Psalms 79 — BRE — Scriptura

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79Εἰς τὸ τέλος, ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀλλοιωθησομένων, μαρτύριον τῷ Ἀσὰφ, ψαλμὸς ὑπὲρ τοῦ Ἀσσυρίου.^{Verse 2}Ὁ Ποιμαίνων τὸν Ἰσραὴλ πρόσχες, ὁ ὁδηγῶν ὡσεὶ πρόβατα τὸν Ἰωσήφ· ὁ καθήμενος ἐπὶ τῶν χερουβὶμ ἐμφάνηθι,^{Verse 3}ἐναντίον Ἐφραὶμ καὶ Βενιαμὶν καὶ Μανασσῆ· ἐξέγειρον τὴν δυναστείαν σου καὶ ἐλθὲ εἰς τὸ σῶσαι ἡμᾶς.^{Verse 4}Ὁ Θεὸς ἐπίστρεψον ἡμᾶς, καὶ ἐπίφανον τὸ πρόσωπόν σου, καὶ σωθησόμεθα.^{Verse 5}Κύριε ὁ Θεὸς τῶν δυνάμεων, ἕως πότε ὀργίζῃ ἐπὶ τὴν προσευχὴν τοῦ δούλου σου;^{Verse 6}Ψωμιεῖς ἡμᾶς ἄρτον δακρύων, καὶ ποτιεῖς ἡμᾶς ἐν δάκρυσιν ἐν μέτρῳ.^{Verse 7}Ἔθου ἡμᾶς εἰς ἀντιλογίαν τοῖς γείτοσιν ἡμῶν, καὶ οἱ ἐχθροὶ ἡμῶν ἐμυκτήρισαν ἡμᾶς.^{Verse 8}Κύριε ὁ Θεὸς τῶν δυνάμεων ἐπίστρεψον ἡμᾶς, καὶ ἐπίφανον τὸ πρόσωπόν σου, καὶ σωθησόμεθα· διάψαλμα.^{Verse 9}Ἄμπελον ἐξ Αἰγύπτου μετῇρας, ἐξέβαλες ἔθνη καὶ κατεφύτευσας αὐτήν.^{Verse 10}Ὡδοποίησας ἔμπροσθεν αὐτῆς, καὶ κατεφύτευσας τὰς ῥίζας αὐτῆς, καὶ ἐπλήσθη ἡ γῆ.^{Verse 11}Ἐκάλυψεν ὄρη ἡ σκιὰ αὐτῆς, καὶ αἱ ἀναδενδράδες αὐτῆς τὰς κέδρους τοῦ Θεοῦ.^{Verse 12}Ἐξέτεινε τὰ κλήματα αὐτῆς ἕως θαλάσσης, καὶ ἕως ποταμοῦ τὰς παραφυάδας αὐτῆς.^{Verse 13}Ἱνατί καθεῖλες τὸν φραγμὸν αὐτῆς, καὶ τρυγῶσιν αὐτὴν πάντες οἱ παραπορευόμενοι τὴν ὁδόν;^{Verse 14}Ἐλυμῄνατο αὐτὴν σῦς ἐκ δρυμοῦ, καὶ μονιὸς ἄγριος κατενεμήσατο αὐτήν.^{Verse 15}Ὁ Θεὸς τῶν δυνάμεων ἐπίστρεψον δὴ, ἐπίβλεψον ἐξ οὐρανοῦ καὶ ἴδε, καὶ ἐπίσκεψαι τὴν ἄμπελον ταύτην·^{Verse 16}Καὶ κατάρτισαι αὐτὴν, ἣν ἐφύτευσεν ἡ δεξιά σου, καὶ ἐπὶ υἱὸν ἀνθρώπου ὃν ἐκραταίωσας σεαυτῷ.^{Verse 17}Ἐμπεπυρισμένη πυρὶ καὶ ἀνεσκαμμένη· ἀπὸ ἐπιτιμήσεως τοῦ προσώπου σου ἀπολοῦνται.^{Verse 18}Γενηθήτω ἡ χείρ σου ἐπʼ ἄνδρα δεξιᾶς σου, καὶ ἐπὶ υἱὸν ἀνθρώπου, ὃν ἐκραταίωσας σεαυτῷ.^{Verse 19}Καὶ οὐ μὴ ἀποστῶμεν ἀπὸ σοῦ, ζωώσεις ἡμᾶς, καὶ τὸ ὄνομά σου ἐπικαλεσόμεθα.^{Verse 20}Κύριε ὁ Θεὸς τῶν δυνάμεων ἐπίστρεψον ἡμᾶς, καὶ ἐπίφανον τὸ πρόσωπόν σου, καὶ σωθησόμεθα.

Commentary

The Psalm begins with a plaintive description, and in fact one that makes complaint to God. Its opening sounds like Lam 1:10. The defiling does not exclude the reducing to ashes, it is rather spontaneously suggested in Psa 74:7 in company with wilful incendiarism. The complaint in Psa 79:1 reminds one of the prophecy of Micah, Mic 3:12, which in its time excited so much vexation (Jer 26:18); and Psa 79:2, Deu 28:26. עבדיך confers upon those who were massacred the honour of martyrdom. The lxx renders לעיים by εἰς ὀπωροφυλάκιον, a flourish taken from Isa 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. Deu 15:23) without setting any value upon it and without any scruple about it. Psa 44:14 is repeated in Psa 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 (Deu 32:22), grows up the prayer (Psa 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 Psa 79:6-7 from Jer 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. Jer 6:11; Jer 2:3, and frequently, Psa 49:20. The אל, instead of על, which follows שׁפך is incorrect; the singular אכל gathers all up as in one mass, as in Isa 5:26; Isa 17:13. The fact that such power over Israel is given to the heathen world has its ground in the sins of Israel. From Psa 79:8 it may be inferred that the apostasy which raged earlier is now checked. ראשׁנים is not an adjective (Job 31:28; Isa 59:2), which would have been expressed by עונותינו חראשׁנים, but a genitive: the iniquities of the forefathers (Lev 26:14, cf. Psa 39:1-13). On Psa 79:8 of Jdg 6:6. As is evident from Psa 79:9, the poet does not mean that the present generation, itself guiltless, has to expiate the guilt of the fathers (on the contrary, Deu 24:16; Kg2 14:6; Eze 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 Psa 79:9, according to the figure epanaphora. על־דּבר = למען, as in Psa 45:5, cf. Psa 7:1, is a usage even of the language of the Pentateuch. Also the motive, "wherefore shall they say?" occurs even in the Tפra (Exo 32:12, cf. Num 14:13-17; Deu 9:28). Here (cf. Psa 115:2) it originates out of Joe 2:17. The wish expressed in Psa 79:10 is based upon Deu 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 Deu 32:11 runs like Psa 102:21, cf. Psa 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 Exo 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 Psa 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 (Luk 6:38); חיק- (על) אל (שׁלּם) השׁיב, as in Isa 65:7, Isa 65:6; Jer 32:18. A sevenfold requital (cf. Gen 4:15, Gen 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.

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