Psalm 80:13

13 Swine from the forests devour it and creatures of [the] field feed on it.

Psalm 80:13 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 80:13

The boar out of the wood doth waste it
As Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, who carried the ten tribes captive; the title of this psalm in the Septuagint version is, a psalm for the Assyrian. Vitringa, on ( Isaiah 24:2 ) interprets this of Antiochus Epiphanes, to whose times he thinks the psalm refers; but the Jews ^F18 of the fourth beast in ( Daniel 7:7 ) , which designs the Roman empire: the wild boar is alluded to, which lives in woods and forests ^F19, and wastes, fields, and vineyards:

and the wild beast of the field doth devour it;
as Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who carried the two tribes captive, and who for a while lived among and lived as the beasts of the field; both these, in their turns, wasted and devoured the people of Israel; see ( Jeremiah 50:17 ) . Jarchi interprets this of Esau or Edom, that is, Rome; and says the whole of the paragraph respects the Roman captivity; that is, their present one; but rather the words describe the persecutors of the Christian church in general, comparable to wild boars and wild beasts for their fierceness and cruelty; and perhaps, in particular, Rome Pagan may be pointed at by the one, and Rome Papal by the other; though the latter is signified by two beasts, one that rose out of the sea, and the other out of the earth; which have made dreadful havoc of the church of Christ, his vine, and have shed the blood of the saints in great abundance; see ( Revelation 12:3 Revelation 12:4 ) ( Revelation 13:1 Revelation 13:2 Revelation 13:7 Revelation 13:11 Revelation 13:12 ) , unless we should rather by the one understand the pope, and by the other the Turk, as the Jews interpret them of Esau and of Ishmael.

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FOOTNOTES:

F18 Gloss. in T. Bab. Pesachim, fol. 118. 2.
F19 Homer. Odyss. xix. v. 439.

Psalm 80:13 In-Context

11 It spread its branches to [the] sea and its shoots to [the] river.

12 Why have you broken down its walls, so that all [who] pass on [the] road pluck [fruit from] it?

13 Swine from the forests devour it and creatures of [the] field feed on it.

14 Please return, O God [of] hosts. Observe from heaven and see, and pay attention to this vine,

15 even[the] stalk that your right hand planted, and concerning [the] shoot you strengthened for yourself.

Footnotes

• [a] Hebrew "devours"