Psalms 79:1

Psalm 79 ¹ 

A psalm of Asaph.

79:1 O God, foreigners ²  have invaded your chosen land; ³ 

they have polluted your holy temple

and turned Jerusalem ⁴  into a heap of ruins.

Psalms 79:7-10

79:7 For they have devoured Jacob

and destroyed his home.

79:8 Do not hold us accountable for the sins of earlier generations! ⁵ 

Quickly send your compassion our way, ⁶ 

for we are in serious trouble! ⁷ 

79:9 Help us, O God, our deliverer!

For the sake of your glorious reputation, ⁸  rescue us!

Forgive our sins for the sake of your reputation! ⁹ 

79:10 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”

Before our very eyes may the shed blood of your servants

be avenged among the nations! ¹⁰ 

Psalms 137:5-6

137:5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,

may my right hand be crippled! ¹¹ 

137:6 May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth,

if I do not remember you,

and do not give Jerusalem priority

over whatever gives me the most joy. ¹² 

Ezra 1:5

The Exiles Prepare to Return to Jerusalem

1:5 Then the leaders ¹³  of Judah and Benjamin, along with the priests and the Levites – all those whose mind God had stirred – got ready ¹⁴  to go up in order to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. ¹⁵ 

Ezra 3:1-3

The Altar is Rebuilt

3:1 When the seventh month arrived and the Israelites ¹⁶  were living ¹⁷  in their ¹⁸  towns, the people assembled ¹⁹  in ²⁰  Jerusalem. ²¹  3:2 Then Jeshua the son of Jozadak ²²  and his priestly colleagues ²³  and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his colleagues ²⁴  started to build ²⁵  the altar of the God of Israel so they could offer burnt offerings on it as required by ²⁶  the law of Moses the man of God. 3:3 They established the altar on its foundations, even though they were in terror of the local peoples, ²⁷  and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, both the morning and the evening offerings.

Ezra 7:27

7:27 ²⁸ Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers, who so moved in the heart of the king to so honor the temple of the Lord which is in Jerusalem!

Nehemiah 1:3

1:3 They said to me, “The remnant that remains from the exile there in the province are experiencing considerable ²⁹  adversity and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem lies breached, and its gates have been burned down!” ³⁰ 

Nehemiah 2:3

2:3 I replied to the king, “O king, live forever! Why would I not appear dejected when the city with the graves of my ancestors ³¹  lies desolate and its gates destroyed ³²  by fire?”

Nehemiah 2:17

2:17 Then I said to them, “You see the problem that we have: Jerusalem is desolate and its gates are burned. Come on! Let’s rebuild the wall of Jerusalem so that this reproach will not continue.”

Nehemiah 4:2

4:2 and in the presence of his colleagues ³³  and the army of Samaria ³⁴  he said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they be left to themselves? ³⁵  Will they again offer sacrifice? Will they finish this in a day? Can they bring these burnt stones to life again from piles of dust?”

Nehemiah 4:6

4:6 So we rebuilt the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height. ³⁶  The people were enthusiastic in their work. ³⁷ 

Nehemiah 4:10

4:10 Then those in Judah said, “The strength of the laborers ³⁸  has failed! The debris is so great that we are unable to rebuild the wall.”

Daniel 9:16

9:16 O Lord, according to all your justice, ³⁹  please turn your raging anger ⁴⁰  away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain. For due to our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors, Jerusalem and your people are mocked by all our neighbors.

[79:1]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Or “nations.”

[79:1]  ³ tn Heb “have come into your inheritance.”

[79:1]  ⁴ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[79:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “do not remember against us sins, former.” Some understand “former” as an attributive adjective modifying sins, “former [i.e., chronologically prior] sins” (see BDB 911 s.v. רִאשׁוֹן). The present translation assumes that ראשׁנים (“former”) here refers to those who lived formerly, that is, the people’s ancestors (see Lam 5:7). The word is used in this way in Lev 26:45; Deut 19:14 and Eccl 1:11.

[79:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “may your compassion quickly confront us.” The prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive, indicating a tone of prayer.

[79:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “for we are very low.”

