1 O God, [the] heathen have come into Thine inheritance, They have profaned Thy holy Temple, They have made Jerusalem heaps of stones. 2 They have given the corpses of Thy servants [as] meat to the fowls of the heavens, The flesh of Thy favoured Ones to the beasts of the earth. 3 They have poured out their blood like water round Jerusalem, And there was none to bury [them]. 4 We have become a reproach to our neighbours, A scoff and a scorn to those round us.
5 How long, Jehovah, wilt Thou be angry for ever? [How long] shall Thy jealousy burn like fire? 6 Pour out Thy wrath upon the heathen who know Thee not, And upon [the] kingdoms which call not upon Thy name. 7 For they have eaten up Jacob, And his pasture have they laid waste. 8 Remember not against us the iniquities of those before us, Speedily let Thy compassions [come to] meet us, For we are brought very low.
9 Help us, O God, for the sake of the glory of Thy name, And deliver us, and cover over our sins for the sake of Thy name. 10 Why should the heathen say, Where is their God? Let there be known among the heathen before our eyes The revenging of the blood of Thy servants which is poured out. 11 Let there come before Thee the groaning of the captive, According to the greatness of Thine arm preserve the sons of death. 12 And return to our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom Their reproach [with] which they have reproached Thee, O Lord.
13 And we, we the people and the flock of Thy pasture, Will thank Thee for ever; To generation after generation will we recount Thy praise.
The same national agony which was the theme of Psalm lxxiv. forced the sad strains of this psalm from the singer's heart. There, the profanation of the Temple, and here, the destruction of the city, are the more prominent. There, the dishonour to God; here, the distresses of His people, are set forth. Consequently, confession of sin is more appropriate here, and prayers for pardon blend with those for deliverance. But the tone of both psalms is the same, and there are similarities of expression which favour, though they do not demand, the hypothesis that the author is the same. Such similarities are the "how long" (lxxiv. 10 and lxxix. 5); the desecration of the Temple (lxxiv. 3, 7, and lxxix. 1); the giving over to wild beasts (lxxiv. 19, and lxxix. 2); the reproach of God (lxxiv. 10, 18, 22, and lxxix. 12). The comparison of Israel to a flock is found in both psalms, but in others of the Asaph group also.
The same remarks which were made as to the date of the former psalm apply in this case. Two arguments have, however, been urged against the Maccabean date. The first is that drawn from the occurrence of vv. 6, 7, in Jer. x. 25. It is contended that Jeremiah is in the habit of borrowing from earlier writers, that the verse immediately preceding that in question is quoted from Psalm vi. 1, and that the connection of the passage in the psalm is closer than in the prophet, and, therefore, that the words are presumably _in situ_ here, as also that the verbal alterations are such as to suggest that the prophet rather than the psalmist is the adapter. But, on the other hand, Hupfeld maintains that the connection in Jeremiah is the closer. Not much weight can be attached to that point, for neither prophet nor poet can be tied down to cool concatenation of sentences. Delitzsch claims the verbal alterations as indubitable proofs of the priority of the prophet, and maintains that "the borrower betrays himself" by changing the prophet's words into less accurate and elegant ones, and by omissions which impair "the soaring fulness of Jeremiah's expressions." The critics who hold that the psalm refers to the Chaldean invasion, and that Jeremiah has borrowed from it, have to face a formidable difficulty. The psalm must have been written after the catastrophe: the prophecy preceded it. How then can the prophet be quoting the psalm? The question has not been satisfactorily answered, nor is it likely to be.