“And render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord.”
Retribution is requested: "Return sevenfold into the bosom of our neighbors the taunts with which they have taunted you, O Lord!" The prayer for judgment on the taunting nations asks God to repay the mockery sevenfold—a number suggesting fullness and completeness of judgment. The taunts are understood as directed against God, not merely against Israel, making divine response a matter of God's honor.
Church Fathers on Psalms 79:12
1. Over the title of this Psalm, being so short and so simple, I think we need not tarry. But the prophecy which here we read sent before, we know to be evidently fulfilled. For when these things were being sung in the times of King David, nothing of such sort, by the hostility of the Gentiles, as yet had befallen the city Jerusalem, nor the Temple of God, which as yet was not even built. For that after the death of David his son Salomon made a temple to God, who is ignorant?…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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