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.

Nehemiah 4:2

4:2 and in the presence of his colleagues ⁵  and the army of Samaria ⁶  he said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they be left to themselves? ⁷  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?”

Jeremiah 9:11

9:11 The Lord said, ⁸ 

“I will make Jerusalem ⁹  a heap of ruins.

Jackals will make their home there. ¹⁰ 

I will destroy the towns of Judah

so that no one will be able to live in them.”

Jeremiah 26:18

26:18 “Micah from Moresheth ¹¹  prophesied during the time Hezekiah was king of Judah. ¹²  He told all the people of Judah,

‘The Lord who rules over all ¹³  says,

“Zion ¹⁴  will become a plowed field.

Jerusalem ¹⁵  will become a pile of rubble.

The temple mount will become a mere wooded ridge.”’ ¹⁶ 

Micah 3:12

3:12 Therefore, because of you, ¹⁷  Zion will be plowed up like ¹⁸  a field,

Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins,

and the Temple Mount ¹⁹  will become a hill overgrown with brush! ²⁰ 

Luke 21:6

21:6 “As for these things that you are gazing at, the days will come when not one stone will be left on another. ²¹  All will be torn down!” ²² 

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 “brothers.”

⁶ map For location see Map2-B1; Map4-D3; Map5-E2; Map6-A4; Map7-C1.

⁷ 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?”

⁸ tn The words “the Lord said” are not in the text, but it is obvious from the content that he is the speaker. These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

⁹ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹⁰ tn Heb “a heap of ruins, a haunt for jackals.”

¹¹ sn Micah from Moresheth was a contemporary of Isaiah (compare Mic 1:1 with Isa 1:1) from the country town of Moresheth in the hill country southwest of Jerusalem. The prophecy referred to is found in Mic 3:12. This is the only time in the OT where an OT prophet is quoted verbatim and identified.

¹² sn Hezekiah was co-regent with his father Ahaz from 729-715 b.c. and sole ruler from 715-686 b.c. His father was a wicked king who was responsible for the incursions of the Assyrians (2 Kgs 16; 2 Chr 28). Hezekiah was a godly king, noted for his religious reforms and for his faith in the Lord in the face of the Assyrian threat (2 Kgs 18–19; 2 Chr 32:1-23). The deliverance of Jerusalem in response to his prayers of faith (2 Kgs 19:14-19, 29-36) was undoubtedly well-known to the people of Jerusalem and Judah and may have been one of the prime reasons for their misplaced trust in the inviolability of Zion/Jerusalem (see Ps 46, 76) though the people of Micah’s day already believed it too (Mic 3:11).

¹³ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

¹⁴ sn Zion was first of all the citadel that David captured (2 Sam 5:6-10), then the city of David and the enclosed temple area, then the whole city of Jerusalem. It is often in poetic parallelism with Jerusalem as it is here (see, e.g., Ps 76:2; Amos 1:2).

¹⁵ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹⁶ sn There is irony involved in this statement. The text reads literally “high places of a forest/thicket.” The “high places” were the illicit places of worship that Jerusalem was supposed to replace. Because of their sin, Jerusalem would be like one of the pagan places of worship with no place left sacrosanct. It would even be overgrown with trees and bushes. So much for its inviolability!

¹⁷ tn The plural pronoun refers to the leaders, priests, and prophets mentioned in the preceding verse.

¹⁸ tn Or “into” (an adverbial accusative of result).

¹⁹ tn Heb “the mountain of the house” (so KJV, ASV, NRSV).

²⁰ tn Heb “a high place of overgrowth.”

²¹ sn With the statement days will come when not one stone will be left on another Jesus predicted the total destruction of the temple, something that did occur in a.d. 70.

²² tn Grk “the days will come when not one stone will be left on another that will not be thrown down.”