1 O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?
2 Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.
3 Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations; even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary.
4 Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations; they set up their ensigns for signs.
5 A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees.
6 But now they break down the carved work thereof at once with axes and hammers.
7 They have cast fire into thy sanctuary, they have defiled by casting down the dwelling place of thy name to the ground.
8 They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land.
9 We see not our signs: there is no more any prophet: neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.
10 O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever?
11 Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? pluck it out of thy bosom.
12 For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13 Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.
14 Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
15 Thou didst cleave the fountain and the flood: thou driedst up mighty rivers.
16 The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun.
17 Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast made summer and winter.
18 Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O LORD, and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name.
19 O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the multitude of the wicked: forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever.
20 Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.
21 O let not the oppressed return ashamed: let the poor and needy praise thy name.
22 Arise, O God, plead thine own cause: remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily.
23 Forget not the voice of thine enemies: the tumult of those that rise up against thee increaseth continually.
1 [[Maschil H4905 of Asaph.]] H623 O God, H430 why hast thou cast us off H2186 for ever? H5331 why doth thine anger H639 smoke H6225 against the sheep H6629 of thy pasture? H4830
2 Remember H2142 thy congregation, H5712 which thou hast purchased H7069 of old; H6924 the rod H7626 of thine inheritance, H5159 which thou hast redeemed; H1350 this mount H2022 Zion, H6726 wherein thou hast dwelt. H7931
3 Lift up H7311 thy feet H6471 unto the perpetual H5331 desolations; H4876 even all that the enemy H341 hath done wickedly H7489 in the sanctuary. H6944
4 Thine enemies H6887 roar H7580 in the midst H7130 of thy congregations; H4150 they set up H7760 their ensigns H226 for signs. H226
5 A man was famous H3045 according as he had lifted up H935 H4605 axes H7134 upon the thick H5442 trees. H6086
6 But now they break down H1986 the carved work H6603 thereof at once H3162 with axes H3781 and hammers. H3597
7 They have cast H7971 fire H784 into thy sanctuary, H4720 they have defiled H2490 by casting down the dwelling place H4908 of thy name H8034 to the ground. H776
8 They said H559 in their hearts, H3820 Let us destroy H3238 them together: H3162 they have burned up H8313 all the synagogues H4150 of God H410 in the land. H776
9 We see H7200 not our signs: H226 there is no more any prophet: H5030 neither is there among us any that knoweth H3045 how long. H5704
10 O God, H430 how long shall the adversary H6862 reproach? H2778 shall the enemy H341 blaspheme H5006 thy name H8034 for ever? H5331
11 Why withdrawest H7725 thou thy hand, H3027 even thy right hand? H3225 pluck H3615 it out of H7130 thy bosom. H2436 H2436
12 For God H430 is my King H4428 of old, H6924 working H6466 salvation H3444 in the midst H7130 of the earth. H776
13 Thou didst divide H6565 the sea H3220 by thy strength: H5797 thou brakest H7665 the heads H7218 of the dragons H8577 in the waters. H4325
14 Thou brakest H7533 the heads H7218 of leviathan H3882 in pieces, and gavest H5414 him to be meat H3978 to the people H5971 inhabiting the wilderness. H6728
15 Thou didst cleave H1234 the fountain H4599 and the flood: H5158 thou driedst up H3001 mighty H386 rivers. H5104
16 The day H3117 is thine, the night H3915 also is thine: thou hast prepared H3559 the light H3974 and the sun. H8121
17 Thou hast set H5324 all the borders H1367 of the earth: H776 thou hast made H3335 summer H7019 and winter. H2779
18 Remember H2142 this, that the enemy H341 hath reproached, H2778 O LORD, H3068 and that the foolish H5036 people H5971 have blasphemed H5006 thy name. H8034
19 O deliver H5414 not the soul H5315 of thy turtledove H8449 unto the multitude H2416 of the wicked: forget H7911 not the congregation H2416 of thy poor H6041 for ever. H5331
20 Have respect H5027 unto the covenant: H1285 for the dark H4285 places of the earth H776 are full H4390 of the habitations H4999 of cruelty. H2555
21 O let not the oppressed H1790 return H7725 ashamed: H3637 let the poor H6041 and needy H34 praise H1984 thy name. H8034
22 Arise, H6965 O God, H430 plead H7378 thine own cause: H7379 remember H2142 how the foolish man H5036 reproacheth H2781 thee daily. H3117
23 Forget H7911 not the voice H6963 of thine enemies: H6887 the tumult H7588 of those that rise up H6965 against thee increaseth H5927 continually. H8548
1 O God, why hast thou cast `us' off for ever? Why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?
2 Remember thy congregation, which thou hast gotten of old, Which thou hast redeemed to be the tribe of thine inheritance; `And' mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.
3 Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual ruins, All the evil that the enemy hath done in the sanctuary.
