Salmi 79:1-10

1 Salmo di Asaf. O Dio, le nazioni sono entrate nella tua eredità, hanno contaminato il tempio della tua santità, han ridotto Gerusalemme in un mucchio di rovine;
2 hanno dato i cadaveri del tuoi servitori in pasto agli uccelli del cielo, la carne de’ tuoi santi alle fiere della terra.
3 Hanno sparso il loro sangue come acqua intorno a Gerusalemme, e non v’è stato alcuno che li seppellisse.
4 Noi siam diventati un vituperio per i nostri vicini, un oggetto di scherno e di derisione per quelli che ci circondano.
5 Fino a quando, o Eterno? Sarai tu adirato per sempre? La tua gelosia arderà essa come un fuoco?
6 Spandi l’ira tua sulle nazioni che non ti conoscono, e sopra i regni che non invocano il tuo nome.
7 Poiché hanno divorato Giacobbe, e hanno desolato la sua dimora.
8 Non ricordare contro noi le iniquità de’ nostri antenati; affrettati, ci vengano incontro le tue compassioni, poiché siamo in molto misero stato.
9 Soccorrici, o Dio della nostra salvezza, per la gloria del tuo nome, e liberaci, e perdona i nostri peccati, per amor del tuo nome.
10 Perché direbbero le nazioni: Dov’è l’Iddio loro? Fa’ che la vendetta del sangue sparso de’ tuoi servitori sia nota fra le nazioni, dinanzi agli occhi nostri.

Salmi 79:1-10 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 79

\\<>\\. This psalm was not written by one Asaph, who is supposed to live after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, or, according to some, even after the times of Antiochus, of whom there is no account, nor any certainty that there ever was such a man in those times; but by Asaph, the seer and prophet, that lived in the time of David, who, under a prophetic spirit, foresaw and foretold things that should come to pass, spoken of in this psalm: nor is it any objection that what is here said is delivered as an history of facts, since many prophecies are delivered in this way, especially those of the prophet Isaiah. The Targum is, ``a song by the hands of Asaph, concerning the destruction of the house of the sanctuary (or temple), which he said by a spirit of prophecy.'' The title of the Syriac versions, ``said by Asaph concerning the destruction of Jerusalem.'' The argument of the psalm is of the same kind with the Seventy Fourth. Some refer it to the times of Antiochus Epiphanes; so Theodoret; but though the temple was then defiled, Jerusalem was not utterly destroyed; and others to the destruction of the city and temple by Nebuchadnezzar; and why may it not refer to both, and even to the after destruction of both by Titus Vespasian? and may include the affliction and troubles of the Christians under Rome Pagan and Papal, and especially the latter; for Jerusalem and the temple may be understood in a mystical and spiritual sense; at least the troubles of the Jews, in the times referred to, were typical of what should befall the people of God under the New Testament, and in antichristian times.

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