“For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling place.”
The complaint escalates: "For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his habitation." The nations are characterized as predatory devouring animals; Jacob (a metonymic reference to Israel) and his land have become prey. The image of predation emphasizes the violence and rapacity of the conquest.
Church Fathers on Psalms 79:7
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
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
Publish a reflection on this verse
No reflections on this verse yet. Be the first to write one!