Psalms 73:9
in Psalms 73They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongues strut across the earth.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
They have set their mouth in the heavens, And their tongue walketh through the earth.
KJV
They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth.
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This verse in Psalms 73
Commentary
11 notes on this verseThey set their mouth against the heavens. Against God himself they aim their blasphemies. One would think, to hear them, that they were demigods themselves, and held their heads above the clouds, for they speak down upon other men as from a sublime elevation peculiar to themselves. Yet they might let God alone, for their pride will make them enemies enough without their defying him. And their tongue walketh through the earth. Leisurely and habitually they traverse the whole world to find victims for their slander and abuse. Their tongue prowls in every corner far and near, and spares none.
This site's exposition
From their prosperity proceeds iniquity
on Psalms 73:7-9
Prosperity is what the iniquity comes out of, and their hearts imagine whatever they please. They mock, speak with malice, and threaten oppression, their mouths set against the heavens and their tongues strutting across the earth. The contempt is aimed up and aimed out.
This site's exposition
their tongues strut across the earth
Barnes read the first line as setting their mouths in the heavens, as if they spoke for heaven. Their tongues then strut across the whole earth. Henry said no man is safe from such a tongue, however great or good.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
"They have set their mouth against heaven, and their tongue has passed over the earth." We learn the meaning of "to set one's mouth against heaven" from the younger of the two brothers, who returned to his father and said, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you." But those who think that freedom to sin is given to them by some inevitability of birth are setting their mouth against heaven. Such people usually spare neither heaven nor earth, that they may believe that people's lives are governed by the course of the stars, as it were.
"They have set against Heaven their mouth, and their tongue hath passed over above the earth" (ver. 9). For this, "hath passed over above the earth" is, they pass over all earthly things? What is it to pass over all earthly things? He doth not think of himself as a man that can die suddenly, when he is speaking; he doth menace as if he were alway to live: his thought doth transcend earthly frailty, he knoweth not with what sort of vessel he is enwrapped; he knoweth not what hath been written in another place concerning such men: "His spirit shall go forth, and he shall return unto his earth, in that day shall perish all his thoughts." But these men not thinking of their last day, speak pride, and unto Heaven they set their mouth, they transcend the earth. If a robber were not to think of his last day, that is, the last day of his trial, when sent to prison, nothing would be more monstrous than he: and yet he might escape. Whither dost thou flee to escape death? Certain will that day be. What is the long time which thou hast to live? How much is the long time which hath an end, even if it were a long time? To this there is added that it is nought: and the very thing which is called long time is not a long time, and is uncertain. Why doth he not think of this? Because he hath set against Heaven his mouth, and his tongue hath passed over above the earth. "And full days shall be found in them."
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
They set their mouth against the heavens,.... Against God in heaven, see Dan 4:26, against his being, saying, there is no God; against his perfections, thinking him to be such an one as themselves; against his purposes and decrees, replying against him, and charging him with insincerity, cruelty, and unrighteousness; and against his providence, either denying it, or affirming it to be unequal; and against his doctrines, ordinances, and ministers.
Their tongue also walks through the earth, and they take liberty to abuse all that come in their way. No man's greatness or goodness can secure him from the scourge of the virulent tongue. They take a pride and pleasure in bantering all mankind; they are pests of the country, for they neither fear God nor regard man. [4.] In all this they were very atheistical and profane.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
The prosperous wicked are insolently proud (compare Ps 5:5). They die, as well as live, free from perplexities: pride adorns them, and violence is their clothing; indeed they are inflated with unexpected success.
