Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 3 · Psalm 80
The Eightieth Psalm.
TO the chief Musitian upon ‖the hezachord of the testimony, see note on Ps. lx. a.Shushannim Eduth, A Psalm of Asaph.
Paraphrase. The eightieth Psalm is a complaint of the troubles of Gods Church and people, probably in time of captivity, or by way of prediction of it, and prayer for release from them. 'Twas composed by Asaph, and committed to the Praefect of the Musick, to be sung to the six-stringed instrument that waited on the Arke, or that was used in the sacred commemorations and festivities.
1. Give eare, O thou shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the Cherubims shine forth.
Hearken, O Lord, unto our prayers: Thou art the great governour and defender of thy people, and conductest them in all their wayes, thou givest responses from the oracle, and exhibitest thy selfe by the ministery of thy holy Angels to those that make their addresses to thee in thy sanctuary, thou revealest thy will to them and grantest their petitions; O be thou thus gratiously pleased to exhibite and manifest thy selfe to us at this time.
2. a.Before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasses, stirre up thy selfe, and come and save us.
Thou once wentest along with the Israelites in their march from Aegypt to Canaan, the three tribes of Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasses next following the Arke of thy presence, and then thou didst deliver us from all our assailants; O let us all now, in like manner as then, the tribes of Israel and Judah (both carried away captive, the one under†foreign, A Psalm concerning the Assyrian. Lxxii. in the title. Salmanasar, the other under Nebuchadonosor) receive deliverance and redemption from thee.
3. Turne us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.
Be thou pleased toforeign * foreign reduce us from our captivity, Chald. returne our captivity, and restore thy favour and loving kindness towards us, else there is no possibility of relief to be hoped for by us.
4. O Lord God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry†at נ against the prayer of thy people?
We address our selves to thee, as to the supreme commander of all the hosts of Angels, the only Monarch and Governour of heaven and earth, from thee alone we beseech deliverance; but thou rejectest our prayers, and continuest the evidences of thy displeasure: Lord, be thou at length pleased to be reconciled to us.
5. Thou feedest them with theb. bread of*weeping. tears, and givest them tears to drink in great measure.
We are in continual sorrow and distress, and that of the heavyest sort, shut out, and deprived of thy presence, and have no degree of comfort or refreshment but our lamentations.
6. Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbours, and our enemies laugh among themselves.
Thou permittest our neighbours that hate us, Edumaeans, &c. Ps. Lxxxiii. 6. (see note c.) to adde their load to our pressures, to assault and invade us, and that successfully, to rejoyce and triumph over us.
7. Turne us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.
In this sad conjuncture we have none but thee to fly unto for relief; O be thou pleased to shew thy selfe to us in thy power and majesty, to rescue us from this captive forlorne state, and restore us to thy favour and mercy, to returne our captivity, v. 3. and then our neighbours triumphs and depradations shall be at an end, then it shall be well with us, who are otherwise in a most deplorable condition.
8. Thou hast brought a vine out of Aegypt, thou hast cast out the heathen and planted it.
9. Thouc. ‖lookedst c…, or preparedst the scile before it.preparedst roome before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land.
10. The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the†stately cedars with the branches thereof. boughs thereof were like thed. goodly cedars.
11. She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river.
Thou hast bro…ght this people out of the bondage of Aegypt to the most fertile and prosperous land, that where the Canaanites &c. inhabited, as when a vine is transplanted from a most barren to a most fruitfull soile, the side of an hill, &c. and there, as it is the manner of planters to dress and prepare the soile exactly, that it may speedily and happily take root, and spread and cover the ground, and the boughs of it being supported with props or trees, grow into a great height and bredth, so didst thou fit the land for their quiet and peace and fertility, and plentifull multiplying, by removing the old inhabitants, and leaving all to their injoying, and accordingly they very soon prospered as into a very powerfull and victorious, so into a very large and numerous nation; extending it selfe on the West to the mediterranean sea, and on the East to Euphrates.
12. Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they that pass by the way do pluck her?
13. The boare out of the wood doth wast it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it.
But now as when the hedge of a vineyard is broken down, all passengers come freely in, and gather the fruits, and the rude swine and other wilde beasts break in, and tear and root up all that is planted there; so is it with us, thy protection which was our only defense being withdrawn for our sins, the heathen nations round about us (see note c. on Ps. Lxxxiii.) together with the Kings of Assyria and Babylon, those potent tyrants, break in upon us, carry away all our wealth, and even root us out from our dwellings, carry us as captive servants into their own lands.
