Salmos 79

BLIVRE · Chapter 79/150

1Salmo de Asafe: Ó Deus, as nações invadiram a tua herança; contaminaram ao teu santo Templo; tornaram Jerusalém em amontoados de ruínas.

2Deram os cadáveres dos teus servos por comida para as aves dos céus; a carne dos teus consagrados aos animais da terra.

3Derramaram o sangue deles como água ao redor de Jerusalém, e não havia quem os enterrasse.

4Somos humilhados pelos nossos vizinhos; zombados e escarnecidos pelos que estão ao nosso redor.

5Até quando, SENHOR? Ficarás tu irado para sempre? Teus ciúmes arderão como o fogo?

6Derrama o teu furor sobre as nações que não te conhecem, sobre os reinos que não clamam pelo teu nome;

7porque devoraram Jacó, e arruinaram suas habitações.

8Não nos castigue pelas perversidades do passado; apressa-te, que as tuas misericórdias venham até nós, porque estamos muito fracos.

9Socorre-nos, ó Deus da nossa salvação, para glorificar o teu nome; livra-nos, e perdoa os nossos pecados por causa do teu nome.

10Qual é a finalidade de que as nações digam: Onde está o Deus deles?Que a vingança do sangue derramado dos teus servos seja conhecida entre as nações, diante dos nossos olhos.

11Chegue diante de ti o gemido dos prisioneiros; conforme o teu grande poder, salva a vida dos sentenciados à morte.

12E retribui a nossos vizinhos em seus corpos sete vezes tanto dos insultos que te insultaram, ó Senhor.

13Assim nós, o teu povo, e as ovelhas de teu pasto, te louvaremos para sempre; de geração em geração cantaremos louvores a ti.

📖 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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