[79:9]  ⁸ tn Heb “the glory of your name.” Here and in the following line “name” stands metonymically for God’s reputation.

[79:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “your name.”

[79:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “may it be known among the nations, to our eyes, the vengeance of the shed blood of your servants.”

[137:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “may my right hand forget.” In this case one must supply an object, such as “how to move.” The elliptical nature of the text has prompted emendations (see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 236). The translation assumes an emendation to תִּכְשַׁח (tikhshakh), from an otherwise unattested root כשׁח, meaning “to be crippled; to be lame.” See HALOT 502 s.v. כשׁח, which cites Arabic cognate evidence in support of the proposal. The corruption of the MT can be explained as an error of transposition facilitated by the use of שָׁכַח (shakhakh, “forget”) just before this.

[137:6]  ¹² tn Heb “if I do not lift up Jerusalem over the top of my joy.”

[1:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.”

[1:5]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “arose.”

[1:5]  ¹⁵ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[3:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the sons of Israel.”

[3:1]  ¹⁷ tn The word “living” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied. Some translations supply “settled” (cf. NAB, NIV, NLT).

[3:1]  ¹⁸ tc The translation reads with some medieval Hebrew MSS and ancient versions בְּעָרֵיהֶם (be’arehem, “in their towns”), rather than the reading בֶּעָרִים (be’arim, “in the towns”) found in the MT. Cf. Neh 7:72 HT [7:73 ET].

[3:1]  ¹⁹ tn The Hebrew text adds the phrase “like one man.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[3:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “to.”

[3:1]  ²¹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[3:2]  ²² sn Jozadak (also in 3:8) is a variant spelling of Jehozadak.

[3:2]  ²³ tn Heb “his brothers the priests.”

[3:2]  ²⁴ tn Heb “his brothers.”

[3:2]  ²⁵ tn Heb “arose and built.”

[3:2]  ²⁶ tn Heb “written in.” Cf. v. 4.

[3:3]  ²⁷ tn Heb “the peoples of the lands.”

[7:27]  ²⁸ sn At this point the language of the book reverts from Aramaic (7:12-26) back to Hebrew.

[1:3]  ²⁹ tn Heb “great.”

[1:3]  ³⁰ tn Heb “have been burned with fire” (so also in Neh 2:17). The expression “burned with fire” is redundant in contemporary English; the translation uses “burned down” for stylistic reasons.

[2:3]  ³¹ tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 5).

[2:3]  ³² tn Heb “devoured” or “eaten” (so also in Neh 2:13).

[4:2]  ³³ tn Heb “brothers.”

[4:2]  ³⁴ map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.

[4:2]  ³⁵ tc The Hebrew text is difficult here. The present translation follows the MT, but the text may be corrupt. H. G. M. Williamson (Ezra, Nehemiah [WBC], 213-14) translates these words as “Will they commit their cause to God?” suggesting that MT לָהֶם (lahem, “to them”) should be emended to לֵאלֹהִים (lelohim, “to God”), a proposal also found in the apparatus of BHS. In his view later scribes altered the phrase out of theological motivations. J. Blenkinsopp’s translation is similar: “Are they going to leave it all to God?” (Ezra–Nehemiah [OTL], 242-44). However, a problem for this view is the absence of external evidence to support the proposed emendation. The sense of the MT reading may be the notion that the workers – if left to their own limited resources – could not possibly see such a demanding and expensive project through to completion. This interpretation understands the collocation עָזַב (’azav, “to leave”) plus לְ (lÿ, “to”) to mean “commit a matter to someone,” with the sense in this verse “Will they leave the building of the fortified walls to themselves?”

[4:6]  ³⁶ tn Heb “up to its half.”

[4:6]  ³⁷ tn Heb “the people had a heart to work.”

[4:10]  ³⁸ tn Heb “burden-bearers.”

[9:16]  ³⁹ tn Or “righteousness.”

[9:16]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “your anger and your rage.” The synonyms are joined here to emphasize the degree of God’s anger. This is best expressed in English by making one of the terms adjectival (cf. NLT “your furious anger”; CEV “terribly angry”).