4 Thine adversaries have roared in the midst of thine assembly; They have set up their ensigns for signs.
5 They seemed as men that lifted up Axes upon a thicket of trees.
6 And now all the carved work thereof They break down with hatchet and hammers.
7 They have set thy sanctuary on fire; They have profaned the dwelling-place of thy name `by casting it' to the ground.
8 They said in their heart, Let us make havoc of them altogether: They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land.
9 We see not our signs: There is no more any prophet; Neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.
10 How long, O God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever?
11 Why drawest thou back thy hand, even thy right hand? `Pluck it' out of thy bosom `and' consume `them'.
12 Yet God is my King of old, Working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13 Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: Thou brakest the heads of the sea-monsters in the waters.
14 Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces; Thou gavest him to be food to the people inhabiting the wilderness.
15 Thou didst cleave fountain and flood: Thou driedst up mighty rivers.
16 The day is thine, the night also is thine: Thou hast prepared the light and the sun.
17 Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: Thou hast made summer and winter.
18 Remember this, that the enemy hath reproached, O Jehovah, And that a foolish people hath blasphemed thy name.
19 Oh deliver not the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the wild beast: Forget not the life of thy poor for ever.
20 Have respect unto the covenant; For the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of violence.
21 Oh let not the oppressed return ashamed: Let the poor and needy praise thy name.
22 Arise, O God, plead thine own cause: Remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee all the day.
23 Forget not the voice of thine adversaries: The tumult of those that rise up against thee ascendeth continually. Psalm 75 For the Chief Musician; `set to' Al-tash-heth. A Psalm of Asaph; a song.
1 An Instruction of Asaph. Why, O God, hast Thou cast off for ever? Thine anger smoketh against the flock of Thy pasture.
2 Remember Thy company. Thou didst purchase of old, Thou didst redeem the rod of Thy inheritance, This mount Zion -- Thou didst dwell in it.
3 Lift up Thy steps to the perpetual desolations, Everything the enemy did wickedly in the sanctuary.
4 Roared have thine adversaries, In the midst of Thy meeting-places, They have set their ensigns as ensigns.
5 He is known as one bringing in on high Against a thicket of wood -- axes.
6 And now, its carvings together With axe and hatchet they break down,
7 They have sent into fire Thy sanctuary, to the earth they polluted the tabernacle of Thy name,
8 They said in their hearts, `Let us oppress them together,' They did burn all the meeting-places of God in the land.
9 Our ensigns we have not seen, There is no more a prophet, Nor with us is one knowing how long.
10 Till when, O God, doth an adversary reproach? Doth an enemy despise thy name for ever?
11 Why dost Thou turn back Thy hand, Even Thy right hand? From the midst of Thy bosom remove `it'.
12 And God `is' my king of old, Working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13 Thou hast broken by Thy strength a sea-`monster', Thou hast shivered Heads of dragons by the waters,
14 Thou hast broken the heads of leviathan, Thou makest him food, For the people of the dry places.
15 Thou hast cleaved a fountain and a stream, Thou hast dried up perennial flowings.
16 Thine `is' the day, also Thine `is' the night, Thou hast prepared a light giver -- the sun.
17 Thou hast set up all the borders of earth, Summer and winter Thou hast formed them.
18 Remember this -- an enemy reproached Jehovah, And a foolish people have despised Thy name.
19 Give not up to a company, The soul of Thy turtle-dove, The company of Thy poor ones forget not for ever.
20 Look attentively to the covenant, For the dark places of earth, Have been full of habitations of violence.
21 Let not the oppressed turn back ashamed, Let the poor and needy praise Thy name,
22 Arise, O God, plead Thy plea, Remember Thy reproach from a fool all the day.
23 Forget not the voice of Thine adversaries, The noise of Thy withstanders is going up continually!
1 {An instruction: of Asaph.} Why, O God, hast thou cast off for ever? [why] doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?
2 Remember thine assembly, which thou hast purchased of old, which thou hast redeemed [to be] the portion of thine inheritance, this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.
3 Lift up thy steps unto the perpetual desolations: everything in the sanctuary hath the enemy destroyed.
4 Thine adversaries roar in the midst of thy place of assembly; they set up their signs [for] signs.
5 [A man] was known as he could lift up axes in the thicket of trees;
6 And now they break down its carved work altogether, with hatchets and hammers.
7 They have set on fire thy sanctuary, they have profaned the habitation of thy name to the ground.
8 They said in their heart, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all ùGod's places of assembly in the land.
9 We see not our signs; there is no more any prophet, neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.
10 How long, O God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy contemn thy name for ever?
11 Why withdrawest thou thy hand, and thy right hand? [pluck it] out of thy bosom: consume [them].
12 But God is my king of old, accomplishing deliverances in the midst of the earth.
13 *Thou* didst divide the sea by thy strength; thou didst break the heads of the monsters on the waters:
14 *Thou* didst break in pieces the heads of leviathan, thou gavest him to be meat to those that people the desert.
15 *Thou* didst cleave fountain and torrent, *thou* driedst up ever-flowing rivers.
