¹sn The psalmist does not really believe God has permanently rejected his people or he would not pray as he does in this psalm. But this initial question reflects his emotional response to what he sees and is overstated for the sake of emphasis. The severity of divine judgment gives the appearance that God has permanently abandoned his people.
²tn Heb “smoke.” The picture is that of a fire that continues to smolder.
³tn Heb “your assembly,” which pictures God’s people as an assembled community.
⁴tn Heb “redeemed.” The verb “redeem” casts God in the role of a leader who protects members of his extended family in times of need and crisis (see Ps 19:14).
⁵tn Heb “the tribe of your inheritance” (see Jer 10:16; 51:19).
⁶tn Heb “lift up your steps to,” which may mean “run, hurry.”
⁷tn Heb “everything [the] enemy has damaged in the holy place.”
⁸tn This verb is often used of a lion’s roar, so the psalmist may be comparing the enemy to a raging, devouring lion.
⁹tn Heb “your meeting place.”
¹⁰tn Heb “they set up their banners [as] banners.” The Hebrew noun twa (“sign”) here refers to the enemy army’s battle flags and banners (see Num 2:12).
¹¹tn Heb “it is known like one bringing upwards, in a thicket of wood, axes.” The Babylonian invaders destroyed the woodwork in the temple.
¹²tn This is the reading of the Qere (marginal reading). The Kethib (consonantal text) has “and a time.”
¹³tn The imperfect verbal form vividly describes the act as underway.
¹⁴tn Heb “its engravings together.”
¹⁵tn This Hebrew noun occurs only here in the OT (see HALOT 502 and H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena in the Light of Akkadian and Ugaritic, 49-50).
¹⁶tn This Hebrew noun occurs only here in the OT (see HALOT 472). An Akkadian cognate refers to a “pickaxe” (cf. NEB “hatchet and pick”; NIV “axes and hatchets”; NRSV “hatchets and hammers”).
¹⁷tn Heb “to the ground they desecrate the dwelling place of your name.”
¹⁸tn Heb “in their heart.”
¹⁹tc Heb “[?] altogether.” The Hebrew form <nyn is problematic. It could be understood as the noun /yn (“offspring”) but the statement “their offspring altogether” would make no sense here. C. A. Briggs, Psalms, 2:159, emends djy (“altogether”) to dyjy (“alone”) and translates, “let their offspring be solitary” (i.e., exiled). Another option is to understand the form as a Qal imperfect first common plural from hny (“to oppress”) with a third masculine plural pronominal suffix, “we will oppress them.” However, this verb, when used in the finite form, always appears in the Hiphil. Therefore, it is preferable to emend the form to the Hiphil <n}on (“we will oppress them”; see HALOT 416).
²⁰tn Heb “they burn down all the meeting places of God in the land.”
²¹tn Heb “our signs we do not see.” Because of the reference to a prophet in the next line, it is likely that the “signs” in view here include the evidence of God’s presence as typically revealed through the prophets. These could include miraculous acts performed by the prophets (see, for example, Isa 38:7-8) or object lessons which they acted out (see, for example, Isa 20:3).
²²tn Heb “there is not still a prophet.”
²³tn Heb “and [there is] not with us one who knows how long.”
²⁴tn Heb Why do you draw back your hand, even your right hand? From the midst of your chest, destroy!” The psalmist pictures God as having placed his right hand (symbolic of activity and strength) inside his robe against his chest. He prays that God would pull his hand out from under his robe and use it to destroy the enemy.
²⁵tn The psalmist speaks as Israel’s representative here.
²⁶tn Heb “in the midst of the earth.”
²⁷tn The derivation and meaning of the Polel verb form rrp are uncertain. The form may be related to an Akkadian cognate meaning “break, shatter,” though the biblical Hebrew cognate of this verb always appears in the Hiphil or Hophal stem. BDB 830 suggests a homonym here, meaning “to split; to divide.” A Hitpolel form of a root rrp appears in Isa 24:19 with the meaning “to shake violently.”
²⁸tn The Hebrew text has the plural form, “sea monsters” (cf. NRSV “dragons”), but it is likely that an original enclitic mem has been misunderstood as a plural ending. The imagery of the mythological sea monster is utilized here. See the note on “Leviathan” in v. 14.
