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.

Jeremiah 52:13

52:13 He burned down the Lord’s temple, the royal palace, and all the houses in Jerusalem, including every large house.

Lamentations 1:10

י (Yod)

1:10 An enemy grabbed ⁵ 

all her valuables. ⁶ 

Indeed she watched in horror ⁷  as Gentiles ⁸ 

invaded her holy temple ⁹  –

those whom you ¹⁰  had commanded:

“They must not enter ¹¹  your assembly place.” ¹² 

Daniel 8:11-14

8:11 It also acted arrogantly against the Prince of the army, ¹³  from whom ¹⁴  the daily sacrifice was removed and whose sanctuary ¹⁵  was thrown down. 8:12 The army was given over, ¹⁶  along with the daily sacrifice, in the course of his sinful rebellion. ¹⁷  It hurled ¹⁸  truth ¹⁹  to the ground and enjoyed success. ²⁰ 

8:13 Then I heard a holy one ²¹  speaking. Another holy one said to the one who was speaking, “To what period of time does the vision pertain – this vision concerning the daily sacrifice and the destructive act of rebellion and the giving over of both the sanctuary and army to be trampled?” 8:14 He said to me, “To 2,300 evenings and mornings; ²²  then the sanctuary will be put right again.” ²³ 

Daniel 9:27

9:27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one week. ²⁴ 

But in the middle of that week

he will bring sacrifices and offerings to a halt.

On the wing ²⁵  of abominations will come ²⁶  one who destroys,

until the decreed end is poured out on the one who destroys.”

Daniel 11:31

11:31 His forces ²⁷  will rise up and profane the fortified sanctuary, ²⁸  stopping the daily sacrifice. In its place they will set up ²⁹  the abomination that causes desolation.

Mark 11:17

11:17 Then he began to teach ³⁰  them and said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? ³¹  But you have turned it into a den ³²  of robbers!” ³³ 

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.

² tn Or “nations.”

³ tn Heb “have come into your inheritance.”

⁴ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁵ tn Heb “stretched out his hand.” The war imagery is of seizure of property; the anthropomorphic element pictures rape. This is an idiom that describes greedy actions (BDB 831 s.v. פָרַשׂ), meaning “to seize” (HALOT 976 s.v. 2).

⁶ tc The Kethib is written מַחֲמוֹדֵּיהֶם (makhamodehem, “her desired things”); the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss read מַחֲמַדֵּיהֶם (makhamaddehem, “her desirable things”). The Qere reading should be adopted.

⁷ tn Heb “she watched” or “she saw.” The verb רָאָה (ra’ah, “to see”) has a broad range of meanings, including “to see” a spectacle causing grief (Gen 21:16; 44:34; Num 11:15; 2 Kgs 22:20; 2 Chr 34:28; Esth 8:6) or abhorrence (Isa 66:24). The words “in horror” are added to “she watched” to bring out this nuance.

⁸ sn The syntax of the sentence is interrupted by the insertion of the following sentence, “they invaded…,” then continued with “whom…” The disruption of the syntax is a structural device intended to help convey the shock of the situation.

⁹ tn Heb “her sanctuary.” The term מִקְדָּשָׁהּ (miqdashah, “her sanctuary”) refers to the temple. Anthropomorphically, translating as “her sacred place” would also allow for the rape imagery.

¹⁰ sn Lam 1-2 has two speaking voices: a third person voice reporting the horrific reality of Jerusalem’s suffering and Jerusalem’s voice. See W. F. Lanahan, “The Speaking Voice in the Book of Lamentations” JBL 93 (1974): 41-49. The reporting voice has been addressing the listener, referring to the Lord in the third person. Here he switches to a second person address to God, also changing the wording of the following command to second person. The revulsion of the Reporter is so great that he is moved to address God directly.

¹¹ tn Heb “enter.” The Hebrew term בּוֹא (bo’) is also a sexual metaphor.

¹² tn The noun קָהָל (qahal, “assembly”) does not refer here to the collective group of people assembled to worship the Lord, but to the place of their assembly: the temple. This is an example of a synecdoche of the people contained (= assembly) for the container (= temple). The intent is to make the violation feel more personal than someone walking into a building.

¹³ sn The prince of the army may refer to God (cf. “whose sanctuary” later in the verse) or to the angel Michael (cf. 12:1).

¹⁴ tn Or perhaps “and by him,” referring to Antiochus rather than to God.

¹⁵ sn Here the sanctuary is a reference to the temple of God in Jerusalem.

¹⁶ tc The present translation reads וּצְבָאָהּ נִתַּן (utsÿva’ah nittan) for the MT וְצָבָא תִּנָּתֵן (vÿtsava’ tinnaten). The context suggests a perfect rather than an imperfect verb.

¹⁷ tn Heb “in (the course of) rebellion.” The meaning of the phrase is difficult to determine. It could mean “due to rebellion,” referring to the failures of the Jews, but this is not likely since it is not a point made elsewhere in the book. The phrase more probably refers to the rebellion against God and the atrocities against the Jews epitomized by Antiochus.

¹⁸ tc Two medieval Hebrew MSS and the LXX have a passive verb here: “truth was hurled to the ground” (cf. NIV, NCV, TEV).

¹⁹ sn Truth here probably refers to the Torah. According to 1 Macc 1:56, Antiochus initiated destruction of the sacred books of the Jews.

²⁰ tn Heb “it acted and prospered.”

²¹ sn The holy one referred to here is presumably an angel. Cf. 4:13[10], 23 [20].

²² sn The language of evenings and mornings is reminiscent of the creation account in Genesis 1. Since “evening and morning” is the equivalent of a day, the reference here would be to 2,300 days. However, some interpreters understand the reference to be to the evening sacrifice and the morning sacrifice, in which case the reference would be to only 1,150 days. Either way, the event that marked the commencement of this period is unclear. The event that marked the conclusion of the period is the rededication of the temple in Jerusalem following the atrocious and sacrilegious acts that Antiochus implemented. This took place on December 25, 165 B.C. The Jewish celebration of Hanukkah each year commemorates this victory.

²³ tn Heb “will be vindicated” or “will be justified.” This is the only occurrence of this verb in the Niphal in the OT. English versions interpret it as “cleansed” (KJV, ASV), “restored” (NASB, TEV, NLT), or “reconsecrated” (NIV).

²⁴ tn Heb “one seven” (also later in this line).

²⁵ tn The referent of the Hebrew word כְּנַף (kÿnaf, “wing”) is unclear here. The LXX and Theodotion have “the temple.” Some English versions (e.g., NAB, NIV) take this to mean “a wing of the temple,” but this is not clear.

²⁶ tn The Hebrew text does not have this verb, but it has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

²⁷ tn Heb “arms.”

²⁸ tn Heb “the sanctuary, the fortress.”

²⁹ tn Heb “will give.”

³⁰ tn The imperfect ἐδίδασκεν (edidasken) is here taken ingressively.

³¹ sn A quotation from Isa 56:7.

³² tn Or “a hideout” (see L&N 1.57).

³³ sn A quotation from Jer 7:11. The meaning of Jesus’ statement about making the temple courts a den of robbers probably operates here at two levels. Not only were the religious leaders robbing the people financially, but because of this they had also robbed them spiritually by stealing from them the opportunity to come to know God genuinely. It is possible that these merchants had recently been moved to this location for convenience.