Psalms 74:3-8

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 

74:8 They say to themselves, ¹³ 

“We will oppress all of them.” ¹⁴ 

They burn down all the places where people worship God in the land. ¹⁵ 

Jeremiah 22:5

22:5 But, if you do not obey these commands, I solemnly swear ¹⁶  that this palace will become a pile of rubble. I, the Lord, affirm it!” ¹⁷ 

Jeremiah 26:6

26:6 If you do not obey me, ¹⁸  then I will do to this temple what I did to Shiloh. ¹⁹  And I will make this city an example to be used in curses by people from all the nations on the earth.’”

Jeremiah 26:9

26:9 How dare you claim the Lord’s authority to prophesy such things! How dare you claim his authority to prophesy that this temple will become like Shiloh and that this city will become an uninhabited ruin!” ²⁰  Then all the people crowded around Jeremiah.

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 ²¹ 

all her valuables. ²² 

Indeed she watched in horror ²³  as Gentiles ²⁴ 

invaded her holy temple ²⁵  –

those whom you ²⁶  had commanded:

“They must not enter ²⁷  your assembly place.” ²⁸ 

Ezekiel 9:6

9:6 Old men, young men, young women, little children, and women – wipe them out! But do not touch anyone who has the mark. Begin at my sanctuary!” So they began with the elders who were at the front of the temple.

Ezekiel 21:7

21:7 When they ask you, ‘Why are you groaning?’ you will reply, ‘Because of the report that has come. Every heart will melt with fear and every hand will be limp; everyone ²⁹  will faint and every knee will be wet with urine.’ ³⁰  Pay attention – it is coming and it will happen, declares the sovereign Lord.”

Ezekiel 24:21

24:21 Say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Realize I am about to desecrate my sanctuary – the source of your confident pride, ³¹  the object in which your eyes delight, ³²  and your life’s passion. ³³  Your very own sons and daughters whom you have left behind will die ³⁴  by the sword.

Matthew 24:1-2

The Destruction of the Temple

24:1 Now ³⁵  as Jesus was going out of the temple courts and walking away, his disciples came to show him the temple buildings. ³⁶  24:2 And he said to them, ³⁷  “Do you see all these things? I tell you the truth, ³⁸  not one stone will be left on another. ³⁹  All will be torn down!” ⁴⁰ 

Luke 21:5-6

The Signs of the End of the Age

21:5 Now ⁴¹  while some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned ⁴²  with beautiful stones and offerings, ⁴³  Jesus ⁴⁴  said, 21:6 “As for these things that you are gazing at, the days will come when not one stone will be left on another. ⁴⁵  All will be torn down!” ⁴⁶ 

Luke 21:24

21:24 They ⁴⁷  will fall by the edge ⁴⁸  of the sword and be led away as captives ⁴⁹  among all nations. Jerusalem ⁵⁰  will be trampled down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. ⁵¹ 

Acts 6:14

6:14 For we have heard him saying that Jesus the Nazarene will destroy this place and change the customs ⁵²  that Moses handed down to us.”

[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.”

[74:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “in their heart.”

[74:8]  ¹⁴ tc Heb “[?] altogether.” The Hebrew form נִינָם (ninam) is problematic. It could be understood as the noun נִין (nin, “offspring”) but the statement “their offspring altogether” would make no sense here. C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs (Psalms [ICC], 2:159) emends יָחַד (yakhad, “altogether”) to יָחִיד (yakhid, “alone”) and translate “let their offspring be solitary” (i.e., exiled). Another option is to understand the form as a Qal imperfect first common plural from יָנָה (yanah, “to oppress”) with a third masculine plural pronominal suffix, “we will oppress them.” However, this verb, when used in the finite form, always appears in the Hiphil. Therefore, it is preferable to emend the form to the Hiphil נוֹנֵם (nonem, “we will oppress them”).

[74:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “they burn down all the meeting places of God in the land.”

[22:5]  ¹⁶ sn Heb “I swear by myself.” Oaths were guaranteed by invoking the name of a god or swearing by “his life.” See Jer 12:16; 44:26. Since the Lord is incomparably great, he could swear by no higher (see Heb 6:13-16) than to swear by himself or his own great name.

