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Psalm 74:3-7
New English Translation
Psalm 74:3-7
New English Translation
3 Hurry[a] to the permanent ruins,
and to all the damage the enemy has done to the temple.[b]
4 Your enemies roar[c] in the middle of your sanctuary;[d]
they set up their battle flags.[e]
5 They invade like lumberjacks
swinging their axes in a thick forest.[f]
6 And now[g] they are tearing down[h] all its engravings[i]
with axes[j] and crowbars.[k]
7 They set your sanctuary on fire;
they desecrate your dwelling place by knocking it to the ground.[l]
Footnotes
- Psalm 74:3 tn Heb “lift up your steps to,” which may mean “run, hurry.”
- Psalm 74:3 tn Heb “everything [the] enemy has damaged in the holy place.”
- Psalm 74:4 tn This verb is often used of a lion’s roar, so the psalmist may be comparing the enemy to a raging, devouring lion.
- Psalm 74:4 tn Heb “your meeting place.”
- Psalm 74:4 tn Heb “they set up their banners [as] banners.” The Hebrew noun אוֹת (ʾot, “sign”) here refers to the enemy army’s battle flags and banners (see Num 2:12).
- Psalm 74:5 tn Heb “it is known like one bringing upwards, in a thicket of wood, axes.” The Babylonian invaders destroyed the woodwork in the temple.
- Psalm 74:6 tn This is the reading of the Qere (marginal reading). The Kethib (consonantal text) has “and a time.”
- Psalm 74:6 tn The imperfect verbal form vividly describes the act as underway.
- Psalm 74:6 tn Heb “its engravings together.”
- Psalm 74:6 tn This Hebrew noun occurs only here in the OT (see H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena [SBLDS], 49-50).
- Psalm 74:6 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”).
- Psalm 74:7 tn Heb “to the ground they desecrate the dwelling place of your name.”
Psalm 74:3-7
New International Version
Psalm 74:3-7
New International Version
3 Turn your steps toward these everlasting ruins,(A)
all this destruction the enemy has brought on the sanctuary.
4 Your foes roared(B) in the place where you met with us;
they set up their standards(C) as signs.
5 They behaved like men wielding axes
to cut through a thicket of trees.(D)
6 They smashed all the carved(E) paneling
with their axes and hatchets.
7 They burned your sanctuary to the ground;
they defiled(F) the dwelling place(G) of your Name.(H)
New English Translation (NET)
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