Mazmur 74:3-7

74:3 Hurry and look ¹  at the permanent ruins,

and all the damage the enemy has done to the temple! ² 

74:4 Your enemies roar ³  in the middle of your sanctuary; ⁴ 

they set up their battle flags. ⁵ 

74:5 They invade like lumberjacks

swinging their axes in a thick forest. ⁶ 

74:6 And now ⁷  they are tearing down ⁸  all its engravings ⁹ 

with axes ¹⁰  and crowbars. ¹¹ 

74:7 They set your sanctuary on fire;

they desecrate your dwelling place by knocking it to the ground. ¹² 

Mazmur 79:1

Psalm 79 ¹³ 

A psalm of Asaph.

79:1 O God, foreigners ¹⁴  have invaded your chosen land; ¹⁵ 

they have polluted your holy temple

and turned Jerusalem ¹⁶  into a heap of ruins.

[74:3]  ¹ tn Heb “lift up your steps to,” which may mean “run, hurry.”

[74:3]  ² tn Heb “everything [the] enemy has damaged in the holy place.”

[74:4]  ³ tn This verb is often used of a lion’s roar, so the psalmist may be comparing the enemy to a raging, devouring lion.

[74:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “your meeting place.”

[74:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “they set up their banners [as] banners.” The Hebrew noun אוֹת (’ot, “sign”) here refers to the enemy army’s battle flags and banners (see Num 2:12).

[74:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “it is known like one bringing upwards, in a thicket of wood, axes.” The Babylonian invaders destroyed the woodwork in the temple.

[74:6]  ⁷ tn This is the reading of the Qere (marginal reading). The Kethib (consonantal text) has “and a time.”

[74:6]  ⁸ tn The imperfect verbal form vividly describes the act as underway.

[74:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “its engravings together.”

[74:6]  ¹⁰ tn This Hebrew noun occurs only here in the OT (see H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena [SBLDS], 49-50).

[74:6]  ¹¹ tn This Hebrew noun occurs only here in the OT. An Akkadian cognate refers to a “pickaxe” (cf. NEB “hatchet and pick”; NIV “axes and hatchets”; NRSV “hatchets and hammers”).

[74:7]  ¹² tn Heb “to the ground they desecrate the dwelling place of your name.”

[79:1]  ¹³ sn Psalm 79. The author laments how the invading nations have destroyed the temple and city of Jerusalem. He asks God to forgive his people and to pour out his vengeance on those who have mistreated them.

[79:1]  ¹⁴ tn Or “nations.”

[79:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “have come into your inheritance.”

[79:1]  ¹⁶ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.