Psalm 79:1
New International Version
A psalm of Asaph. O God, the nations have invaded your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple, they have reduced Jerusalem to rubble.

New Living Translation
O God, pagan nations have conquered your land, your special possession. They have defiled your holy Temple and made Jerusalem a heap of ruins.

English Standard Version
O God, the nations have come into your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple; they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.

Berean Standard Bible
A Psalm of Asaph. The nations, O God, have invaded Your inheritance; they have defiled Your holy temple and reduced Jerusalem to rubble.

King James Bible
A Psalm of Asaph. O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.

New King James Version
A Psalm of Asaph. O God, the nations have come into Your inheritance; Your holy temple they have defiled; They have laid Jerusalem in heaps.

New American Standard Bible
A Psalm of Asaph. God, the nations have invaded Your inheritance; They have defiled Your holy temple; They have laid Jerusalem in ruins.

NASB 1995
A Psalm of Asaph. O God, the nations have invaded Your inheritance; They have defiled Your holy temple; They have laid Jerusalem in ruins.

NASB 1977
O God, the nations have invaded Thine inheritance; They have defiled Thy holy temple; They have laid Jerusalem in ruins.

Legacy Standard Bible
A Psalm of Asaph. O God, the nations have come into Your inheritance; They have defiled Your holy temple; They have laid Jerusalem in ruins.

Amplified Bible
A Psalm of Asaph. O God, the nations have invaded [the land of Your people] Your inheritance; They have defiled Your sacred temple; They have laid Jerusalem in ruins.

Christian Standard Bible
A psalm of Asaph. † God, the nations have invaded your inheritance, desecrated your holy temple, and turned Jerusalem into ruins.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
A psalm of Asaph. God, the nations have invaded Your inheritance, desecrated Your holy temple, and turned Jerusalem into ruins.

American Standard Version
A Psalm of Asaph. O God, the nations are come into thine inheritance; Thy holy temple have they defiled; They have laid Jerusalem in heaps.

Contemporary English Version
Our God, foreign nations have taken your land, disgraced your temple, and left Jerusalem in ruins.

English Revised Version
A Psalm of Asaph. O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
[A psalm by Asaph.] O God, the nations have invaded the land that belongs to you. They have dishonored your holy temple. They have left Jerusalem in ruins.

Good News Translation
O God, the heathen have invaded your land. They have desecrated your holy Temple and left Jerusalem in ruins.

International Standard Version
God, nations have invaded your land to desecrate your holy Temple, to destroy Jerusalem,

Majority Standard Bible
A Psalm of Asaph. The nations, O God, have invaded Your inheritance; they have defiled Your holy temple and reduced Jerusalem to rubble.

NET Bible
A psalm of Asaph. O God, foreigners have invaded your chosen land; they have polluted your holy temple and turned Jerusalem into a heap of ruins.

New Heart English Bible
[A Psalm by Asaph.] God, the nations have come into your inheritance. They have defiled your holy temple. They have laid Jerusalem in heaps.

Webster's Bible Translation
A Psalm of Asaph. O God, the heathen have come into thy inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.

World English Bible
A Psalm by Asaph. God, the nations have come into your inheritance. They have defiled your holy temple. They have laid Jerusalem in heaps.
Literal Translations
Literal Standard Version
A PSALM OF ASAPH. O God, nations have come into Your inheritance, "" They have defiled Your holy temple, "" They made Jerusalem become heaps,

Young's Literal Translation
A Psalm of Asaph. O God, nations have come into Thy inheritance, They have defiled Thy holy temple, They made Jerusalem become heaps,

Smith's Literal Translation
Chanting to Asaph. O God, the nations came into thine inheritance; they defiled thy holy temple; they set Jerusalem for ruins.
Catholic Translations
Douay-Rheims Bible
A psalm for Asaph. O God, the heathens are come into thy inheritance, they have defiled thy holy temple: they have made Jerusalem as a place to keep fruit.

Catholic Public Domain Version
A Psalm of Asaph. O God, the Gentiles have entered into your inheritance; they have polluted your holy temple. They have set Jerusalem as a place to tend fruit trees.

New American Bible
A psalm of Asaph. O God, the nations have invaded your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple; they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.

New Revised Standard Version
O God, the nations have come into your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple; they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
Translations from Aramaic
Lamsa Bible
GOD, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem in heaps.

