Psalms 79:3

79:1-5 God is complained to: whither should children go but to a Father able and willing to help them? See what a change sin made in the holy city, when the heathen were suffered to pour in upon them. God's own people defiled it by their sins, therefore he suffered their enemies to defile it by their insolence. They desired that God would be reconciled. Those who desire God's favour as better than life, cannot but dread his wrath as worse than death. In every affliction we should first beseech the Lord to cleanse away the guilt of our sins; then he will visit us with his tender mercies.

Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem,.... Without any concern of mind, or remorse of conscience; without any fear of God or man; as if it had been so much water only; and this they shed in great abundance: from the Apocrypha: "And when he had taken all away, he went into his own land, having made a great massacre, and spoken very proudly.'' (1 Maccabees 1:24) "And spake peaceable words unto them, but all was deceit: for when they had given him credence, he fell suddenly upon the city, and smote it very sore, and destroyed much people of Israel.'' (1 Maccabees 1:30) "Thus they shed innocent blood on every side of the sanctuary, and defiled it:'' (1 Maccabees 1:37) "So they rose up against them in battle on the sabbath, and they slew them, with their wives and children and their cattle, to the number of a thousand people.'' (1 Maccabees 2:38) in like manner the blood of the saints has been shed by the antichristian beast of Rome, for which he and his followers will be righteously retaliated, Revelation 17:6. and there was none to bury them: either the number of the slain was so great, that there were not left enough to bury the dead, or they that did remain were not suffered to do it; this will be the case of the two witnesses, when slain, Revelation 11:7.

(3) Their blood. —In 1 Maccabees 7:17 , we read “The flesh of thy saints and their blood have they shed round about Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them,” introduced by “according to the word which he wrote.” This is evidently a free quotation from this psalm, and seems to imply a reference to a contemporary. None to bury.—For this aggravation of the evil comp. Jeremiah 14:16; Jeremiah 22:18-19.

Verse 3. - Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem. During the long siege (eighteen months) the number slain in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem would be very large. And there was none to bury them (compare the prophecy of Jeremiah, Jeremiah 14:16 ). The population being for the most part carried into captivity, and but few left in the land ( Jeremiah 52:15, 16 ), the bodies of the slain lay unburied, the few left not being able to bury them. Compare the preceding verse. Psalm 79:3

3 . like water ] Freely, and as though it were of little worth. Contrast Psalm 116:15 . none to bury them] Cp. Jeremiah 14:16 . This passage is quoted freely in 1Ma 7:17 with reference to the murder of certain Assideans by the high priest Alcimus, “He took of them threescore men and slew them in one day, according to the words which one wrote, The flesh of thy saints and their blood did they shed round about Jerusalem, and they had none to bury them.” Clearly the meaning cannot be that the Psalm was written with reference to that event, for by that time (b.c. 162) the situation of affairs was wholly different from that described in the Psalm. Judas had won many victories, and the Temple had been re-dedicated. Moreover the Psalm implies a much more extensive slaughter of Israelites, and that by heathen, not by a treacherous Israelite. There is probably another reminiscence of Psalm 79:3 in 1Ma 1:37 , “They shed innocent blood on every side of the sanctuary, and defiled it.”

Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem - They have poured it out in such quantities that it seems to flow like water - not an uncommon occurrence in war. There was no event in the history of the Hebrews to which this description would be more applicable than to the Babylonian invasion. The language might indeed be applicable to the desolation of the city by Antiochus Epiphanes, and also to its destruction by the Romans; but, of course, it cannot refer to the latter, and there is no necessity for supposing that it refers to the former. All the conditions of a proper interpretation are fulfilled by supposing that it refers to the time of the Chaldean invasion. And there was none to bury them - The Chaldeans would not do it, and they would not suffer the Hebrew people to do it.

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 Psalm 74:7 in company with wilful incendiarism. The complaint in Psalm 79:1 reminds one of the prophecy of Micah, Micah 3:12 , which in its time excited so much vexation ( Jeremiah 26:18 ); and Psalm 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 Psalm 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. Psalm 44:14 is repeated in Psalm 79:4 . At the time of the Chaldaean catastrophe this applied more particularly to the Edomites.

ned, or threw down. Psalms 79:2 Of thy servants ; either, 1. Of thy faithful and holy servants, whom they used as cruelly as the worst of the people. Or, 2. Of the Jews, whom, though the generality of them were very wicked, he calleth God’s servants and saints, because they were all such by profession, and some of them were really such; and the Chaldeans did never know nor regard those that were so, but promiscuously destroyed all that came in their way. Given to be meat unto the fowls of heaven , by casting them out like dung upon the face of the earth, and not suffering any to bury them. ## Psalms 79:3 Like water; plentifully and contemptuously, valuing it no more than common water. ## None to bury them, because their friends, who should have done it, were either slain or fled, or were not permitted, or durst not undertake, to perform that office to them. ## Psalms 79:4 We, who were their terror and scourge, are now neither feared nor pitied, but become the matter of their scoffs and reproaches. See Psa_80:6 137:7 Eze_35:2 ,12 , &c. Psalms 79:5 No text from Poole on this verse. Psalms 79:6 Though we confess that we have deserved thy wrath, yet the heathen, by whom thou hast scourged us, deserve it much more, as being guilty of far greater impieties than we, living in gross ignorance and contempt of God and of his worship; and therefore we pray transfer thy wrath from us to them.

And he fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and led them by the skilfulness of his hands. Chapter 79 {A Psalm of Asaph.} O God, the nations are come into thine inheritance: thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem in heaps. The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowl of the heavens, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth: Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem, and there was none to bury [them]. We are become a reproach to our neighbours, a mockery and a derision to them that are round about us. How long, O Jehovah? wilt thou be angry for ever? Shall thy jealousy burn like fire? Pour out thy fury upon the nations that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that call not upon thy name: For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his habitation. Remember not against us the iniquities of [our] forefathers; let thy tender mercies speedily come to meet us: for we are brought very low. Help us, O God of our salvation, because of the glory of thy name; and deliver us, and forgive our sins, for thy name`s sake. Wherefore should the nations say, Where is their God? Let the avenging of the blood of thy servants that is shed be known among the nations in our sight. Let the groaning of the prisoner come before thee; according to the greatness of thine arm, preserve those that are appointed to die;