14. Returne we beseech thee, O Lord of hosts, look down from heaven, and behold and visit this vine.
15. Ande. the*root, or pla…. vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch which thou madest strong for thy selfe.
Lord, in this extremity be thou pleased to interpose thy power for us, to be gratiously reconciled to us, and in favour to behold this poor captive people, and Temple, which thine especial providence hath built and supported so long, the place of thy special residence among us.
16. ‖being cut d…wn it is burnt with f…re; they shall perish (see note e.)It is burnt with fire, it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.
For since upon our provoking sins thou hast withdrawn thy mercy from us, the enemies have broken in and burnt our Temple, and if thou still continue thy wrath, both people and Temple will be utterly consumed.
17. Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the sonne man whom thou madest strong for thy selfe.
We have none therefore but thee to whom we may fly for succour, who art justly displeased with us. Yet, O Lord, it is thou which hast set our King over us, thy special grace and providence, and†foreign —to whom thou hast sworn with thy right hand, Chald. thy oath made to David and his seed, by which the power is vested on him; though he be but a man, he is yet set up and established by thee, in thy stead to administer justice among us: O be thou favourably pleased to deliver and rescue him out of all the calamities that are fallen upon him.
18. So will not we go back from thee: quicken us and we will call upon thy name.
And this shall be the greatest obligation on us from thee, for ever to cleave fast to thee in the most obediential reliance: Thy restoring of us shall be sure to be answered by our constant returns of prayers and praises.
19. Turne us again, O Lord God of hosts; cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.
This therefore is the burthen of our song, the summ of our reiterated request to thee, that as thou hast an immense host and many legions of Angels ready prest for thy service, which can the next minute perfect any the vastest enterprise to which thou shalt assigne them, so thou wilt at length returne our captivity, restore thy selfe to thy wonted favour and old mercies, cast some beams of thy gratious countenance, evidences of thy being reconciled to us, and then we shall certainly be released out of all our afflictions, and till then we have no humane hope of the least respite.
Annotations on Psalm LXXX.
V. 2. Before Ephraim &c.] What is meant here by foreign foreignbefore Ephraim, and why Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasses, and no other are here named, must be learnt from the order of the Israelites march in the Wilderness, Num. ii. For there, next after the Arke, the pledge of Gods special presence and assistance, did these three tribes follow, Then the Tabernacle of the congregation shall set forward, &c. v. 17. On the West side (i. e. next behinde it) shall be the standard of the camp of Ephraim v. 18. and his host v. 19. And by him shall be the tribe of Manasses v. 20. and his host, v. 21. then the tribe of Benjamin and his host, v. 22, 23. Now the returning from the captivity, the desire whereof is the business of this Psalm, being a parallel to the delivery from Aegypt, Gods leading them back, stirring up himself and coming to save them, is very fitly begged, and described in a style resembling the former rescue: There he was said to have shined forth, and to have risen and come, Deut. xxxiii. 2. (the Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them, he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with holy myriads;) and here in like manner, the Psalmist beseecheth him that dwelleth between the Cherubims, (that sure is God in the Arke) to shine forth v. 1. and that before these three tribes, which next followed the Arke, and to stirr up himself, and come and save.
V. 5. Bread of tears] foreign foreignwill here be best rendred bread of weeping, thereby most probably signifying the bread of mourners, foreign Hos. ix. 4. of which it is there said, all that eate thereof shall pollute themselves, the eater was legally unclean, and so separated from the congregation; and so were they at that time, in the captivity, detained from the comforts of Gods solemn worship. To which is elegantly added, that foreign foreigntears in the plural, and that foreign foreignin a trebble or large measure, are the drink apportioned to these meats.