16 The day is thine, the night also is thine; *thou* hast prepared the moon and the sun:
17 *Thou* hast set all the borders of the earth; summer and winter -- *thou* didst form them.
18 Remember this, that an enemy hath reproached Jehovah, and a foolish people have contemned thy name.
19 Give not up the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the wild beast; forget not the troop of thine afflicted for ever.
20 Have respect unto the covenant; for the dark places of the earth are full of the dwellings of violence.
21 Oh let not the oppressed one return ashamed; let the afflicted and needy praise thy name.
22 Rise up, O God, plead thine own cause: remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee all the day;
23 Forget not the voice of thine adversaries: the tumult of those that rise up against thee ascendeth continually.
1 > God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?
2 Remember your congregation, which you purchased of old, Which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your inheritance; Mount Zion, in which you have lived.
3 Lift up your feet to the perpetual ruins, All the evil that the enemy has done in the sanctuary.
4 Your adversaries have roared in the midst of your assembly. They have set up their standards as signs.
5 They behaved like men wielding axes, Cutting through a thicket of trees.
6 Now all its carved work They break down with hatchet and hammers.
7 They have burned your sanctuary to the ground. They have profaned the dwelling-place of your Name.
8 They said in their heart, "We will crush them completely." They have burned up all the places in the land where God was worshiped.
9 We see no miraculous signs. There is no longer any prophet, Neither is there among us anyone who knows how long.
10 How long, God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme your name forever?
11 Why do you draw back your hand, even your right hand? Take it out of your pocket and consume them!
12 Yet God is my King of old, Working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13 You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters.
14 You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces. You gave him as food to people and desert creatures.
15 You opened up spring and stream. You dried up mighty rivers.
16 The day is yours, the night is also yours. You have prepared the light and the sun.
17 You have set all the boundaries of the earth. You have made summer and winter.
18 Remember this, that the enemy has mocked you, Yahweh. Foolish people have blasphemed your name.
19 Don't deliver the soul of your dove to wild beasts. Don't forget the life of your poor forever.
20 Honor your covenant, For haunts of violence fill the dark places of the earth.
21 Don't let the oppressed return ashamed. Let the poor and needy praise your name.
22 Arise, God! Plead your own cause. Remember how the foolish man mocks you all day.
23 Don't forget the voice of your adversaries. The tumult of those who rise up against you ascends continually.
1 <Maschil. Of Asaph.> Of God, why have you put us away from you for ever? why is the fire of your wrath smoking against the sheep who are your care?
2 Keep in mind your band of worshippers, for whom you gave payment in the days which are past, whom you took for yourself as the people of your heritage; even this mountain of Zion, which has been your resting-place.
3 Go up and see the unending destruction; all the evil which your haters have done in the holy place;
4 Sending out their voices like lions among your worshippers; they have put up their signs to be seen.
5 They are cutting down, like a man whose blade is lifted up against the thick trees.
6 Your doors are broken down with hammers and iron blades.
7 They have put on fire your holy place; they have made the place of your name unclean, pulling it down to the earth.
8 They have said in their hearts, Let us put an end to them all together; they have given over to the fire all God's places of worship in the land.
9 We do not see our signs: there is no longer any prophet, or anyone among us to say how long.
10 O God, how long will those who are against us say cruel things? will the hater go on looking down on your name for ever?
11 Why are you keeping back your hand, and covering your right hand in your robe?
12 For from the past God is my King, working salvation in the earth.
13 The sea was parted in two by your strength; the heads of the great sea-beasts were broken.
14 The heads of the great snake were crushed by you; you gave them as food to the fishes of the sea.
15 You made valleys for fountains and springs; you made the ever-flowing rivers dry.
16 The day is yours and the night is yours: you made the light and the sun.
17 By you all the limits of the earth were fixed; you have made summer and winter.
18 Keep this in mind, O Lord, that your haters have said cruel things, and that your name has been looked down on by a people of evil behaviour.
19 O give not the soul of your dove to the hawk; let not the life of the poor go out of your memory for ever.
20 Keep in mind your undertaking; for the dark places of the earth are full of pride and cruel acts.
21 O let not the crushed be turned back in shame; let the low man and the poor give praise to your name.
22 Up! O God, be the judge of your cause; keep in mind the bitter things which the man of evil behaviour says against you every day.
23 Keep in mind the voice of your haters; the outcry of those who come against you goes up every day.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 74
Commentary on Psalms 74 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Appeal to God against Religious Persecution, in Which the Temple Is Violated
The מזמור 73 is here followed by a Maskı̂l (vid., Psalms 32:1) which, in common with the former, has the prominent, rare word משּׁוּאות (Psalms 74:3; Psalms 73:18), but also the old Asaphic impress. We here meet with the favourite Asaphic contemplation of Israel as a flock, and the predilection of the Asaphic Psalms for retrospective references to Israel's early history (Psalms 74:13-15). We also find the former of these two characteristic features in Psalms 79:1-13, which reflects the same circumstances of the times. Moreover Jeremiah stands in the same relationship to both Psalms. In Jeremiah 10:25; Psalms 79:6. is repeated almost word for word. And one is reminded of Psalms 74 by Lamentations 2:2 (cf. Psalms 74:7), Psalms 2:7 (cf. Psalms 74:4), and other passages. The lament “there is no prophet any more” (Psalms 74:9) sounds very much like Lamentations 2:9. In connection with Jeremiah's reproductive manner, and his habit of allowing himself to be prompted to new thoughts by the original passages by means of the association of ideas (cf. כּיום מועד , Lamentations 2:7, with בּקרב מועדך of the Psalm), it is natural to assign the priority in age to the two Asaphic national lamentation Psalms.
