Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.
Parallel translations
- WEB Their eyes bulge with fat. Their minds pass the limits of conceit.
- BSB From their prosperity proceeds iniquity; the imaginations of their hearts run wild.
- ESV Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies.
- NKJV Their eyes bulge with abundance; They have more than heart could wish.
- NASB Their eye bulges from fatness; The imaginations of their heart overflow.
- NLT These fat cats have everything their hearts could ever wish for!
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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
Their prosperity is so excessive that their eyes bulge with fat and their imaginations run beyond all bounds of conceit.
Overview
The vivid imagery depicts the wicked as bloated with self-indulgence and runaway vanity. Abundance has corrupted rather than humbled them. Such inflated self-conceit blinds them to God and to their coming downfall, exposing the spiritual peril of unchecked prosperity.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Ps 17:10They are inclosed in their own fat: with their mouth they speak proudly.
- Job 15:27Because he covereth his face with his fatness, and maketh collops of fat on his flanks.
- Jer 5:28They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge.
- Ps 73:12Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.
- Ps 119:70Their heart is as fat as grease; but I delight in thy law.
- 1 Sam 25:2And there was a man in Maon, whose possessions were in Carmel; and the man was very great, and he had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats: and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.
- Luke 12:16–19And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:
- Isa 3:9The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.
- 1 Sam 25:36And Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken: wherefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light.
- Ezek 16:49Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.
- Ps 17:14From men which are thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 73:7 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.