²⁹sn You crushed the heads of Leviathan. The imagery of vv. 13-14 originates in West Semitic mythology. The description of Leviathan should be compared with the following excerpts from Ugaritic mythological texts: (1) “Was not the dragon [Ugaritic tnn, cognate with Hebrew /ynt, translated “sea monster” in v. 13] vanquished and captured? I did destroy the wriggling [Ugaritic `qltn, cognate to Hebrew /wtlqu, translated “squirming” in Isa 27:1] serpent, the tyrant with seven heads” (note the use of the plural “heads” here and in v. 13). (See CTA 3.iii.38-39 in J. C. L. Gibson, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 50.) (2) “For all that you smote Leviathan the slippery [Ugaritic brh, cognate to Hebrew jrb, translated “fast moving” in Isa 27:1] serpent, [and] made an end of the wriggling serpent, the tyrant with seven heads” (See CTA 5.i.1-3 in J. C. L. Gibson, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 68.) In the myths Leviathan is a sea creature that symbolizes the destructive water of the sea and, in turn, the forces of chaos that threaten the established order. In the OT, the battle with the sea motif is applied to Yahweh’s victories over the forces of chaos at creation and in history (see Pss 74:13-14; 77:16-20; 89:9-10; Isa 51:9-10). Yahweh’s subjugation of the waters of chaos is related to his kingship (see Pss 29:3, 10; 93:3-4). Isa 27:1 applies imagery from Canaanite mythology to Yahweh’s eschatological victory over his enemies. Apocalyptic literature employs the imagery as well. The beasts of Dan 7 emerge from the sea, while Rev 13 speaks of a seven-headed beast coming from the sea. Here in Ps 74:13-14 the primary referent is unclear. The psalmist may be describing God’s creation of the world (note vv. 16-17 and see Ps 89:9-12), when he brought order out of a watery mass, or the exodus (see Isa 51:9-10), when he created Israel by destroying the Egyptians in the waters of the sea.
³⁰tn The prefixed verbal form is understood as a preterite in this narrational context.
³¹sn You fed him to the people. This pictures the fragments of Leviathan’s dead corpse washing up on shore and being devoured by those who find them. If the exodus is in view, then it may allude to the bodies of the dead Egyptians which washed up on the shore of the Red Sea (see Exod 14:30).
³²sn You broke open the spring and the stream. Perhaps this alludes to the way in which God provided water for the Israelites as they traveled in the wilderness following the exodus (see Ps 78:15-16, 20; 105:41).
³³sn Perpetually flowing rivers are rivers that contain water year round, unlike the seasonal streams that flow only during the rainy season. Perhaps the psalmist here alludes to the drying up of the Jordan River when the Israelites entered the land of Canaan under Joshua (see Josh 3-4).
³⁴tn Heb “To you [is] day, also to you [is] night.”
³⁵tn Heb “[the] light.” Following the reference to “day and night” and in combination with “sun,” it is likely that the Hebrew term rwam (“light”) refers here to the moon. See BDB 22.
³⁶tn Heb “you established [the] light and [the] sun.”
³⁷tn This would appear to refer to geographical boundaries, such as mountains, rivers, and seacoasts. However, since the day-night cycle has just been mentioned (v. 16) and the next line speaks of the seasons, it is possible that “boundaries” here refers to the divisions of the seasons. See C. A. Briggs, Psalms, 2:156.
³⁸tn Heb “summer and winter, you, you formed them.”
³⁹tn Heb “remember this.”
⁴⁰tn Or “[how] the enemy insults the Lord.”
⁴¹sn Your dove. The psalmist compares weak and vulnerable Israel to a helpless dove.
⁴²tn Heb “do not forget forever.”
⁴³tc Heb “look at the covenant.” The LXX reads “your covenant,” which seems to assume a second person pronominal suffix. The suffix may have been accidentally omitted by haplography. Note that the following word (yk) begins with kaf.
⁴⁴tn Heb “for the dark places of the earth are full of dwelling places of violence.” The “dark regions” are probably the lands where the people have been exiled (see C. A. Briggs, Psalms, 2:157). In some contexts “dark regions” refers to Sheol (Ps 88:6) or to hiding places likened to Sheol (Ps 143:3; Lam 3:6).
⁴⁵sn Let the oppressed and poor praise your name! The statement is metonymic. The point is this: May the oppressed be delivered from their enemies! Then they will have ample reason to praise God’s name.
⁴⁶tn Or “defend your cause.”
⁴⁷tn Heb “remember your reproach from a fool all the day.”
⁴⁸tn Or “forget.”
⁴⁹tn Heb “the voice of your enemies.”
⁵⁰tn Heb “the roar of those who rise up against you, which ascends continually.”
⁵¹sn Psalm 75. The psalmist celebrates God’s just rule, which guarantees that the godly will be vindicated and the wicked destroyed.
⁵²tn Heb “do not destroy.” Perhaps this refers to a particular style of music, a tune title, or a musical instrument. These words also appear in the superscription to Pss 57-59.