But the substance of both Psalms, which apparently brings us down not merely into the Chaldaean, but even into the Maccabaean age, rises up in opposition to it. After his return from the second Egyptian expedition (170 b.c.) Antiochus Epiphanes chastised Jerusalem, which had been led into revolt by Jason, in the most cruel manner, entered the Temple accompanied by the court high priest Menalaus, and carried away the most costly vessels, and even the gold of the walls and doors, with him. Myriads of the Jews were at that time massacred or sold as slaves. Then during the fourth Egyptian expedition (168) of Antiochus, when a party favourably disposed towards the Ptolemies again arose in Jerusalem, he sent Apollonius to punish the offenders (167), and his troops laid the city waste with fire and sword, destroyed houses and walls, burnt down several of the Temple-gates and razed many of its apartments. Also on this occasion thousands were slain and led away captive. Then began the attempt of Antiochus to Hellenize the Jewish nation. An aged Athenian was entrusted with the carrying out of this measure. Force was used to compel the Jews to accept the heathen religion, and in fact to serve Olympian Zeus (Jupiter): on the 15th of Chislev a smaller altar was erected upon the altar of burnt-offering in the Temple, and on the 25th of Chislev the first sacrifice was offered to Olympian Zeus in the Temple of Jahve, now dedicated to him. Such was the position of affairs when a band of faithful confessors rallied around the Asmonaean (Hasmonaean) priest Mattathias.
How strikingly does much in both Psalms, more particularly in Ps 74, harmonize with this position of affairs! At that time it was felt more painfully than ever that prophecy had become dumb, 1 Macc. 4:46; 9:27; 14:41. The confessors and martyrs who bravely declared themselves were called, as in Psalms 79:2, חסידים , Ἀσιδαῖοι . At that time “they saw,” as 1 Macc. 4:38 says, “the sanctuary desolate, and the altar profaned, and the gates burnt up, and shrubs growing in the courts as in a forest, or as in one of the mountains, yea, and the priests' chambers pulled down.” the doors of the Temple-gates were burned to ashes (cf. 2 Macc. 8:33; 1:8). The religious אותות (Psalms 74:4) of the heathen filled the place where Jahve was wont to reveal Himself. Upon the altar of the court stood the βδέλυγμα ἐρημώσεως ; in the courts they had planted trees, and likewise the “signs” of heathendom; and the לשׁכות ( παστοφόρια ) lay in ruins. When later on, under Demetrius Stoer (161), Alcimus (an apostate whom Antiochus had appointed high priest) and Bacchides advanced with promises of peace, but with an army at the same time, a band of scribes, the foremost of the Asidai'oi of Israel, went forth to meet them to intercede for their nation. Alcimus, however, seized sixty of them, slaughtered them in one day, and that, as it is added in 1 Macc. 7:16f., “according to the word which he wrote: The flesh of Thy saints and their blood have they shed round about Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them.” The formula of citation κατὰ τὸν λόγον ὃν ( τοὺς λόγου οὓς ) ἔγραψε , and more particularly the ἔγραψε - which as being the aorist cannot have the Scripture ( ἡ γραφή ), and, since the citation is a prayer to god, not God, but only the anonymous psalmist, as its subject (vid., however, the various readings in Grimm on this passage) - sounds as though the historian were himself conscious that he was quoting a portion of Scripture that had taken its rise among the calamities of that time. In fact, no age could be regarded as better warranted in incorporating some of its songs in the Psalter than the Maccabaean, the sixty-third week predicted by Daniel, the week of suffering bearing in itself the character of the time of the end, this strictly martyr age of the Old Covenant, to which the Book of Daniel awards a high typical significance in relation to the history of redemption.
