlessness is exalted by the sons of men.
(11-9) The wicked walk round about: according to thy highness, thou hast multiplied the children of men.
On every side the wicked prowl, as vileness is exalted among the sons of men.
The vngodly walke on euery side: when the worst sort be exalted amongst the chyldren of men.
The ungodly walk around: according to thy greatness thou has greatly exalted the sons of men.
The wicked prowl all around,and what is worthless is exalted by the human race.
The wicked walk on every side, When what is vile is exalted among the sons of men.
The wicked prowl about when vileness is exalted among the children of humankind.
The wicked walk around on every side, when vileness is exalted by the sons of men.
Around the wicked walk continually, According as vileness is exalted by sons of men!
And why? when vanite and ydylnes getteth the ouer hande amonge the children of men, all are full of ye vngodly.
The wicked strut about on every side When vileness is exalted among the sons of mankind.
The wicked prowl on every side, When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.
The wicked strut about on every side When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.
The wicked strut about on every sideWhen vileness is exalted among the sons of men.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
wicked: Proverbs 29:12, Hosea 5:11, Micah 6:16
when: Judges 9:18-57, 1 Samuel 18:17, 1 Samuel 18:18, Esther 3:6-15, Isaiah 32:4-6, Mark 14:63-65
men: Heb. of the sons of men, Job 30:8, Daniel 11:21
Reciprocal: 1 Kings 18:10 - they found thee not 2 Kings 11:3 - And Athaliah 2 Kings 21:9 - seduced 2 Chronicles 22:12 - Athaliah Esther 3:1 - promote Haman Job 22:8 - But as Job 34:30 - General Proverbs 26:1 - so Ecclesiastes 10:6 - Folly Jeremiah 26:22 - men Daniel 4:17 - the basest
Cross-References
And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the Lord .
Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive.
And it came to pass, that, when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair.
The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.
And he entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and she asses, and camels.
Unto the place of the altar, which he had make there at the first: and there Abram called on the name of the Lord .
And Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the Lord , the everlasting God.
And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.
And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.
And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Bethaven, on the east of Bethel, and spake unto them, saying, Go up and view the country. And the men went up and viewed Ai.
Gill's Notes on the 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 Proverbs 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 Malachi 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 כרם זלות "secundum superelevationem, vilitas (erit vel est)", Cocceius.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
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 man’s judgment, not in God’s, who will abundantly indemnity his people for the dishonor put upon them.” The word rendered in our version “the vilest” - זלות zûllûth - means, according to Gesenius, “trembling, terror.” It occurs nowhere else in the Scriptures. The verb from which it is derived - זלל zâlal - 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.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Psalms 12:8. 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; Psalms 12:1-2.
II. A prophecy of the fall of the wicked Psalms 12:3, whose arrogance he describes, Psalms 12:4.
III. God's answer to the petition, with a promise full of comfort, Psalms 12:5; ratified, Psalms 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, Psalms 12:7, of which there were too many, Psalms 12:8.
I. The prayer, which is very short, for he breaks in upon God with one word, הושעה Hoshiah! Help! Save, Lord! Psalms 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. Psalms 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;" Psalms 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?" Psalms 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" Psalms 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. Psalms 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 Psalms 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;" Psalms 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.