V. 9. Preparedst roome] From foreign foreignto look, to turne the face, to bow down, to look out, to look toward any thing, is foreign in Piel, to sweep, to cleanse, to remove filth out of the way, and so to prepare for the coming of any, to fit or provide an house, a way or path. A house, and roome, Gen. xxiv. 31. Lev. xiv. 36. a way Isa. xl. 3. and lvii. 14. If this be applied to an house, then 'tis to sweep or cleanse, and so the Interlinear here renders it, scopasti, thou hast swept: if to a way, then 'tis to purge or prepare, Isa. lvii. 14. Prepare the way, take up the stumbling-block; and so the Lxxii. here, foreign, thou hast made or prepared the way before it (though the Latine rendring, dux itineris fuisti, thou wert the leader or captain of their journey, seem to have lookt toward foreign or foreign a corner, and by metaphor, a captain.) But being applied to the earth, in order to a plantation, as here, it is most fitly rendred either looking out, according to the original notion (as Ezek. xx. 6. a land that I had espied for them) or preparing before-hand, or else more probably preparing (not roome, but) soile for it: and to this fitly follows, and didst cause it to take deep root, that being the proper effect of preparing the soile. To the notion of looking out, I suppose the Syriack is to be understood foreign, not as the Latine translator renders it, intuitus es illam, thou lookedst on it, but as foreign in Chaldee and Syriack signifies also scrutari, to search, or look out, thou lookedst out, or didst search before it, as the twelve spyes were after appointed to doe by Moses. The Chaldee follow the other notion of sweeping or purging out, reteining the Hebrew word, save only that by way of paraphrase they thought fit to change it from the figure of a vine to the people of Israel, and so read foreign thou hast purged out (or swept) from before them the Canaanites.
V. 10. Goodly Cedar-trees] That foreign foreignCedars of the strong, or as the Lxxii. foreign of God, signify (as mountains of God) tall and lofty Cedars, there is no question. All the doubt is of the syntaxis, how it lyes. And of that the Lxxii. give us the fairest account, reading the whole verse thus, foreign, the shadow thereof covered the hills, and the branches thereof the cedars of God, i. e. covered the Cedars. This sense the Latine exactly follow, Operuit montes umbra ejus, & arbusta ejus Cedros Dei, the shadow of it covered the mountains, and the sprouts thereof (covered) the Cedars of God. And to this the Hebrew well accords, for as foreign foreignthe mountains were covered with the shadow is directly equivalent with the shadows covering the mountains, so foreign foreignmay best be rendred, in the same common construction (repeating foreign were covered, from the former part) and the goodly Cedars were covered with the branches thereof, and that is as perfectly equivalent to the branches covering the Cedars. The Syriack put it out of question, (and after them the Arabick) reading foreign above the Cedars. Thus the Jewish Arab, Her shadow covered the mountains, and her branches the divine or stately Cedars. That the sides of hills are the most commodious places for vineyards is sufficiently known, as also that the vine hath props on which it climbs, and rests it selfe, and these are lower or higher according to the nature of the several soils or climates; in fertile soils, as now adayes in Lombardy, they run up the trees, and cover them. And so here in an expression of the luxuriant growth of this fruitfull vine, it may not unfitly be said in poetical style to run up, and reach the tops of the tall Cedars, as Joseph is said Gen. xlix. 22. to be a fruitfull bough, whose branches run over the wall.
V. 15. The vineyard] What foreign foreignhere signifies, is not agreed on by interpreters. The Lxxii. read it as a verbe (from foreign to prepare) foreign, and thence the Latine, perfice, make perfect. But there is no appearance of truth in that. The interlinear reads vitiarium vineyard, either confounding it with foreign a garden, as the learned Schindler conjectures, or more probably from the notion of foreign for a basis, and from thence by metaphor the place of habitation, all one with foreign, which being by the antecedents applied to a vine, is a vineyard. But the Chaldee render it foreign a sprout, for so they evidently use that word Num. xiii. 23. rendring foreign (sarmentum, or palmitem, a branch, on which was a bunch of grapes) by foreign (and so Ez…k. xvii. 6. for foreign branches, they read foreign.) The Syriack reads foreign which from foreign fundavit, is consonant to the notion of foreign a basis, and applyed to a vine may most fitly be rendred a root or stock, such as is wont to be planted. Thus Dan. xi. 7. there shall rise from the branch of her roots, foreign his basis, the Latine reads plantatio ejus, his plantation, i. e. a rooted stock fit to plant. For this we know, that a branch of a vine, being laid in the ground, will take a root to it, and so be fit to be transplanted. And accordingly Dan. xi. 20. for foreign there shall stand up, or rise from his basis, the Lxxii. read foreign, there shall rise up out of his roote, (and so the Arabick also) resolving for us, that (speaking of vines or other such plants) foreign or foreign signifies a root, which root being fit for planting, must be supposed to be not a root only, but a small trunk, or stalk of the vine with a root to it; as in that place of Daniel c. xi. 20. out of that foreign root arises foreign, which from the notion of foreign in Piel, for propagavit, will signify the very same with foreign, which the Chaldee here useth, viz. propago, a plant, of a vine; and so in that place of Daniel the Lxxii. render it foreign a plant, and so the Arabick also. By all this it appears, that foreign here having in its original notion somewhat of strength and stability, (as when it is used for a foot or basis, Ex. xxx. 28. xxxi. 9. Levit. viii. 11. 