But unbiassed as we are in the presence of the question whether there are Maccabaean Psalms, still there is, on the other hand, much, too, that is against the referring of the two Psalms to the Maccabaean age. In Psalms 79:1-13 there is nothing that militates against referring it to the Chaldaean age, and Psalms 79:11 (cf. Psalms 102:21; Psalms 69:34) is even favourable to this. And in Psalms 74, in which Psalms 74:4 , Psalms 74:8 , Psalms 74:9 are the most satisfactorily explained from the Maccabaean age, there are, again, other parts which are better explained from the Chaldaean. For what is said in Psalms 74:7 , “they have set Thy Temple on fire,” applies just as unconditionally as it runs to the Chaldaeans, but not to the Syrians. And the cry of prayer, Psalms 74:3, “lift up Thy footsteps to the eternal ruins,” appears to assume a laying waste that has taken place within the last few years at least, such as the Maccabaean age cannot exhibit, although at the exaltation of the Maccabees Jerusalem was ἀοίκητος ὡς ἔρημος (1 Macc. 3:45). Hitzig, it is true, renders: raise Thy footsteps for sudden attacks without end ; but both the passages in which משּׁוּאות occurs mutually secure to this word the signification “desolations” (Targum, Symmachus, Jerome, and Saadia). If, however, the Chaldaean catastrophe were meant, then the author of both Psalms, on the ground of Ezra 2:41; Nehemiah 7:44 (cf. Nehemiah 11:22), might be regarded as an Asaphite of the time of the Exile, although they might also be composed by any one in the Asaphic style. And as regards their relation to Jeremiah, we ought to be contented with the fact that Jeremiah, whose peculiarity as a writer is otherwise so thoroughly reproductive, is, notwithstanding, also reproduced by later writers, and in this instance by the psalmist.
Nothing is more certain than that the physiognomy of these Psalms does not correspond to any national misfortune prior to the Chaldaean catastrophe. Vaihinger's attempt to comprehend them from the time of Athaliah's reign of terror, is at issue with itself. In the history of Israel instances of the sacking of Jerusalem and of the Temple are not unknown even prior to the time of Zedekiah, as in the reign of Jehoram, but there is no instance of the city being reduced to ashes. Since even the profanation of the Temple by the Persian general Bagoses (Josephus, Ant . xi. 7), to which Ewald formerly referred this Psalm, was not accompanied by any injury of the building itself, much less its reduction to ashes, there remains only the choice between the laying waste of Jerusalem and of the Temple in the year 588 and in the year 167. We have reserved to ourselves the liberty of acknowledging some insertions from the time of the Maccabees in the Psalter; supra , pp. 6-8. Now since in both Psalms, apart from the משׁאות נצח , everything accords with the Maccabaean age, whilst when we refer them to the Chaldaean period the scientific conscience is oppressed by many difficulties (more especially in connection with Psalms 74:4, Psalms 74:8-9; Psalms 79:2-3), we yield to the force of the impression and base both Psalms upon the situation of the Jewish nation under Antiochus and Demetrius. Their contents coincide with the prayer of Judas Maccabaeus in 2 Macc. 8:1-4.
The poet begins with the earnest prayer that God would again have compassion upon His church, upon which His judgment of anger has fallen, and would again set up the ruins of Zion. Why for ever (Psalms 74:10, Psalms 79:5; Psalms 89:47, cf. Psalms 13:2)? is equivalent to, why so continually and, as it seems, without end? The preterite denotes the act of casting off, the future, Psalms 74:1 , that lasting condition of this casting off. למה , when the initial of the following word is a guttural, and particularly if it has a merely half-vowel (although in other instances also, Genesis 12:19; Genesis 27:45; Song of Solomon 1:7), is deprived of its Dagesh and accented on the ultima , in order (as Mose ha-Nakdan expressly observes) to guard against the swallowing up of the ah ; cf. on Psalms 10:1. Concerning the smoking of anger, vid., Psalms 18:9. The characteristically Asaphic expression צאן מרעיתו is not less Jeremianic, Jeremiah 23:1. In Psalms 74:2 God is reminded of what He has once done for the congregation of His people. קדם , as in Psalms 44:2, points back into the Mosaic time of old, to the redemption out of Egypt, which is represented in קנה (Exodus 15:17) as a purchasing, and in גאל (Psalms 77:15; Psalms 78:35, Exodus 15:13) as a ransoming ( redemptio ). שׁבט נחלתך is a factitive object; שׁבט is the name given to the whole nation in its distinctness of race from other peoples, as in Jeremiah 10:16; Jeremiah 51:19, cf. Isaiah 63:17. זה ( Psalms 74:2 ) is rightly separated from הר־ציון ( Mugrash ); it stands directly for אשׁר , as in Psalms 104:8, Psalms 104:26; Proverbs 23:22; Job 15:17 (Ges. §122, 2). The congregation of the people and its central abode are, as though forgotten of God, in a condition which sadly contrasts with their election. משּׁאות נצח are ruins (vid., Psalms 73:18) in a state of such total destruction, that all hope of their restoration vanishes before it; נצח here looks forward, just as עולם ( חרבות ), Isaiah 63:12; Psalms 61:4, looks backwards. May God then lift His feet up high ( פּעמים poetical for רגלים , cf. Psalms 58:11 with Psalms 68:24), i.e., with long hurried steps, without stopping, move towards His dwelling - lace that now lies in ruins, that by virtue of His interposition it may rise again. Hath the enemy made merciless havoc - he hath ill-treated ( הרע , as in Psalms 44:3) everything ( כּל , as in Psalms 8:7, Zephaniah 1:2, for חכּל or את־כּל ) in the sanctuary - how is it possible that this sacrilegious vandalism should remain unpunished!
