Psalms 74:5

A man was famous,.... Or, "it was", or "is known" (m); the desolations the enemy made, the wickedness they committed, the terror they spread, and the signs they set in the sanctuary of the Lord:

Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations; even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary. -The enemy has destroyed God's sanctuary and synagogues, and there are no tokens of God's presence in the land.

So the meaning is this, The temple was so noble a structure, that it was a great honour to any man to be employed in the meanest part of the work, though it were but in cutting down the trees of Lebanon. And this translation may seem to be favoured by the opposition in the next verse, But now, &c. But others understand the words thus translated in another sense, that every one of the enemies got renown accordingly as they showed most barbarous rage in destroying the thick wood work (which in the next verse is called the carved work) of the temple. But this seems not to suit well with the opposition between this work and that of the next verse, which is ushered in by but now. The words therefore may be (and in part are by some) rendered thus, It is known, (or manifest, Heb. It will be known; it will be published to all posterity, as matter of astonishment and admiration,) that, as one lifteth up his axe (Heb. axes, the plural number for the singular, as it is elsewhere) upon thick trees, to cut them down. This is the first part of the similitude, called the protasis; then follows the latter part of it, called the apodosis, in the next verse. (Heb. and; which is sometimes put for a note of similitude, as in that passage of the Lord’ s prayer, , as it is in heaven; and oft in the book of the Proverbs) now (for though this Psalm was composed after the thing was done, yet he speaks of it as if it were now in doing, as the manner of the sacred writers frequently is, that it may be more livelily represented to men’ s minds) they break down the carved works, &c. The meaning is, they neither regard the sacredness of the place, nor the exquisite curiosity and art of the work, but cut it down as indifferently and rashly as men cut down the thick and entangled boughs of the trees of the forest.

Psalms 74:5 [A man] was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees.Ver. 5. A man was famous according as, &c.] i.e. Time was when the workmen got them a name, by cutting down and fitting the timber for this building the temple, renowned throughout the whole world for costly and choice materials, for curious and exact workmanship, for spiritual employment, and for mystical signification; never was there the like edifice.

(5) The Authorised Version, with the ancient versions, has entirely mistaken the meaning of this verse, though, unlike the LXX. and Vulgate, it has the merit of being intelligible. Literally the words run, he (or it) is known like one causing to come in on high against the thicket of trees axes, which is generally understood, it seems as if men were lifting up axes against a thicket of trees. The ruthless destroyers go to work like woodcutters in a forest—the carved pillars are no more than so many trees to fell. But though this is intelligible, it does not read like Hebrew, and the contrast apparently intended between the signs of the heathen and the signs of Israel in Psalms 74:9 is not preserved. If, with the LXX., we read the verb in the plural, are known instead of is known, and supply the subject from the last clause, we get this contrast clearly brought out: “They have set up their idols as signs, They (these signs) are known in the lifting up on high.” “These visible idols are easily seen and recognised as soon as set up, but (Psalms 74:9) we see not our signs.” According as . . .—We have now, as so frequently, to supply the sign of comparison, and this clause with the next verse runs plainly enough— “As in a thicket of trees with axes, So now they break down all the carved work thereof with axes and hammers.” The “carved work” of Solomon’s Temple represented palm-trees and flowers (1 Kings 6:29), and possibly these were imitated in the second Temple; if so, the image is very appropriate.

4–9. A graphic picture of the desecration of the Temple by the heathen enemies of Israel.

A man was famous - literally, “He is known;” or, shall be known. That is, he was or shall be celebrated.

5. Lifted up axes upon the thick trees—The description, in Psalms 74:5-6, is to this effect: The temple appeared as when one had lifted up axes in a thick wood, for they had struck down the beautiful