Psalm 79:2

2 Sie haben die Leichname deiner Knechte den Vögeln zu fressen gegeben und das Fleisch deiner Heiligen den Tieren im Lande. {~}

Psalm 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)

Psalm 79:2 In-Context

1 Ein Psalm Asaphs. Gott, es sind Heiden in dein Erbe gefallen; die haben deinen heiligen Tempel verunreinigt und aus Jerusalem Steinhaufen gemacht.

2 Sie haben die Leichname deiner Knechte den Vögeln zu fressen gegeben und das Fleisch deiner Heiligen den Tieren im Lande. {~}

3 Sie haben Blut vergossen um Jerusalem her wie Wasser; und war niemand, der begrub.

4 Wir sind unsern Nachbarn eine Schmach geworden, ein Spott und Hohn denen, die um uns sind.

5 HERR, wie lange willst du so gar zürnen und deinen Eifer wie Feuer brennen lassen?