The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.
Parallel translations
- WEB The wicked walk on every side, when what is vile is exalted among the sons of men.
- BSB The wicked wander freely, and vileness is exalted among men.
- NKJV The wicked prowl on every side, When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.
- NASB The wicked strut about on every side When vileness is exalted among the sons of mankind.
- NLT even though the wicked strut about, and evil is praised throughout the land.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The wicked roam freely when vileness is exalted among people. Evil flourishes wherever it is honored rather than restrained.
Overview
The psalm closes on a sober note: where society prizes what is base, the wicked move about unchecked. This realism about a fallen world frames the preceding confidence in God's word and protection. It leaves the faithful trusting God's promise rather than the moral state of their culture, awaiting His final justice.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Mark 14:63–65Then the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, What need we any further witnesses?
- Ps 55:10–11Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof: mischief also and sorrow are in the midst of it.
- Prov 29:12If a ruler hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked.
- Hos 5:11Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, because he willingly walked after the commandment.
- Judg 9:18–57And ye are risen up against my father’s house this day, and have slain his sons, threescore and ten persons, upon one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his maidservant, king over the men of Shechem, because he is your brother;)
- Isa 32:4–6The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly.
- Mic 6:16For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsels; that I should make thee a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof an hissing: therefore ye shall bear the reproach of my people.
- Job 30:8They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth.
- Esth 3:6–15And he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone; for they had shewed him the people of Mordecai: wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai.
- Dan 11:21And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.
- 1 Sam 18:17–18And Saul said to David, Behold my elder daughter Merab, her will I give thee to wife: only be thou valiant for me, and fight the LORD’s battles. For Saul said, Let not mine hand be upon him, but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him.
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 12:8 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.