Psalm 74
The full text of Psalm 74 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
A Maskil of Asaph.
1 O God, why do you cast us off forever?
Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?
2 Remember your congregation, which you have purchased of old,
which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage!
Remember Mount Zion, where you have dwelt.
3 Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins;
the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary!
4 Your foes have roared in the midst of your meeting place;
they set up their own signs for signs.
5 They were like those who swing axes
in a forest of trees.
6 And all its carved wood
they broke down with hatchets and hammers.
7 They set your sanctuary on fire;
they profaned the dwelling place of your name,
bringing it down to the ground.
8 They said to themselves, 'We will utterly subdue them';
they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.
9 We do not see our signs;
there is no longer any prophet,
and there is none among us who knows how long.
10 How long, O God, is the foe to scoff?
Is the enemy to revile your name forever?
11 Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand?
Take it from the fold of your garment and destroy them!
12 Yet God my King is from of old,
working salvation in the midst of the earth.
13 You divided the sea by your might;
you broke the heads of the sea monsters on the waters.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan;
you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
15 You split open springs and brooks;
you dried up ever-flowing streams.
16 Yours is the day, yours also the night;
you have established the heavenly lights and the sun.
17 You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth;
you have made summer and winter.
18 Remember this, O LORD, how the enemy scoffs,
and a foolish people reviles your name.
19 Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild beasts;
do not forget the life of your poor forever.
20 Have regard for the covenant,
for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence.
21 Let not the downtrodden turn back in shame;
let the poor and needy praise your name.
22 Arise, O God, defend your cause;
remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day!
23 Do not forget the clamor of your foes,
the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually!
Translation notes (5)
- Psalm 74:4a The repeated Hebrew word 'otot (אתות), 'signs', elsewhere denotes tokens or portents, but here most likely refers to military standards or ensigns. The invaders planted their own emblems where the tokens of God's presence had stood, an act of conquest and desecration in the sanctuary itself.
- Psalm 74:8a Hebrew mo'adei-el (מוֹעֲדֵי־אֵל), 'meeting places of God', from the same root as the 'appointed times' of Israel's festivals. The term has sometimes been read as a reference to synagogues, but such buildings are not attested until well after the plausible settings of this psalm; local shrines or places of assembly for worship are more likely in view.
- Psalm 74:9a The complaint ein navi (אֵין נָבִיא), 'there is no prophet', laments a cessation of prophetic revelation and has long figured in dating the psalm. Some interpreters place the lament after the Babylonian destruction of 587 BC, while others note that 1 Maccabees 4:46 and 9:27 describe a similar prophetic silence in the second century BC. The 'signs' are likely divine tokens of deliverance, not cultic emblems.
- Psalm 74:13a The Hebrew tanninim, 'sea monsters', evokes the ancient Near Eastern motif of the deity's victory over the chaotic sea, known also from Ugaritic literature. Here the imagery is applied to Israel's God, whose primeval triumph grounds the psalmist's plea; Isaiah 51:9 uses the same motif of the exodus deliverance.
- Psalm 74:14a Livyatan (לִוְיָתָן), 'Leviathan', is a many-headed sea creature; the plural 'heads' parallels the Ugaritic Baal texts, where the god defeats the seven-headed serpent Lotan. The psalmist applies this ancient combat imagery to the LORD's victory at creation or at the exodus, depicting the vanquished monster as carrion for desert dwellers.
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