6 Let your wrath be on the nations who have no knowledge of you, and on the kingdoms who have not made prayer to your name.
To give punishment to those who have no knowledge of God, and to those who do not give ear to the good news of our Lord Jesus:
Let your wrath be let loose on the nations which have no knowledge of you, and on the families who give no worship to your name: for they have made a meal of Jacob, truly they have made a meal of him and put an end to him and made his fields a waste.
Let your curse come on them; let the heat of your wrath overtake them.
Have the workers of evil no knowledge? they take my people for food, as they would take bread; they make no prayer to God.
And a great voice out of the house of God came to my ears, saying to the seven angels, Go, and let that which is in the seven vessels of the wrath of God come down on the earth. And the first went, and let what was in his vessel come down on the earth; and it became an evil poisoning wound on the men who had the mark of the beast, and who gave worship to his image. And the second let what was in his vessel come out into the sea; and it became blood as of a dead man; and every living thing in the sea came to an end. And the third let what was in his vessel come out into the rivers and the fountains of water; and they became blood. And the voice of the angel of the waters came to my ears, saying, True and upright is your judging, O Holy One, who is and was from all time: For they made the blood of saints and prophets come out like a stream, and blood have you given them for drink; which is their right reward. And a voice came from the altar, saying, Even so, O Lord God, Ruler of all, true and full of righteousness is your judging. And the fourth let what was in his vessel come out on the sun; and power was given to it that men might be burned with fire. And men were burned with great heat: and they said evil things against the name of the God who has authority over these punishments; and they were not turned from their evil ways to give him glory. And the fifth let what was in his vessel come out on the high seat of the beast; and his kingdom was made dark; and they were biting their tongues for pain. And they said evil things against the God of heaven because of their pain and their wounds; and they were not turned from their evil works. And the sixth let what was in his vessel come out on the great river Euphrates; and it became dry, so that the way might be made ready for the kings from the east. And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits, like frogs. For they are evil spirits, working signs; who go out even to the kings of all the earth, to get them together to the war of the great day of God, the Ruler of all. (See, I come as a thief. Happy is he who is watching and keeps his robes, so that he may not go unclothed, and his shame be seen.) And they got them together into the place which is named in Hebrew Armageddon. And the seventh let what was in his vessel come out on the air; and there came out a great voice from the house of God, from the high seat, saying, It is done. And there were flames and voices and thunders; and there was a great earth-shock so that never, from the time when men were on the earth, had there been so great an earth-shock, so full of power. And the great town was cut into three parts, and the towns of the nations came to destruction: and Babylon the great came into mind before God, to be given the cup of the wine of his wrath. And every island went in flight, and the mountains were seen no longer. And great drops of ice, every one about the weight of a talent, came down out of heaven on men: and men said evil things against God because of the punishment of the ice-drops; for it is very great.
To the church of God which is in Corinth, to those who have been made holy in Christ Jesus, saints by the selection of God, with all those who in every place give honour to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:
And the Jew is not different from the Greek: for there is the same Lord of all, who is good to all who have hope in his name: Because, Whoever will give worship to the name of the Lord will get salvation. But how will they give worship to him in whom they have no faith? and how will they have faith in him of whom they have not had news? and how will they have news without a preacher?
And because they had not the mind to keep God in their knowledge, God gave them up to an evil mind, to do those things which are not right;
For when I came by, I was looking at the things to which you give worship, and I saw an altar with this writing on it, TO THE GOD OF WHOM THERE IS NO KNOWLEDGE. Now, what you, without knowledge, give worship to, I make clear to you.
They will do these things to you because they have not had knowledge of the Father or of me.
For this reason, go on waiting for me, says the Lord, till the day when I come up as a witness: for my purpose is to send for the nations and to get the kingdoms together, so that I may let loose on them my passion, even all my burning wrath: for all the earth will be burned up in the fire of my bitter passion.