Peshitta Holy Bible Translated
God, the Gentiles have entered your inheritance and they have defiled your holy temple; they have made Jerusalem desolate.
OT Translations
JPS Tanakh 1917
A Psalm of Asaph. O God, the heathen are come into Thine inheritance; They have defiled Thy holy temple; They have made Jerusalem into heaps.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
A Psalm for Asaph. O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; they have polluted thy holy temple; they have made Jerusalem a storehouse of fruits.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
A Prayer for Deliverance
1A Psalm of Asaph. The nations, O God, have invaded Your inheritance; they have defiled Your holy temple and reduced Jerusalem to rubble. 2They have given the corpses of Your servants as food to the birds of the air, the flesh of Your saints to the beasts of the earth.…

Cross References
2 Kings 25:8-10
On the seventh day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign over Babylon, Nebuzaradan captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem. / He burned down the house of the LORD, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem—every significant building. / And the whole army of the Chaldeans under the captain of the guard broke down the walls around Jerusalem.

Jeremiah 52:12-14
On the tenth day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign over Babylon, Nebuzaradan captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem. / He burned down the house of the LORD, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem—every significant building. / And the whole army of the Chaldeans under the captain of the guard broke down all the walls around Jerusalem.

Lamentations 1:10
The adversary has seized all her treasures. For she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary—those You had forbidden to enter Your assembly.

Lamentations 2:7
The Lord has rejected His altar; He has abandoned His sanctuary; He has delivered the walls of her palaces into the hand of the enemy. They have raised a shout in the house of the LORD as on the day of an appointed feast.

Ezekiel 7:21-22
And I will hand these things over as plunder to foreigners and loot to the wicked of the earth, who will defile them. / I will turn My face away from them, and they will defile My treasured place. Violent men will enter it, and they will defile it.

2 Chronicles 36:17-19
So He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who put their young men to the sword in the sanctuary, sparing neither young men nor young women, neither elderly nor infirm. God gave them all into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, / who carried off everything to Babylon—all the articles of the house of God, both large and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD and of the king and his officials. / Then the Chaldeans set fire to the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem. They burned down all the palaces and destroyed every article of value.

Nehemiah 1:3
And they told me, “The remnant who survived the exile are there in the province, in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.”

Isaiah 64:10-11
Your holy cities have become a wilderness. Zion has become a wasteland and Jerusalem a desolation. / Our holy and beautiful temple, where our fathers praised You, has been burned with fire, and all that was dear to us lies in ruins.

Daniel 9:16-17
O Lord, in keeping with all Your righteous acts, I pray that Your anger and wrath may turn away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; for because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all around us. / So now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of Your servant. For Your sake, O Lord, cause Your face to shine upon Your desolate sanctuary.

Micah 3:12
Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, and the temple mount a wooded ridge.

Matthew 24:2
“Do you see all these things?” He replied. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

Luke 21:20-24
But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, you will know that her desolation is near. / Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country stay out of the city. / For these are the days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written. ...

Mark 13:2
“Do you see all these great buildings?” Jesus replied. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

Acts 6:13-14
where they presented false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. / For we have heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us.”

Romans 11:3
“Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars. I am the only one left, and they are seeking my life as well”?


Treasury of Scripture

O God, the heathen are come into your inheritance; your holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.

A.

Psalm 74:1
Maschil of Asaph. O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?

the heathen

Psalm 74:3,4
Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations; even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary…

Psalm 80:12,13
Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her? …

2 Kings 21:12-16
Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle…

into

Psalm 74:2
Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.

Psalm 78:71
From following the ewes great with young he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.

Exodus 15:17
Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O LORD, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established.

holy

Psalm 74:7,8
They have cast fire into thy sanctuary, they have defiled by casting down the dwelling place of thy name to the ground…

2 Kings 24:13
And he carried out thence all the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king's house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the LORD, as the LORD had said.

Lamentations 1:10
The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things: for she hath seen that the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation.

have laid

2 Kings 25:9,10
And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man's house burnt he with fire…

2 Chronicles 36:19
And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof.

Jeremiah 26:18
Micah the Morasthite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spake to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.

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Asaph Asaph&Gt Broken Defiled Heaps Heathen Heritage Holy Inheritance Invaded Jerusalem Laid Mass Nations Psalm Reduced Rubble Ruins Temple Unclean Walls
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Psalm 79
1. The psalmist complains of the desolation of Jerusalem
8. He prays for deliverance
13. and promises thankfulness














O God
This invocation is a direct appeal to the divine, emphasizing a personal relationship with the Almighty. The Hebrew word for God here is "Elohim," which denotes majesty and power. It reflects the psalmist's recognition of God's sovereignty and his plea for divine intervention. In the context of ancient Israel, calling upon God was an acknowledgment of His ultimate authority and a request for His presence in times of distress.

the nations
The term "nations" refers to the Gentile peoples surrounding Israel. In Hebrew, "goyim" is used, often indicating those outside the covenant community. Historically, this reflects the frequent invasions and threats from neighboring powers such as Babylon, Assyria, and others. Theologically, it underscores the tension between God's chosen people and the surrounding pagan cultures, highlighting the spiritual and physical conflicts faced by Israel.

have invaded
This phrase captures the act of aggression and violation. The Hebrew root "bo" suggests entering or coming in, often with hostile intent. The historical context likely points to the Babylonian invasion, a traumatic event for the Israelites. This invasion is not just a military conquest but a spiritual crisis, as it challenges the security and sanctity of God's people and their land.

