Psalms 12:8
The wicked wander freely, and vileness is exalted among men.
BSB
ASV
The wicked walk on every side, When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.
KJV
The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.
"Therefore the wicked walk round about," so that they never reach the end of the journey they intend, namely to afflict others as they wish. Is. 59: "Their paths are crooked." And why? "Because according to your height you have multiplied the children of men"; …
Bad men are base men, the vilest of men, and they are so though they are ever so highly exalted in this world. Antiochus the illustrious the scripture calls a vile person, Dan. xi. But it is bad with a kingdom when such are preferred; no marvel if wickedness then grows impudent and insolent.
Here we return to the fount of bitterness, which first made the psalmist run to the wells of salvation, namely, the prevalence of wickedness. When those in power are vile, their underlings will be no better. As a warm sun brings out noxious flies, so does a sinner in honour foster vice everywhere. Our turf would not so swarm with abominables if those who are styled honourables did not give their countenance to the craft.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Hosea 5:11Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, for he is determined to follow worthless idols.
leads to
You have kept the statutes of Omri and all the practices of Ahab’s house; you have followed their counsel. Therefore I will make you a desolation, and your inhabitants an object of contempt; you…
A people you do not know will eat the produce of your land and of all your toil. All your days you will be oppressed and crushed.
Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom might revert to the house of David.
Through
Proverbs 29:12If a ruler listens to lies, all his officials will be wicked.
leads to
A king who sits on a throne to judge sifts out all evil with his eyes.
Is that why all of you have conspired against me? Not one of you told me that my own son had made a covenant with the son of Jesse. Not one of you has…
Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, I will put to silence; the one with haughty eyes and a proud heart, I will not endure.
Your tongue devises destruction like a sharpened razor, O worker of deceit.
Then Jehu wrote them a second letter and said: “If you are on my side, and if you will obey me, then bring the heads of your master’s sons to me at Jezreel by…