[22:5]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[26:6]  ¹⁸ tn 26:4-6 are all one long sentence containing a long condition with subordinate clauses (vv. 4-5) and a compound consequence in v. 6: Heb “If you will not obey me by walking in my law…by paying attention to the words of the prophets which…and you did not pay heed, then I will make…and I will make…” The sentence has been broken down in conformity to contemporary English style but an attempt has been made to reflect all the subordinations in the English translation.

[26:6]  ¹⁹ sn See the study note on Jer 7:13.

[26:9]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Why have you prophesied in the Lord’s name, saying, ‘This house will become like Shiloh and this city will become a ruin without inhabitant?’” It is clear from the context here and in 7:1-15 that the emphasis is on “in the Lord’s name” and that the question is rhetorical. The question is not a quest for information but an accusation, a remonstrance. (For this figure see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 953-54, who calls a question like this a rhetorical question of remonstrance or expostulation. For good examples see Pss 11:1; 50:16.) For the significance of “prophesying in the Lord’s name” see the study note on 14:14. The translation again utilizes the indirect quote to eliminate one level of embedded quotation.

[1:10]  ²¹ 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).

[1:10]  ²² 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.

[1:10]  ²³ 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.

[1:10]  ²⁴ 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.

[1:10]  ²⁵ 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.

[1:10]  ²⁶ 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.

[1:10]  ²⁷ tn Heb “enter.” The Hebrew term בּוֹא (bo’) is also a sexual metaphor.

[1:10]  ²⁸ 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.

[21:7]  ²⁹ tn Heb “every spirit will be dim.”

[21:7]  ³⁰ sn This expression depicts in a very vivid way how they will be overcome with fear. See the note on the same phrase in 7:17.

[24:21]  ³¹ tn Heb “the pride of your strength” means “your strong pride.”

[24:21]  ³² sn Heb “the delight of your eyes.” Just as Ezekiel was deprived of his beloved wife (v. 16, the “desire” of his “eyes”) so the Lord would be forced to remove the object of his devotion, the temple, which symbolized his close relationship to his covenant people.

[24:21]  ³³ tn Heb “the object of compassion of your soul.” The accentuation in the traditional Hebrew text indicates that the descriptive phrases (“the source of your confident pride, the object in which your eyes delight, and your life’s passion”) modify the preceding “my sanctuary.”

[24:21]  ³⁴ tn Heb “fall.”

[24:1]  ³⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.

[24:1]  ³⁶ sn The Jerusalem temple was widely admired around the world. See Josephus, Ant. 15.11 [15.380-425]; J. W. 5.5 [5.184-227] and Tacitus, History 5.8, who called it “immensely opulent.” Josephus compared it to a beautiful snowcapped mountain.

[24:2]  ³⁷ tn Grk “answering, he said to them.” The participle ἀποκριθείς (ajpokriqei") is redundant in English and has not been translated.

[24:2]  ³⁸ tn Grk “Truly (ἀμήν, amhn), I say to you.”

[24:2]  ³⁹ sn With the statement not one stone will be left on another Jesus predicted the total destruction of the temple, something that did occur in a.d. 70.

[24:2]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “not one stone will be left here on another which will not be thrown down.”

[21:5]  ⁴¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.

[21:5]  ⁴² sn The Jerusalem temple was widely admired around the world. See Josephus, Ant. 15.11 (15.380-425); J. W. 5.5 (5.184-227) and Tacitus, History 5.8, who called it “immensely opulent.” Josephus compared it to a beautiful snowcapped mountain.

[21:5]  ⁴³ tn For the translation of ἀνάθημα (anaqhma) as “offering” see L&N 53.18.

[21:5]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[21:6]  ⁴⁵ 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.

[21:6]  ⁴⁶ tn Grk “the days will come when not one stone will be left on another that will not be thrown down.”

[21:24]  ⁴⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[21:24]  ⁴⁸ tn Grk “by the mouth of the sword” (an idiom for the edge of a sword).

[21:24]  ⁴⁹ sn Here is the predicted judgment against the nation until the time of Gentile rule has passed: Its people will be led away as captives.

[21:24]  ⁵⁰ tn Grk “And Jerusalem.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[21:24]  ⁵¹ sn Until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled implies a time when Israel again has a central role in God’s plan.

[6:14]  ⁵² tn Or “practices.”