Psalms 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 

[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.”