John Gill Commentary


John Gill Commentary
"They scoff, and in wickedness utter oppression: They speak loftily." — Psalms 73:8 (ASV)
They are corrupt
In themselves, in their principles, and in their practices, being shapen and conceived in sin, and born of the flesh; and are corrupters, or "corrupt" themselves, and their ways, and also others by their corrupt speech, evil communications, and bad examples: or "they consume away"; like smoke, or into it, as (Psalms 37:20) or as wax melts at the fire, (Psalms 68:2) (Zechariah 14:12) , where the same word is used as here.
"They cause to consume away"F15; "they melt or dissolve others"; they consume them, and waste their estates by their oppression and violence; they make their hearts to melt with their threatening and terrifying words; or they make them dissolute in their lives by keeping them company:
and speak wickedly concerning oppression;
they speak oppression and revolt, threaten with it, (Isaiah 59:13) , and speak in vindication of it, and in a boasting glorying manner; so Arama; which is speaking wickedly concerning it:
they speak loftily;
proudly, arrogantly, in a haughty and imperious manner: or "from on high"F16; as if they were in heaven, and above all creatures, and even God himself; and as if what they said were oracles, and to be received as such, without any scruple and hesitation. Thus Pharaoh, Sennacherib, and Nebuchadnezzar spoke, (Exodus 5:2) (Isaiah 36:20) (Daniel 3:15) and the little horn, or antichrist, (Daniel 7:20) (2 Thessalonians 2:4) (Revelation 13:6) .