Mazmur 74:3-10
Konteks74:3 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
74:7 They set your sanctuary on fire;
they desecrate your dwelling place by knocking it to the ground. 12
74:8 They say to themselves, 13
“We will oppress all of them.” 14
They burn down all the places where people worship God in the land. 15
74:9 We do not see any signs of God’s presence; 16
there are no longer any prophets 17
and we have no one to tell us how long this will last. 18
74:10 How long, O God, will the adversary hurl insults?
Will the enemy blaspheme your name forever?
Mazmur 79:1-4
KonteksA psalm of Asaph.
79:1 O God, foreigners 20 have invaded your chosen land; 21
they have polluted your holy temple
and turned Jerusalem 22 into a heap of ruins.
79:2 They have given the corpses of your servants
to the birds of the sky; 23
the flesh of your loyal followers
to the beasts of the earth.
79:3 They have made their blood flow like water
all around Jerusalem, and there is no one to bury them. 24
79:4 We have become an object of disdain to our neighbors;
those who live on our borders taunt and insult us. 25
[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.”
[74:8] 13 tn Heb “in their heart.”
[74:8] 14 tc Heb “[?] altogether.” The Hebrew form נִינָם (ninam) is problematic. It could be understood as the noun נִין (nin, “offspring”) but the statement “their offspring altogether” would make no sense here. C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs (Psalms [ICC], 2:159) emends יָחַד (yakhad, “altogether”) to יָחִיד (yakhid, “alone”) and translate “let their offspring be solitary” (i.e., exiled). Another option is to understand the form as a Qal imperfect first common plural from יָנָה (yanah, “to oppress”) with a third masculine plural pronominal suffix, “we will oppress them.” However, this verb, when used in the finite form, always appears in the Hiphil. Therefore, it is preferable to emend the form to the Hiphil נוֹנֵם (nonem, “we will oppress them”).
[74:8] 15 tn Heb “they burn down all the meeting places of God in the land.”
[74:9] 16 tn Heb “our signs we do not see.” Because of the reference to a prophet in the next line, it is likely that the “signs” in view here include the evidence of God’s presence as typically revealed through the prophets. These could include miraculous acts performed by the prophets (see, for example, Isa 38:7-8) or object lessons which they acted out (see, for example, Isa 20:3).
[74:9] 17 tn Heb “there is not still a prophet.”
[74:9] 18 tn Heb “and [there is] not with us one who knows how long.”
[79:1] 19 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] 21 tn Heb “have come into your inheritance.”
[79:1] 22 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[79:2] 23 tn Heb “[as] food for the birds of the sky.”
[79:3] 24 tn Heb “they have poured out their blood like water, all around Jerusalem, and there is no one burying.”
[79:4] 25 tn Heb “an [object of] taunting and [of] mockery to those around us.” See Ps 44:13.