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
They set their mouth against the heavens. Against God himself they aim their blasphemies. One would think, to hear them, that they were demigods themselves, and held their heads above the clouds, for they speak down upon other men as from a sublime elevation peculiar to themselves. Yet they might let God alone, for their pride will make them enemies enough without their defying him. And their tongue walketh through the earth. Leisurely and habitually they traverse the whole world to find victims for their slander and abuse. Their tongue prowls in every corner far and near, and spares none. They affect to be universal censors, and are in truth perpetual vagrants. Like the serpent, they go nowhere without leaving their slime behind them; if there were another Eden to be found, its innocence and beauty would not preserve it from their filthy trail. They themselves are, beyond measure, worthy of all honour, and all the rest of mankind, except a few of their parasites, are knaves, fools, hypocrites, or worse. When these men's tongues are out for a walk, they are unhappy who meet them, for they push all travellers into the kennel: it is impossible altogether to avoid them, for in both hemispheres they take their perambulations, both on land and sea they make their voyages. The city is not free from them, and the village swarms with them. They waylay men in the king's highway, but they are able to hunt across country, too. Their whip has a long lash, and reaches both high and low.
Set their mouth against the heavens - They blaspheme God, ridicule religion, mock at Providence, and laugh at a future state. Their tongue walketh through the earth - They find fault with every thing; they traduce the memory of the just in heaven, and ridicule the saints that are upon earth. They criticize every dispensation of God.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
They set their mouth against the heavens - Compare Rev 13:6. Literally, “They set their mouth in heaven,” or in the heavens. The idea is, they speak as if they were “in” the heavens; as if they were clothed with all authority; as if they were superior beings, and had a right to command the universe. And their tongue walketh through the earth - It has no limit; it is as if it roamed over all the earth. They speak without any restraint of law, or propriety; without any regard to the command of God, or to what is due to people, In other words, they seem to set themselves above all law, and to act as if there were no one in heaven or in earth to control them.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
Therefore, His people will return here Since His people sees that the way of the wicked prospers, they will return on the way of the wicked, to adopt their ways.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 2 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| שַׁתּ֣וּ | shatu | they set | H8371 → | |
| בַשָּׁמַ֣יִם | vashamayim | in the heavens | H8064 → | 421 times |
| פִּיהֶ֑ם | pihem | mouth their | H6310 → | 498 times |
| וּ֝לְשׁוֹנָ֗ם | uleshonam | and tongue their | H3956 → | 117 times |
| תִּֽהֲלַ֥ךְ | tihalakh | it walks | H1980 → | 1546 times |
| בָּאָֽרֶץ׃ | baaretz | on the earth | H776 → | 2504 times |
שַׁתּ֣וּthey set
shatuH8371 →
בַשָּׁמַ֣יִםin the heavens
vashamayimH8064 →421 times
פִּיהֶ֑םmouth their
pihemH6310 →498 times
וּ֝לְשׁוֹנָ֗םand tongue their
uleshonamH3956 →117 times
תִּֽהֲלַ֥ךְit walks
tihalakhH1980 →1546 times
בָּאָֽרֶץ׃on the earth
baaretzH776 →2504 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
James 3:6The tongue also is a fire, a world of wickedness among the parts of the body. It pollutes the whole person, sets the course of his life on fire, and is itself set on…
it leads to
- Psalms 120:2–3
Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips and a deceitful tongue.
- Proverbs 16:27
A worthless man digs up evil, and his speech is like a scorching fire.
- Mark 7:15
Nothing that enters a man from the outside can defile him; but the things that come out of a man, these are what defile him.”
- Matthew 15:11–20
A man is not defiled by what enters his mouth, but by what comes out of it.”
- Proverbs 15:1
A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
- Psalms 120:2–3
Through
Exodus 5:2But Pharaoh replied, “Who is the LORD that I should obey His voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and I will not let Israel go.”
it leads to
- 2 Kings 18:35
Who among all the gods of these lands has delivered his land from my hand? How then can the LORD deliver Jerusalem from my hand?”
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Exodus 3:19
But I know that the king of Egypt will not allow you to go unless a mighty hand compels him.
- 2 Kings 18:35
Through
Daniel 3:15Now, if you are ready, as soon as you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes, and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the statue I…
it leads to
- Exodus 5:2
But Pharaoh replied, “Who is the LORD that I should obey His voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and I will not let Israel go.”
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Exodus 5:2
Where this verse is studied
About Psalms
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ambrose of Milan, The Prayer of Job and David 4.5.12-13; Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 73; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 3; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.