Your inheritance
"Inheritance" in Hebrew is "nachalah," which signifies a possession or heritage given by God. For Israel, the land was a divine gift, a tangible sign of God's promise to Abraham and his descendants. The invasion of this inheritance is not merely a loss of territory but a profound spiritual affront, as it represents a disruption of the covenant relationship between God and His people.

they have defiled
The act of defiling, from the Hebrew "tame," means to make unclean or impure. This is a significant violation, as it pertains to the holiness of what is sacred. The defilement of the temple is particularly grievous, as the temple was the dwelling place of God's presence on earth. This desecration symbolizes a deep spiritual crisis and a call for repentance and restoration.

Your holy temple
The temple in Jerusalem was the center of Jewish worship and the symbol of God's presence among His people. The Hebrew word "hekal" refers to this sacred space. Its holiness is derived from its dedication to God, and its defilement is a direct attack on the divine. The destruction of the temple is a catastrophic event, both physically and spiritually, for the Israelites.

and reduced Jerusalem to rubble
This phrase describes the complete devastation of the city, with "rubble" indicating total destruction. The Hebrew "iy" conveys a sense of desolation and ruin. Jerusalem, the city of David, was not only the political capital but also the spiritual heart of Israel. Its destruction signifies a profound loss and a period of mourning and lamentation for the people. Historically, this reflects the Babylonian conquest, but it also serves as a metaphor for spiritual desolation and the need for divine restoration.

(1) Inheritance.--Probably intended to embrace both land and people. (Exodus 15:17; Psalm 74:2, &c.)

Heaps--i.e., ruins. (Comp. Micah 3:12; Jeremiah 26:18; and in singular, Micah 1:6.) . . .

Verse 1. - O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance (comp. Psalm 74:2; Psalm 78:62). Israel - alike the people and the land - is "God's inheritance." Thy holy temple have they defiled. The Babylonians defiled the temple by breaking into it, seizing its treasures and ornaments (Jeremiah 52:17-23), and finally setting fire to it (Jeremiah 52:13). They have laid Jerusalem on heaps. This was certainly not done either by Shishak or by Antiochus Epiphanes; but was done, as prophesied (Jeremiah 9:11; Jeremiah 26:18; Micah 3:12), by the Babylonians.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
A Psalm
מִזְמ֗וֹר (miz·mō·wr)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 4210: Instrumental music, a poem set to notes

of Asaph.
לְאָ֫סָ֥ף (lə·’ā·sāp̄)
Preposition-l | Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 623: Asaph -- 'gatherer', the name of several Israelites

The nations,
גוֹיִ֨ם ׀ (ḡō·w·yim)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 1471: A foreign nation, a Gentile, a troop of animals, a flight of locusts

O God,
אֱ‍ֽלֹהִ֡ים (’ĕlō·hîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 430: gods -- the supreme God, magistrates, a superlative

have invaded
בָּ֤אוּ (bā·’ū)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person common plural
Strong's 935: To come in, come, go in, go

Your inheritance;
בְּֽנַחֲלָתֶ֗ךָ (bə·na·ḥă·lā·ṯe·ḵā)
Preposition-b | Noun - feminine singular construct | second person masculine singular
Strong's 5159: Something inherited, occupancy, an heirloom, an estate, patrimony, portion

they have defiled
טִ֭מְּאוּ (ṭim·mə·’ū)
Verb - Piel - Perfect - third person common plural
Strong's 2930: To be or become unclean

Your holy
קָדְשֶׁ֑ךָ (qāḏ·še·ḵā)
Noun - masculine singular construct | second person masculine singular
Strong's 6944: A sacred place, thing, sanctity

temple
הֵיכַ֣ל (hê·ḵal)
Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 1964: A large public building, palace, temple

[and] reduced
שָׂ֖מוּ (śā·mū)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person common plural
Strong's 7760: Put -- to put, place, set

Jerusalem
יְרוּשָׁלִַ֣ם (yə·rū·šā·lim)
Noun - proper - feminine singular
Strong's 3389: Jerusalem -- probably 'foundation of peace', capital city of all Israel

to rubble.
לְעִיִּֽים׃ (lə·‘î·yîm)
Preposition-l | Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 5856: A ruin, heap of ruins


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OT Poetry: Psalm 79:1 A Psalm by Asaph (Psalm Ps Psa.)
Psalm 78:72
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