The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah the prophet about the nations. Of Egypt: about the army of Pharaoh-neco, king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish, which Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, overcame in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah. Get out the breastplate and body-cover, and come together to the fight. Make the horses ready, and get up, you horsemen, and take your places with your head-dresses; make the spears sharp and put on the breastplates. What have I seen? they are overcome with fear and turned back; their men of war are broken and have gone in flight, not looking back: fear is on every side, says the Lord. Let not the quick-footed go in flight, or the man of war get away; on the north, by the river Euphrates, they are slipping and falling. Who is this coming up like the Nile, whose waters are lifting their heads like the rivers? Egypt is coming up like the Nile, and his waters are lifting their heads like the rivers, and he says, I will go up, covering the earth; I will send destruction on the town and its people. Go up, you horses; go rushing on, you carriages of war; go out, you men of war: Cush and Put, gripping the body-cover, and the Ludim, with bent bows. But that day is the day of the Lord, the Lord of armies, a day of punishment when he will take payment from his haters: and the sword will have all its desire, drinking their blood in full measure: for there is an offering to the Lord, the Lord of armies, in the north country by the river Euphrates. Go up to Gilead and take sweet oil, O virgin daughter of Egypt: there is no help in all your medical arts; nothing will make you well. Your shame has come to the ears of the nations, and the earth is full of your cry: for the strong man is falling against the strong, they have come down together. The word which the Lord said to Jeremiah the prophet, of how Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, would come and make war on the land of Egypt. Give the news in Migdol, make it public in Noph: say, Take up your positions and make yourselves ready; for on every side of you the sword has made destruction. Why has Apis, your strong one, gone in flight? he was not able to keep his place, because the Lord was forcing him down with strength. ... are stopped in their going, they are falling; and they say one to another, Let us get up and go back to our people, to the land of our birth, away from the cruel sword. Give a name to Pharaoh, king of Egypt: A noise who has let the time go by. By my life, says the King, whose name is the Lord of armies, truly, like Tabor among the mountains and like Carmel by the sea, so will he come. O daughter living in Egypt, make ready the vessels of a prisoner: for Noph will become a waste, it will be burned up and become unpeopled. Egypt is a fair young cow; but a biting insect has come on her out of the north. And those who were her fighters for payment are like fat oxen; for they are turned back, they have gone in flight together, they do not keep their place: for the day of their fate has come on them, the time of their punishment. She makes a sound like the hiss of a snake when they come on with strength; they go against her with axes, like wood-cutters. They will be cutting down her woods, for they may not be searched out; because they are like locusts, more than may be numbered. The daughter of Egypt will be put to shame; she will be given up into the hands of the people of the north. The Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: See, I will send punishment on Amon of No and on Pharaoh and on those who put their faith in him; And I will give them up into the hands of those who will take their lives, and into the hands of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hands of his servants: and later, it will be peopled as in the past, says the Lord. But have no fear, O Jacob, my servant, and do not be troubled, O Israel: for see, I will make you come back from far away, and your seed from the land where they are prisoners; and Jacob will come back, and will be quiet and in peace, and no one will give him cause for fear. Have no fear, O Jacob, my servant, says the Lord; for I am with you: for I will put an end to all the nations where I have sent you, but I will not put an end to you completely: though with wise purpose I will put right your errors, and will not let you go quite without punishment.
For see, I am starting to send evil on the town which is named by my name, and are you to be without any punishment? You will not be without punishment: for I will send a sword on all people living on the earth, says the Lord of armies.
Because of Jacob my servant, and Israel whom I have taken for myself, I have sent for you by name, giving you a name of honour, though you had no knowledge of me. I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God but me: I will make you ready for war, though you had no knowledge of me:
The word about Tyre. Let a cry of sorrow go up, O ships of Tarshish, because your strong place is made waste; on the way back from the land of Kittim the news is given to them. Send out a cry of grief, you men of the sea-land, traders of Zidon, who go over the sea, whose representatives are on great waters; Who get in the seed of Shihor, whose wealth is the trade of the nations. Be shamed, O Zidon: for the sea, the strong place of the sea has said, I have not been with child, or given birth; I have not taken care of young men, or kept watch over the growth of virgins. When the news comes to Egypt they will be bitterly pained at the fate of Tyre. Go over to Tarshish; give cries of sorrow, O men of the sea-land. Is this the town which was full of joy, whose start goes back to times long past, whose wanderings took her into far-off countries? By whom was this purposed against Tyre, the crowning town, whose traders are chiefs, whose business men are honoured in the land? It was the purpose of the Lord of armies to put pride to shame, to make sport of the glory of those who are honoured in the earth. Let your land be worked with the plough, O daughter of Tarshish; there is no longer any harbour. His hand is stretched out over the sea, the kingdoms are shaking: the Lord has given orders about Canaan, to make waste its strong places. And he said, There is no more joy for you, O crushed virgin daughter of Zidon: up! go over to Kittim; even there you will have no rest. ... Let a cry of sorrow go up, O ships of Tarshish: because your strong place is made waste. And it will be in that day that Tyre will go out of mind for seventy years, that is, the days of one king: after the end of seventy years it will be for Tyre as in the song of the loose woman. Take an instrument of music, go about the town, O loose woman who has gone out from the memory of man; make sweet melody with songs, so that you may come back to men's minds. And it will be after the end of seventy years, that the Lord will have mercy on Tyre, and she will go back to her trade, acting as a loose woman with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth. And her goods and her trade will be holy to the Lord: they will not be kept back or stored up; for her produce will be for those living in the Lord's land, to give them food for their needs, and fair clothing.