The poet now more minutely describes how the enemy has gone on. Since קדשׁ in Psalms 74:3 is the Temple, מועדיך in Psalms 74:4 ought likewise to mean the Temple with reference to the several courts; but the plural would here (cf. Psalms 74:8 ) be misleading, and is, too, only a various reading. Baer has rightly decided in favour of מועדך ;
(Note: The reading מעודיך is received, e.g., by Elias Hutter and Nissel; the Targum translates it, Kimchi follows it in his interpretation, and Abraham of Zante follows it in his paraphrase; it is tolerably widely known, but, according to the lxx and Syriac versions and MSS, it is to be rejected.)
מועד , as in Lamentations 2:6., is the instituted (Numbers 17:1-13 :19 [4]) place of God's intercourse with His congregation (cf. Arab. mı̂‛âd , a rendezvous). What Jeremiah says in Lamentations 2:7 (cf. שׁאג , Jeremiah 2:15) is here more briefly expressed. By אותתם ( Psalms 74:4 ) we must not understand military insignia; the scene of the Temple and the supplanting of the Israelitish national insignia to be found there, by the substitution of other insignia, requires that the word should have the religious reference in which it is used of circumcision and of the Sabbath (Exodus 31:13); such heathen אתות , which were thrust upon the Temple and the congregation of Jahve as henceforth the lawful ones, were those which are set forth in 1 Macc. 1:45-49, and more particularly the so-called abomination of desolation mentioned in v. 54 of the same chapter. With יוּדע (Psalms 74:5) the terrible scene which was at that time taking place before their eyes (Psalms 79:10) is introduced. כּמביא is the subject; it became visible, tangible, noticeable, i.e., it looked, and one experienced it, as if a man caused the axe to enter into the thicket of the wood, i.e., struck into or at it right and left. The plural קדּמּות forces itself into the simile because it is the many heathen warriors who are, as in Jeremiah 46:22., likened to these hewers of wood. Norzi calls the Kametz of בסבך־עץ Kametz chatuph ; the combining form would then be a contraction of סבך (Ewald, Olshausen), for the long ā of סבך does not admit of any contraction. According to another view it is to be read bi - sbāch - etz , as in Esther 4:8 kethāb - hadāth with counter-tone Metheg beside the long vowel, as e.g., עץ־הגּן , Genesis 2:16). The poet follows the work of destruction up to the destroying stroke, which is introduced by the ועת (perhaps ועת , Kerî ועתּה ), which arrests one's attention. In Psalms 74:5 the usual, unbroken quiet is depicted, as is the heavy Cyclopean labour in the Virgilian illi inter sese , etc.; in jahalomûn , Psalms 74:6 (now and then pointed jahlomûn ), we hear the stroke of the uplifted axes, which break in pieces the costly carved work of the Temple. The suffix of פּתּוּחיה (the carved works thereof) refers, according to the sense, to מועדך . The lxx, favouring the Maccabaean interpretation, renders: ἐξέκοψαν τάς θύρας αὐτῆς ( פּתחיה ). This shattering of the panelling is followed in Psalms 74:7 by the burning, first of all, as we may suppose, of this panelling itself so far as it consists of wood. The guaranteed reading here is מקדשׁך , not מקדשׁיך . שׁלּח בּאשׁ signifies to set on fire, immittere igni , differing from שׁלּח אשׁ בּ , to set fire to, immittere ignem . On לארץ חלּלוּ , cf. Lamentations 2:2; Jeremiah 19:13. Hitzig, following the lxx, Targum, and Jerome, derives the exclamation of the enemies נינם from נין : their whole generation (viz., we will root out)! But נין is posterity, descendants; why therefore only the young and not the aged? And why is it an expression of the object and not rather of the action, the object of which would be self-evident? נינם is fut. Kal of ינה , here = Hiph . הונה , to force, oppress, tyrannize over, and like אנס , to compel by violence, in later Hebrew. נינם (from יינה , like ייפה ) is changed in pause into נינם ; cf. the future forms in Numbers 21:30; Exodus 34:19, and also in Psalms 118:10-12. Now, after mention has been made of the burning of the Temple framework, מועדי־אל cannot denote the place of the divine manifestation after its divisions (Hengstenberg), still less the festive assemblies (Böttcher), which the enemy could only have burnt up by setting fire to the Temple over their heads, and כל does not at all suit this. The expression apparently has reference to synagogues (and this ought not to be disputed), as Aquila and Symmachus render the word. For there is no room for thinking of the separate services conducted by the prophets in the northern kingdom (2 Kings 4:23), because this kingdom no longer existed at the time this Psalm was written; nor of the בּמות , the burning down of which no pious Israelite would have bewailed; nor of the sacred places memorable from the early history of Israel, which are nowhere called מועדים , and after the founding of the central sanctuary appear only as the seats of false religious rites. The expression points (like בּית ועד , Sota ix. 15) to places of assembly for religious purposes, to houses for prayer and teaching, that is to say, to synagogues - a weighty instance in favour of the Maccabaean origin of the Psalm.
