Salmos 79

ARC · Chapter 79/150

1Ó Deus, os gentios vieram á tua herança; contaminaram o teu sancto templo; reduziram Jerusalem a montões de pedras.

2Deram os corpos mortos dos teus servos por comida ás aves dos céus, e a carne dos teus sanctos ás bestas da terra.

3Derramaram o sangue d'elles como agua ao redor de Jerusalem, e não houve quem os enterrasse.

4Somos feitos opprobrio para nossos visinhos, escarneo e zombaria para os que estão á roda de nós.

5Até quando, Senhor? Acaso te indignarás para sempre? Arderá o teu zelo como fogo?

6Derrama o teu furor sobre os gentios que te não conhecem, e sobre os reinos que não invocam o teu nome.

7Porque devoraram a Jacob, e assolaram as suas moradas.

8Não te lembres das nossas iniquidades passadas: previnam-nos depressa as tuas misericordias, pois já estamos muito abatidos.

9Ajuda-nos, ó Deus da nossa salvação, pela gloria do teu nome: e livra-nos, e espia os nossos peccados por amor do teu nome.

10Porque diriam os gentios: Onde está o seu Deus? Seja elle conhecido entre os gentios, a nossa vista, pela vingança do sangue dos teus servos, que foi derramado.

11Venha perante a tua face o gemido dos presos; segundo a grandeza do teu braço preserva aquelles que estão sentenciados á morte.

12E torna aos nossos visinhos, no seu regaço, sete vezes tanto da sua injuria com a qual te injuriaram, Senhor.

13Assim nós, teu povo e ovelhas de teu pasto, te louvaremos eternamente: de geração em geração cantaremos os teus louvores.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

A national lament after the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple: the bodies of God's servants were left unburied, and the people cry out for help and just vengeance against the invaders.

Explanation

This is a communal lament psalm, a literary genre used after great national tragedies — many scholars associate this text with the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 586 BC. Leaving the dead unburied was considered an extreme dishonor in ancient culture, which is why verse 3 emphasizes this shocking detail. The psalm does not hide the pain or pretend acceptance; it cries out to God asking for justice, but ends with a vow of continual praise. Today's application is that biblical faith allows for openly lamenting before God without that being a lack of faith.

Fun facts

  • Communal lament psalms like this one (also 74 and 137) form their own genre within the book of Psalms, used in moments of national crisis.
  • The request for 'sevenfold' retribution (v. 12) reflects a common principle of proportional justice in ancient Near Eastern culture, not a call for excessive personal revenge.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Salmos 79:1Describes, without literary exaggeration, the real destruction of the city and the temple — likely by the Babylonians in 586 BC — the historical backdrop explaining the tone of mourning and outrage in the whole psalm.
  2. Salmos 79:2Leaving bodies unburied, becoming food for birds and beasts, was the worst possible dishonor in the ancient world: denying a fallen warrior even the basic right to burial.
  3. Salmos 79:3Blood “like water” is an image of mass slaughter, lives treated as worthless. No one being left to bury the dead repeats the same ultimate dishonor already mentioned in the previous verse.
  4. Salmos 79:4Being a source of ridicule to neighboring peoples was an added humiliation on top of the military defeat: the fall of Jerusalem became a joke among nations that had long rivaled Israel.
  5. Salmos 79:5“How long” is a cry of anguish repeated in several lament psalms, not a calculated question about deadlines — it is the poetic way of saying the suffering already feels too long to bear.
  6. Salmos 79:6The request is not for Israel to escape all divine wrath, but for that wrath to turn against the nations that attacked the people, sparing those who suffered the invasion.
  7. Salmos 79:7“Jacob” functions here as a poetic name for the whole people of Israel, recalling the patriarch from whom the twelve tribes descend — a device common in the Psalms for speaking of the entire nation.
  8. Salmos 79:8The request is not for exemption from all guilt, but that God not punish based on accumulated sins of past generations: the people are already so beaten down that they beg for immediate help.
  9. Salmos 79:9“Purge” here carries the old sense of wiping away, that is, blotting out: the request is not based on personal merit, but that God act for the sake of His own reputation — delivering the people also protects the honor of His name.
  10. Salmos 79:10If Jerusalem is destroyed without response, the neighboring nations will mock, asking where the God of Israel is: behind the plea for help lies concern for God’s reputation before the world.
  11. Salmos 79:11“Thy power” is a common image of God’s strength. “The prisoner” and those “appointed to die” are probably the captives taken by the invaders, whose only hope now is divine intervention.
  12. Salmos 79:12This is an imprecation using an image of measure: the bosom, the fold of a garment used as a pocket, was where grain or objects were carried. To “render into their bosom” means paying back the harm received multiplied, fully and visibly.
  13. Salmos 79:13The psalm ends like many Hebrew laments: despite the pain described, it closes with a vow of continual praise, using the image of the shepherd and the flock to describe the relationship between God and the people.

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