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Psalm 73:7
Their eyes bulge with fat. Their minds pass the limits of conceit.
5They are free from burdens of men, neither are they plagued like other men.
6Therefore pride is like a chain around their neck. Violence covers them like a garment.
7Their eyes bulge with fat. Their minds pass the limits of conceit.
8They scoff and speak with malice. In arrogance, they threaten oppression.
9They have set their mouth in the heavens. Their tongue walks through the earth.
Notice
Bulging eyes and boundless conceit make a harsh portrait of people whose ease, in the surrounding lines, goes hand in hand with oppression.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What does “Their minds pass the limits of conceit” suggest about how these people see themselves?
Write on thisHow do the threats in verse 8 shape your reading of the fatness in verse 7?
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Psalm 119:70Their heart is as callous as the fat, but I delight in your law.Both passages use fat imagery to portray an inward problem: conceit in Psalm 73 and a callous heart in Psalm 119.
Ecclesiastes 6:2a man to whom God gives riches, wealth, and honor, so that he lacks nothing for his soul of all that he desires, yet God gives him no power to eat of it, but …Both portray abundance with something grievous: conceit in the psalm and the inability to enjoy wealth in Ecclesiastes.
Deuteronomy 32:15But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. You have grown fat. You have grown thick. You have become sleek. Then he abandoned God who made him, and rejected the Rock …Both associate growing fat with moral corruption, expressed as conceit in the psalm and abandonment of God in Deuteronomy.
Job 15:27because he has covered his face with his fatness, and gathered fat on his thighs.Both use visible bodily fatness in their descriptions, though the supplied Job verse does not name conceit.
Psalm 17:10They close up their callous hearts. With their mouth they speak proudly.Both describe inward arrogance, with Psalm 17 also showing it in proud speech.
Jeremiah 5:28They have grown fat. They shine; yes, they excel in deeds of wickedness. They don’t plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless, that they may prosper; and …Both describe fatness alongside moral corruption; Jeremiah names wicked deeds and neglect of the needy.
Deuteronomy 31:20For when I have brought them into the land which I swore to their fathers, flowing with milk and honey, and they have eaten and filled themselves, and grown …Both connect images of being well-fed with corruption: conceit in Psalm 73 and rejection of God in Deuteronomy.
Psalm 73:12Behold, these are the wicked. Being always at ease, they increase in riches.Psalm 73:12 identifies these same people as wicked, at ease, and increasing in riches, clarifying the abundance pictured in verse 7.
Judges 3:17He offered the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man.The shared detail is bodily fatness; the supplied Judges verse describes Eglon without naming the conceit condemned in Psalm 73.
Psalm 22:29All the rich ones of the earth shall eat and worship. All those who go down to the dust shall bow before him, even he who can’t keep his soul alive.Both concern people with abundance, though Psalm 73 describes conceit while Psalm 22 depicts the rich worshiping.
Isaiah 3:9The look of their faces testify against them. They parade their sin like Sodom. They don’t hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought disaster upon …Both use a description of faces or eyes within a portrait of wrongdoing.
Ezekiel 16:49“‘“Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, fullness of bread, and prosperous ease was in her and in her daughters. She also didn’t …Both associate abundance with pride; Ezekiel also names prosperous ease and failure to help the poor.
Where this verse fits
Envy and comparison. injustice and anger.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
The prosperity described here carries no assurance of God's approval. Conceit remains conceit, even when the people displaying it seem free from the burdens others bear.
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).