The worst thing the poet has to complain of is that God has not acknowledged His people during this time of suffering as at other times. “Our signs” is the direct antithesis to “their sings” (Psalms 74:4), hence they are not to be understood, after Psalms 86:17, as signs which God works. The suffix demands, besides, something of a perpetual character; they are the instituted ordinances of divine worship by means of which God is pleased to stand in fellowship with His people, and which are now no longer to be seen because the enemies have set them aside. The complaint “there is not prophet any more” would seem strange in the period immediately after the destruction of Jerusalem, for Jeremiah's term of active service lasted beyond this. Moreover, a year before (in the tenth year of Zedekiah's reign) he had predicted that the Babylonian domination, and relatively the Exile, would last seventy years; besides, six years before the destruction Ezekiel appeared, who was in communication with those who remained behind in the land. The reference to Lamentations 2:9 (cf. Ezekiel 7:26) does not satisfy one; for there it is assumed that there were prophets, a fact which is here denied. Only perhaps as a voice coming out of the Exile, the middle of which (cf. Hosea 3:4; 2 Chronicles 15:3, and besides Canticum trium puerorum , Psalms 74:14 : καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τούτῳ ἄρχων καὶ προφήτης καὶ ἡγούμενος ) was truly thus devoid of signs or miracles, and devoid of the prophetic word of consolation, can Psalms 74:9 be comprehended. The seventy years of Jeremiah were then still a riddle without any generally known solution (Dan. 9). If, however, synagogues are meant in Psalms 74:8 , Psalms 74:9 now too accords with the like-sounding lament in the calamitous times of Antiochus (1 Macc. 4:46; 9:27; 14:41). In Psalms 74:10 the poet turns to God Himself with the question “How long?” how long is this (apparently) endless blaspheming of the enemy to last? Why dost Thou draw back (viz., ממּנוּ , from us, not עלינוּ , Psalms 81:15) Thy hand and Thy right hand? The conjunction of synonyms “Thy hand and Thy right hand” is, as in Psalms 44:4, Sirach 33:7, a fuller expression for God's omnipotent energy. This is now at rest; Psalms 74:11 calls upon it to give help by an act of judgment. “Out of the midst of Thy bosom, destroy,” is a pregnant expression for, “drawing forth out of Thy bosom the hand that rests inactive there, do Thou destroy.” The Chethîb חוקך has perhaps the same meaning; for חוק , Arab. ḥawq , signifies, like חיק , Arab. ḥayq , the act of encompassing, then that which encompasses. Instead of מחיקך (Exodus 4:7) the expression is מקּרב חיקך , because there, within the realm of the bosom, the punitive justice of God for a time as it were slumbers. On the כלּה , which outwardly is without any object, cf. Psalms 59:14.
With this prayer for the destruction of the enemies by God's interposition closes the first half of the Psalm, which has for its subject-matter the crying contradiction between the present state of things and God's relationship to Israel. The poet now draws comfort by looking back into the time when God as Israel's King unfolded the rich fulness of His salvation everywhere upon the earth, where Israel's existence was imperilled. בּקרב הארץ , not only within the circumference of the Holy Land, but, e.g., also within that of Egypt (Exodus 8:18-22). The poet has Egypt directly in his mind, for there now follows first of all a glance at the historical (Psalms 74:13-15), and then at the natural displays of God's power (Psalms 74:16, Psalms 74:17). Hengstenberg is of opinion that Psalms 74:13-15 also are to be understood in the latter sense, and appeals to Job 26:11-13. But just as Isaiah (Isaiah 51:9, cf. Psalms 27:1) transfers these emblems of the omnipotence of God in the natural world to His proofs of power in connection with the history of redemption which were exhibited in the case of a worldly power, so does the poet here also in Psalms 74:13-15. The תּנּיּן (the extended saurian) is in Isaiah, as in Ezekiel ( התּנּים , Psalms 29:3; Psalms 32:2), an emblem of Pharaoh and of his kingdom; in like manner here the leviathan is the proper natural wonder of Egypt. As a water-snake or a crocodile, when it comes up with its head above the water, is killed by a powerful stroke, did God break the heads of the Egyptians, so that the sea cast up their dead bodies (Exodus 14:30). The ציּים , the dwellers in the steppe, to whom these became food, are not the Aethiopians (lxx, Jerome), or rather the Ichthyophagi (Bocahrt, Hengstenberg), who according to Agatharcides fed ἐκ τῶν ἐκριπτομένων εἰς τὴν χέρσον κητῶν , but were no cannibals, but the wild beasts of the desert, which are called עם , as in Proverbs 30:25. the ants and the rock-badgers. לציים is a permutative of the notion לעם , which was not completed: to a (singular) people, viz., to the wild animals of the steppe. Psalms 74:15 also still refers not to miracles of creation, but to miracles wrought in the course of the history of redemption; Psalms 74:15 refers to the giving of water out of the rock (Psalms 78:15), and Psalms 74:15 to the passage through the Jordan, which was miraculously dried up ( הובשׁתּ , as in Joshua 2:10; Joshua 4:23; Joshua 5:1). The object מעין ונחל is intended as referring to the result: so that the water flowed out of the cleft after the manner of a fountain and a brook. נהרות are the several streams of the one Jordan; the attributive genitive איתן describe them as streams having an abundance that does not dry up, streams of perennial fulness. The God of Israel who has thus marvellously made Himself known in history is, however, the Creator and Lord of all created things. Day and night and the stars alike are His creatures. In close connection with the night, which is mentioned second, the moon, the מאור of the night, precedes the sun; cf. Psalms 8:4, where כּונן is the same as הכין in this passage. It is an error to render thus: bodies of light, and more particularly the sun; which would have made one expect מאורות before the specializing Waw . גּבוּלות are not merely the bounds of the land towards the sea, Jeremiah 5:22, but, according to Deuteronomy 32:8; Acts 17:26, even the boundaries of the land in themselves, that is to say, the natural boundaries of the inland country. קיץ וחרף are the two halves of the year: summer including spring ( אביב ), which begins in Nisan, the spring-month, about the time of the vernal equinox, and autumn including winter ( צתו ), after the termination of which the strictly spring vegetation begins (Song of Solomon 2:11). The seasons are personified, and are called God's formations or works, as it were the angels of summer and of winter.