The word about the waste land. As storm-winds in the South go rushing through, it comes from the waste land, from the land greatly to be feared. A vision of fear comes before my eyes; the worker of deceit goes on in his false way, and the waster goes on making waste. Up! Elam; to the attack! Media; I have put an end to her sorrow. For this cause I am full of bitter grief; pains like the pains of a woman in childbirth have come on me: I am bent down with sorrow at what comes to my ears; I am shocked by what I see. My mind is wandering, fear has overcome me: the evening of my desire has been turned into shaking for me. They make ready the table, they put down the covers, they take food and drink. Up! you captains; put oil on your breastplates. For so has the Lord said to me, Go, let a watchman be placed; let him give word of what he sees: And when he sees war-carriages, horsemen by twos, war-carriages with asses, war-carriages with camels, let him give special attention. And the watchman gave a loud cry, O my lord, I am on the watchtower all day, and am placed in my watch every night: See, here come war-carriages with men, horsemen by twos: and in answer he said, Babylon is made low, is made low, and all her images are broken on the earth. O my crushed ones, the grain of my floor! I have given you the word which came to me from the Lord of armies, the God of Israel. The word about Edom. A voice comes to me from Seir, Watchman, how far gone is the night? how far gone is the night? The watchman says, The morning has come, but night is still to come: if you have questions to put, put them, and come back again. The word about Arabia. In the thick woods of Arabia will be your night's resting-place, O travelling bands of Dedanites! Give water to him who is in need of water; give bread, O men of the land of Tema, to those in flight. For they are in flight from the sharp sword, and the bent bow, and from the trouble of war. For so has the Lord said to me, In a year, by the years of a servant working for payment, all the glory of Kedar will come to an end: And the rest of the bowmen, the men of war of the children of Kedar, will be small in number: for the Lord, the God of Israel, has said it.
The word of the Lord about Babylon which Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw. Put up a flag on a clear mountain-top, make a loud outcry to them, give directions with the hand, so that they may go into the doors of the great ones. I have given orders to my holy ones, I have sent out my men of war, those of mine who take pride in their power, to give effect to my wrath. The noise of great numbers in the mountains, like the noise of a strong people! The noise of the kingdoms of the nations meeting together! The Lord of armies is numbering his forces for war. They come from a far country, from the farthest part of heaven, even the Lord and the instruments of his wrath, with destruction for all the land. Send out a cry of grief; for the day of the Lord is near; it comes as destruction from the Most High. For this cause all hands will be feeble, and every heart of man be turned to water; Their hearts will be full of fear; pains and sorrows will overcome them; they will be in pain like a woman in childbirth; they will be shocked at one another; their faces will be like flames. See, the day of the Lord is coming, cruel, with wrath and burning passion: to make the land a waste, driving the sinners in it to destruction. For the stars of heaven and its bright armies will not give their light: the sun will be made dark in his journey through the heaven, and the moon will keep back her light. And I will send punishment on the world for its evil, and on the sinners for their wrongdoing; and I will put an end to all pride, and will make low the power of the cruel. I will make men so small in number, that a man will be harder to get than gold, even the best gold of Ophir. For this cause the heavens will be shaking, and the earth will be moved out of its place, in the wrath of the Lord of armies, and in the day of his burning passion. And it will be that, like a roe in flight, and like wandering sheep, they will go every man to his people and to his land. Everyone who is overtaken will have a spear put through him, and everyone who goes in flight will be put to the sword. Their young children will be broken up before their eyes; their goods will be taken away, and their wives made the property of others. See, I am driving the Medes against them, who put no value on silver and have no pleasure in gold. In their hands are bows and spears; they are cruel, violently putting the young men to death, and crushing the young women; they have no pity for children, and no mercy for the fruit of the body. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beautiful town which is the pride of the Chaldaeans, will be like God's destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. People will never be living in it again, and it will have no more men from generation to generation: the Arab will not put up his tent there; and those who keep sheep will not make it a resting-place for their flocks. But the beasts of the waste land will have their holes there; and the houses will be full of crying jackals, and ostriches will have their place there, and evil spirits will be dancing there. And wolves will be answering one another in their towers, and jackals in their houses of pleasure: her time is near, and her days of power will quickly be ended.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 79
Commentary on Psalms 79 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Supplicatory Prayer in a Time of Devastation, of Bloodshed, and of Derision
This Psalm is in every respect the pendant of Ps 74. The points of contact are not merely matters of style (cf. Psalms 79:5, how long for ever ? with Psalms 74:1, Psalms 74:10; Psalms 79:10, יוּדע , with Psalms 74:5; Psalms 79:2, the giving over to the wild beasts, with Psalms 74:19, Psalms 74:14; Psalms 79:13, the conception of Israel as of a flock, in which respect Psalms 79:1-13 is judiciously appended to Psalms 78:70-72, with Psalms 74:1, and also with Psalms 74:19). But the mutual relationships lie still deeper. Both Psalms have the same Asaphic stamp, both stand in the same relation to Jeremiah, and both send forth their complaint out of the same circumstances of the time, concerning a destruction of the Temple and of Jerusalem, such as only the age of the Seleucidae (1 Macc. 1:31; 3:45, 2 Macc. 8:3) together with the Chaldaean period
(Note: According to Sofrim xviii. §3, Psalms 79:1-13 and Psalms 137:1-9 are the Psalms for the Kînoth-day, i.e., the 9th day of Ab, the day commemorative of the Chaldaean and Roman destruction of Jerusalem.)
can exhibit, and in conjunction with a defiling of the Temple and a massacre of the servants of God, of the Chasîdîm (1 Macc. 7:13, 2 Macc. 14:6), such as the age of the Seleucidae exclusively can exhibit. The work of the destruction of the Temple which was in progress in Ps 74, appears in Psalms 79:1-13 as completed, and here, as in the former Psalm, one receives the impression of the outrages, not of some war, but of some persecution: it is straightway the religion of Israel for the sake of which the sanctuaries are destroyed and the faithful are massacred.
Apart from other striking accords, Psalms 79:6-7 are repeated verbatim in Jeremiah 10:25. It is in itself far more probable that Jeremiah here takes up the earlier language of the Psalm than that the reverse is the true relation; and, as Hengstenberg has correctly observed, this is also favoured by the fact that the words immediately before viz., Jeremiah 10:24, originate out of Psalms 6:2, and that the connection in the Psalm is a far closer one. But since there is no era of pre-Maccabaean history corresponding to the complaints of the Psalm,
(Note: Cassiodorus and Bruno observe: deplorat Antiochi persecutionem tempore Machabeorum factam, tunc futuram . And Notker adds: To those who have read the First Book of the Maccabees it (viz., the destruction bewailed in the Psalm) is familiar.)
Jeremiah is to be regarded in this instance as the example of the psalmist; and in point of fact the borrower is betrayed in Psalms 79:6-7 of the Psalm by the fact that the correct על of Jeremiah is changed into אל , the more elegant משׁפחות into ממלכות , and the plural אכלוּ into אכל , and the soaring exuberance of Jeremiah's expression is impaired by the omission of some of the words.
The Psalm begins with a plaintive description, and in fact one that makes complaint to God. Its opening sounds like Lamentations 1:10. The defiling does not exclude the reducing to ashes, it is rather spontaneously suggested in Psalms 74:7 in company with wilful incendiarism. The complaint in Psalms 79:1 reminds one of the prophecy of Micah, Micah 3:12, which in its time excited so much vexation (Jeremiah 26:18); and Psalms 79:2, Deuteronomy 28:26. עבדיך confers upon those who were massacred the honour of martyrdom. The lxx renders לעיים by εἰς ὀπωροφυλάκιον , a flourish taken from Isaiah 1:8. Concerning the quotation from memory in 1 Macc. 7:16f., vid., the introduction to Ps 74. The translator of the originally Hebrew First Book of the Maccabees even in other instances betrays an acquaintance with the Greek Psalter (cf. 1 Macc. 1:37, καὶ ἐξέχεαν αἷμα ἀθῷον κύκλῳ τοῦ ἁγιάσματος ). “As water,” i.e., (cf. Deuteronomy 15:23) without setting any value upon it and without any scruple about it. Psalms 44:14 is repeated in Psalms 79:4. At the time of the Chaldaean catastrophe this applied more particularly to the Edomites.
