Psalm 74:8

8 They have said in their heart, even all their kindred together, Come, let us abolish the feasts of the Lord from the earth.

Psalm 74:8 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 74:8

They said in their hearts, let us destroy them together
The Targum is,

``their children, are together;''

or "their kindred", as the Septuagint Vulgate Latin, Ethiopic, and Arabic versions, taking the word to be of (Nyn) , which signifies a "son"; and the sense to be, that seeing they were all together, as the Jews were at the taking of Jerusalem, they might be cut off at once. Jarchi explains it of their rulers; Marinus, as Aben Ezra observes, derives it from a word which signifies to afflict and oppress, to which he agrees; see ( Psalms 83:3-5 ) ,

they have burnt up all the synagogues of God in the land;
not only in Jerusalem, where there were, the Jewish ^F17 writers say, four hundred and sixty, and others four hundred and eighty of them, but also in all the land of Judea; of these synagogues there is much mention made in the New Testament; they were places for public worship, in which, prayer was made, and the Scriptures were read and explained; see ( Matthew 6:5 ) ( Luke 4:16 ) ( Acts 15:21 ) , but it may be doubted whether they are meant here, since it does not appear that there were any until after the return of the Jews from Babylon ^F18; the temple, and the parts of it, may be meant, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra; or the schools of the prophets; though the psalm may refer to times after the Babylonish captivity, and so may design Jewish synagogues, and even take in places of worship among Christians.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F17 T. Hieros. Cetubot, fol. 35. 3. & Megillah, fol. 73. 4.
F18 Vid. Vitringam de Synagog. Vet. l. 1. par. 2. c. 9. Reland. Antiqu. Heb. par. 1. c. 16. sect. 3. Burmannum de Synagogis disp. I. sect. 9.

Psalm 74:8 In-Context

6 they cut down its doors at once with axes as in a wood of trees; they have broken it down with hatchet and stone cutter.

7 They have burnt thy sanctuary with fire to the ground; they have profaned the habitation of thy name.

8 They have said in their heart, even all their kindred together, Come, let us abolish the feasts of the Lord from the earth.

9 We have not seen our signs; there is no longer a prophet; and God will not know us any more.

10 How long, O God, shall the enemy reproach? shall the enemy provoke thy name forever?