1 King. vii. 29.) and being by the context confined to vines, must signify such a slip, or yong stock, or plant, as is fit to be set and grow by it selfe; and accordingly Abu Walid, though he be himself of opinion that foreign is the same with foreign by change of נ into כ, yet confesses that the most of Interpreters take it for foreign. It should probably be foreign, the word which the Jewish Arab useth, and signifies a vine or any root thereof, (foreign rather signifying the burthen or fruit.) And this being by the Masorites written with a large foreign signifies this eminent plant, the whole people of the Jews, whom God had chosen; and so his right hand is truly said to have planted it. And then that will direct us farther in the interpretation of the latter part of the verse, foreign and the sonne, or, upon the sonne which thou hast made strong for thy selfe: where as foreign foreignis most probably an expletive of no signification (or possibly refers to foreign look foregoing, foreign look upon;) so foreign foreignson, in accordance with foreign the root or plant of the vine, must denote the son of that plant, and that is according to the Hebrew style a bough or branch of it. So Gen. xlix. 22. Joseph is a fruitfull foreign son, i. e. bough, by a spring, whose foreign daughters, i. e. branches, run over the wall; by the same proportion as foreign which signifies sucking children, from foreign to suck, is here v. 11. used for branches. And then in proportion with the people being meant by the root or plant, the branch foreign may signify the foreign rod, or tribe of Judah, the Regal tribe of which David was, who being by God invested with power, and as his proxy and minister on earth, it is properly said, that God hath made him strong for himself. The Chaldee therefore paraphrase it foreign — on the Messiah, i. e. anointed King, whom thou hast confirmed or established for thy selfe. And in the prophetick sense that will be farther extended to Christ the King or Ruler of his Church: and so saith Aben Ezra, this may be understood of foreign the Messiah Ben-Ephraim, others call him Ben-Joseph, who they say is to be killed in warr (being prest by the text in Zachary to acknowledge a suffering Messias) as Messiah Ben David (for they admit of two) is to conquer all the world. R. Obadiah also interprets it of the Messiah. And the Lxxii. reads foreign, and on the son of man, and so the Latine and Syriack, the title by which any eminent man, a Prince, is fitly exprest (and by which Christ is so frequently called) and so most expresly v. 17. the man of Gods right hand, and the son of man, not foreign son simply, but foreign son of man, is set to signify the King. But it is possible also, and, I suppose, more probable, that the foreign or branch may be set to denote the Temple, for of that it follows immediately v. 16. It is burnt with fire, it is cut down, or as it may best be rendred, foreign being cut down it is burnt with fire, the vine, when 'tis cut down, being good for nothing else, Ezec. xv. 3, 4. shall wood be taken thereof to do any worke, or will men take a pin of it to hang any thing thereon? It is cast into the fire for fewel, the fire devoureth both the ends of it, and the midst of it is burnt; is it meet for any work? This belongs not well to the King, but agrees perfectly to the Temple at this time of the captivity. And so the phrase which thou hast made strong for thy selfe seems to be borrowed from Moses song, Ex. xv. 17. where it is spoken of the Temple, Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established. And in this sense it will well agree with the foreign or plant foregoing, that signifying the nation of the Jews, which God brought in and planted, in Moses's dialect, and with which the Temple is joyned, Jo. xi. 48. they will take away our place and nation, by those two words there expressing more plainly what is here in poetick style, the root or plant, and branch, i. e. the whole Commonwealth of the Jews, so stiled Mal. iv. 1. It shall leave them neither root nor branch, people nor Temple. Of both these it here follows in the plural foreign foreignthey shall perish at the rebuke of thy countenance; i. e. If to the spoile of violent men foregoing, the boare out of the wood, and the wild beasts of the field v. 13. thou adde thine anger and inflictions, both root and branch, people and temple shall be utterly consumed. To avert which it follows, Let thine hand be upon the man of thy right hand, and the son of man, which in all reason by the characters of foreign and foreign must be interpreted of the King.