Out of the plaintive question how long? and whether endlessly God would be angry and cause His jealousy to continue to burn like a fire ( Deuteronomy 32:22), grows up the prayer (Psalms 79:6) that He would turn His anger against the heathen who are estranged from the hostile towards Him, and of whom He is now making use as a rod of anger against His people. The taking over of Psalms 79:6-7 from Jeremiah 10:25 is not betrayed by the looseness of the connection of thought; but in themselves these four lines sound much more original in Jeremiah, and the style is exactly that of this prophet, cf. Jeremiah 6:11; Jeremiah 2:3, and frequently, Psalms 49:20. The אל , instead of על , which follows שׁפך is incorrect; the singular אכל gathers all up as in one mass, as in Isaiah 5:26; Isaiah 17:13. The fact that such power over Israel is given to the heathen world has its ground in the sins of Israel. From Psalms 79:8 it may be inferred that the apostasy which raged earlier is now checked. ראשׁנים is not an adjective (Job 31:28; Isaiah 59:2), which would have been expressed by עונותינו חראשׁנים , but a genitive: the iniquities of the forefathers (Leviticus 26:14, cf. Psalms 39:1-13). On Psalms 79:8 of Judges 6:6. As is evident from Psalms 79:9, the poet does not mean that the present generation, itself guiltless, has to expiate the guilt of the fathers (on the contrary, Deuteronomy 24:16; 2 Kings 14:6; Ezekiel 18:20); he prays as one of those who have turned away from the sins of the fathers, and who can now no longer consider themselves as placed under wrath, but under sin-pardoning and redeeming grace.
The victory of the world is indeed not God's aim; therefore His own honour does not suffer that the world of which He has made use in order to chasten His people should for ever haughtily triumph. שׁמך is repeated with emphasis at the end of the petition in Psalms 79:9, according to the figure epanaphora. על־דּבר = למען , as in Psalms 45:5, cf. Psalms 7:1, is a usage even of the language of the Pentateuch. Also the motive, “wherefore shall they say?” occurs even in the Tôra (Exodus 32:12, cf. Numbers 14:13-17; Deuteronomy 9:28). Here (cf. Psalms 115:2) it originates out of Joel 2:17. The wish expressed in Psalms 79:10 is based upon Deuteronomy 32:43. The poet wishes in company with his contemporaries, as eye-witnesses, to experience what God has promised in the early times, viz., that He will avenge the blood of His servants. The petition in Deuteronomy 32:11 runs like Psalms 102:21, cf. Psalms 18:7. אסיר individualizingly is those who are carried away captive and incarcerated; בּני תמוּתה are those who, if God does not preserve them by virtue of the greatness ( גדל , cf. גּדל Exodus 15:16) of His arm, i.e., of His far-reaching omnipotence, succumb to the power of death as to a patria potestas .
(Note: The Arabic has just this notion in an active application, viz., benı̂ el - môt = the heroes (destroyers) in the battle.)
That the petition in Psalms 79:12 recurs to the neighbouring peoples is explained by the fact, that these, who might most readily come to the knowledge of the God of Israel as the one living and true God, have the greatest degree of guilt on account of their reviling of God. The bosom is mentioned as that in which one takes up and holds that which is handed to him (Luke 6:38); חיק - ( על ) אל ( שׁלּם ) השׁיב , as in Isaiah 65:7, Isaiah 65:6; Jeremiah 32:18. A sevenfold requital (cf. Genesis 4:15, Genesis 4:24) is a requital that is fully carried out as a criminal sentence, for seven is the number of a completed process.
If we have thus far correctly hit upon the parts of which the Psalm is composed (9. 9. 9), then the lamentation closes with this tristichic vow of thanksgiving.