Psalm 79:7

For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling place.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) Dwelling place.—Literally, pasture, as in Jeremiah 23:3; Jeremiah 49:20; Jeremiah 1:19. The figure is a favourite one in the Asaphic group of psalms.

Former iniquities.—Better, iniquities of former ones, i.e., of ancestors. (Comp. Leviticus 26:45, “covenant of their ancestors,” and for the thought Exodus 20:5; Leviticus 26:39.)

Prevent.—Better, come to meet. Daniel 9:16 seems to combine the language of this verse and Psalm 79:4.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

79:6-13 Those who persist in ignorance of God, and neglect of prayer, are the ungodly. How unrighteous soever men were, the Lord was righteous in permitting them to do what they did. Deliverances from trouble are mercies indeed, when grounded upon the pardon of sin; we should therefore be more earnest in prayer for the removal of our sins than for the removal of afflictions. They had no hopes but from God's mercies, his tender mercies. They plead no merit, they pretend to none, but, Help us for the glory of thy name; pardon us for thy name's sake. The Christian forgets not that he is often bound in the chain of his sins. The world to him is a prison; sentence of death is passed upon him, and he knows not how soon it may be executed. How fervently should he at all times pray, O let the sighing of a prisoner come before thee, according to the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to die! How glorious will the day be, when, triumphant over sin and sorrow, the church beholds the adversary disarmed for ever! while that church shall, from age to age, sing the praises of her great Shepherd and Bishop, her King and her God.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For they have devoured Jacob - literally, "They have eaten." That is, they have eaten up what the land produced.

And laid waste his dwelling-place - His home; his habitation; the residence of Jacob, or of the people of Israel.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6, 7. (Compare Jer 10:25). Though we deserve much, do not the heathen deserve more for their violence to us (Jer 51:3-5; Zec 1:14)? The singular denotes the chief power, and the use of the plural indicates the combined confederates.

called upon—or, "by"

thy name—proclaimed Thy attributes and professed allegiance (Isa 12:4; Ac 2:21).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Jacob; the posterity of Jacob, whom thou didst love, and with whom and his seed thou madest a sure and everlasting covenant; whereby thou didst engage thyself to be an enemy to their enemies, Exodus 23:22. Besides, thou hatest cruelty, especially when the wicked devour those who are more righteous than themselves, Habakkuk 1:13.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For they have devoured Jacob,.... The posterity of Jacob, the people of the Jews, typical of the church of God, made havoc of by the Romish antichrist: and laid waste his dwelling place; both Jerusalem and the temple, which was done both by the Chaldeans and the Romans, and also in the times of Antiochus; see the Apocrypha:

"38 Insomuch that the inhabitants of Jerusalem fled because of them: whereupon the city was made an habitation of strangers, and became strange to those that were born in her; and her own children left her. 39 Her sanctuary was laid waste like a wilderness, her feasts were turned into mourning, her sabbaths into reproach her honour into contempt.'' (1 Maccabees 1)

"4 In his acts he was like a lion, and like a lion's whelp roaring for his prey. 5 For He pursued the wicked, and sought them out, and burnt up those that vexed his people.'' (1 Maccabees 3)

which were types of the Gospel church made desolate by the Papists: the word (d) used signifies a sheepcote, the dwelling place of those sheep that are troubled by the beast of Rome.

(d) "caulam ejus", Michaelis.

Geneva Study Bible

For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling place.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. his dwelling place] R.V. his habitation, marg. pasture: a different word however from pasture in Psalm 79:13.

Psalm 79:6-7 recur in Jeremiah 10:25. At first sight it would appear that the prophecy must be earlier than the Fall of Jerusalem, and that the Psalmist must be quoting from the prophet. But ch. 10 in its present form can hardly be from the pen of Jeremiah himself: Jeremiah 10:1-10 at any rate can hardly be his: and Jeremiah 10:23-25 appear to be a composite passage. The insertion of ‘yea, they have devoured him and consumed him’ after ‘Jacob,’ looks like the transformation of poetry into prose, and it is possible that the Psalm is the original.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling place. This and the preceding verso occur also, almost word for word, in Jeremiah 10:25. It is difficult to say which writer has quoted from the other. Psalm 79:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Out of the plaintive question how long? and whether endlessly God would be angry and cause His jealousy to continue to burn like a fire (Deuteronomy 32:22), grows up the prayer (Psalm 79:6) that He would turn His anger against the heathen who are estranged from the hostile towards Him, and of whom He is now making use as a rod of anger against His people. The taking over of Psalm 79:6-7 from Jeremiah 10:25 is not betrayed by the looseness of the connection of thought; but in themselves these four lines sound much more original in Jeremiah, and the style is exactly that of this prophet, cf. Jeremiah 6:11; Jeremiah 2:3, and frequently, Psalm 49:20. The אל, instead of על, which follows שׁפך is incorrect; the singular אכל gathers all up as in one mass, as in Isaiah 5:26; Isaiah 17:13. The fact that such power over Israel is given to the heathen world has its ground in the sins of Israel. From Psalm 79:8 it may be inferred that the apostasy which raged earlier is now checked. ראשׁנים is not an adjective (Job 31:28; Isaiah 59:2), which would have been expressed by עונותינו חראשׁנים, but a genitive: the iniquities of the forefathers (Leviticus 26:14, cf. Psalm 39:1-13). On Psalm 79:8 of Judges 6:6. As is evident from Psalm 79:9, the poet does not mean that the present generation, itself guiltless, has to expiate the guilt of the fathers (on the contrary, Deuteronomy 24:16; 2 Kings 14:6; Ezekiel 18:20); he prays as one of those who have turned away from the sins of the fathers, and who can now no longer consider themselves as placed under wrath, but under sin-pardoning and redeeming grace.