Psalms 79:2

2 They have given ¹the bodies of your servants to the birds of the heavens for food, the flesh of your ²faithful to ³the beasts of the earth.

Psalms 79:2 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 79:2

The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto
the fowls of the heaven
For such there were, both at the time of the Babylonish captivity, and in the times of Antiochus, who were good men, and served the Lord, and yet suffered in the common calamity. Nicanor, a general of Demetrius, in the time of the Maccabees, seems to have been guilty of such a fact as this, since, when he was slain, his tongue was given in pieces to the fowls, and the reward of his madness was hung up before the temple, as in the Apocrypha:

``And when he had cut out the tongue of that ungodly Nicanor, he commanded that they should give it by pieces unto the fowls, and hang up the reward of his madness before the temple.'' (2 Maccabees 15:33)

the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth;
this clause and the following verse are applied to a case in the times of the Maccabees, when sixty men of the Assideans were slain, religious, devout, and holy men, so called from the very word here translated "saints";

``Now the Assideans were the first among the children of Israel that sought peace of them:'' (1 Maccabees 7:13)

``The flesh of thy saints have they cast out, and their blood have they shed round about Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them.'' (1 Maccabees 7:17)

Psalms 79:2 In-Context

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

2 They have given the bodies of your servants to the birds of the heavens for food, the flesh of your faithful to the beasts of the earth.

3 They have poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them.

4 We have become a taunt to our neighbors, mocked and derided by those around us.

5 How long, O LORD? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire?

Cross References

• 1. Deuteronomy 28:26; Jeremiah 7:33; Jeremiah 16:4; Jeremiah 19:7; Jeremiah 34:20
• 2. See Psalms 50:5
• 3. Psalms 74:19