Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 12:8

"The wicked walk on every side, When vileness is exalted among the sons of men." — Psalms 12:8 (ASV)

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 translated in many different ways. For example:

• Dr. Horsley renders it, “When the scorn of the sons of men is exalted.”
• De Wette translates it, “They exalt themselves; terror to the sons of men.”
• Luther offers, “Where such wicked people rule among the sons of men.”
• Hengstenberg suggests, “Like exaltation is disgrace to the sons of men.”

Professor 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 really an exaltation, because it is so only ... in human judgment, not in God’s, who will abundantly indemnify His people for the dishonor put upon them.”

The word translated in our version as “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 given to the worst forms of sin, and the most abandoned seem to be the most exalted. This appears to be the reason in the psalmist’s mind why 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 in which it was eminently desirable that God should interpose, for the righteous seemed to have failed from the earth, and the wicked seemed to be wholly in the ascendancy.