The poet, after he has thus consoled himself by the contemplation of the power of God which He has displayed for His people's good as their Redeemer, and for the good of the whole of mankind as the Creator, rises anew to prayer, but all the more cheerfully and boldly. Since ever present facts of creation have been referred to just now, and the historical mighty deeds of God only further back, זאת refers rather forwards to the blaspheming of the enemies which He suffers now to go on unpunished, as though He took no cognizance of it. חרף has Pasek after it in order to separate the word, which signifies reviling, from the most holy Name. The epithet עם־נבל reminds one of Deuteronomy 32:21. In Psalms 74:19 according to the accents חיּת is the absolute state (the primary form of חיּה , vid., on Psalms 61:1): give not over, abandon not to the wild beast (beasts), the soul of Thy turtle-dove. This is probably correct, since לחיּת נפשׁ , “to the eager wild beast,” this inversion of the well-known expression נפשׁ חיּה , which on the contrary yields the sense of vita animae , is an improbable and exampleless expression. If נפשׁ were intended to be thus understood, the poet might have written אל־תתן לנפשׁ חיּה תורך , “give not Thy turtle-dove over to the desire of the wild beast.” Hupfeld thinks that the “old, stupid reading” may be set right at one stroke, inasmuch as he reads אל תתן לנפש חית תורך , and renders it “give not to rage the life Thy turtle-dove;” but where is any support to be found for this לנפשׁ , “to rage,” or rather ( Psychology , S. 202; tr. p. 239) “to eager desire?” The word cannot signify this in such an isolated position. Israel, which is also compared to a dove in Psalms 68:14, is called a turtle-dove ( תּור ). In Psalms 74:19 חיּת has the same signification as in Psalms 74:19 , and the same sense as Psalms 68:11 (cf. Ps 69:37): the creatures of Thy miserable ones, i.e., Thy poor, miserable creatures - a figurative designation of the ecclesia pressa . The church, which it is the custom of the Asaphic Psalms to designate with emblematical names taken from the animal world, finds itself now like sheep among wolves, and seems to itself as if it were forgotten by God. The cry of prayer הבּט לבּרית comes forth out of circumstances such as were those of the Maccabaean age. בּרית is the covenant of circumcision (Gen. 17); the persecution of the age of the Seleucidae put faith to the severe test, that circumcision, this sign which was the pledge to Israel of God's gracious protection, became just the sign by which the Syrians knew their victims. In the Book of Daniel, Daniel 11:28, Daniel 11:30, cf. Ps. 22:32, ברית is used directly of the religion of Israel and its band of confessors. The confirmatory clause Psalms 74:20 also corresponds to the Maccabaean age, when the persecuted confessors hid themselves far away in the mountains (1 Macc. 2:26ff., 2 Macc. 6:11), but were tracked by the enemy and slain, - at that time the hiding-places ( κρύφοι , 1 Macc. 1:53) of the land were in reality full of the habitations of violence. The combination נאות חמס is like נאות השׁלום , Jeremiah 25:37, cf. Genesis 6:11. From this point the Psalm draws to a close in more familiar Psalm - strains. אל־ישׁב , Psalms 74:21, viz., from drawing near to Thee with their supplications. “The reproach of the foolish all the day” is that which incessantly goes forth from them. עלה תּמיד , “going up (1 Samuel 5:12, not: increasing, 1 Kings 22:35) perpetually,” although without the article, is not a predicate, but attributive (vid., on Psalms 57:3). The tone of the prayer is throughout temperate; this the ground upon which it bases itself is therefore all the more forcible.