Psalms 80

Listen to us, Shepherd of Israel, you who lead the people of Joseph like a flock of sheep. You who sit enthroned above the cherubim, show yourself.

1Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth.

Note"Shepherd" was a standard title for a king or ruler across the ancient Near East, not a rustic image: it meant the one responsible for feeding, guiding and defending a people. "Joseph" stands for the whole nation by naming one part of it, Joseph's sons Ephraim and Manasseh headed the largest tribes of the north. The cherubim were the winged figures whose outstretched wings over the ark in the sanctuary formed the seat of an invisible throne; they were composite guardian creatures, not infant angels. "Show yourself" translates a verb used of light breaking out, as at a sunrise.

2Show yourself to Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh. Wake up your power and come and save us.

2Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy strength, and come and save us.

NoteEphraim, Benjamin and Manasseh were three tribes descended from Jacob's wife Rachel, and in the wilderness camp lists they traveled together as one group directly behind the ark. Naming these three points the psalm at the northern part of the country rather than at Judah in the south.

3Bring us back, God. Let your face shine on us, and we will be saved.

3Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.

Note"Let your face shine on us" is an idiom for favor and attention, the look a face takes on when it greets someone gladly. Its opposite is hiding the face, meaning refusal or neglect. "Bring us back" can mean bring us home from exile, restore our fortunes, or turn us back to yourself; the Hebrew verb covers all three and the psalm does not settle which. This whole line comes back as a refrain in verses 7 and 19, dividing the poem into sections.

4LORD God who commands armies, how long will you stay angry at the prayers of your own people?

4O LORD God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people?

NotePrinted as LORD in capitals, this stands for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew letters usually written YHWH, which readers of the text traditionally did not pronounce aloud. "God who commands armies" renders "LORD of hosts", a title picturing God as commander of massed forces, whether Israel's armies or the heavenly ones. The Hebrew behind "stay angry" literally says "smoke," the image being anger smoldering like a fire.

5You have fed them bread made of tears, and given them tears to drink by the bowlful.

5Thou feedest them with the bread of tears; and givest them tears to drink in great measure.

NoteBread and drink here are what grief consists of, not what relieves it: their whole diet is weeping. The word behind "by the bowlful" is a measuring vessel of uncertain size, perhaps holding a third of some larger unit, the point is that tears are served out in bulk, like rations.

6You have made us something our neighbors fight over, and our enemies laugh at us among themselves.

6Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbours: and our enemies laugh among themselves.

NoteThe Hebrew is ambiguous. It can mean the neighboring peoples quarrel with us, or that we have become the thing they quarrel over, a prize fought about by stronger nations.

7Bring us back, God who commands armies. Let your face shine on us, and we will be saved.

7Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.

8You dug up a vine from Egypt. You drove out the nations that were here, and you planted it.

8Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it.

NoteThe vine is the nation itself, dug up in Egypt and replanted in Canaan; "You drove out the nations" refers to the peoples already living in the land. Where the King James Version says "heathen" it simply means foreign nations or peoples, with no suggestion about their religion, the word's modern sneer is not in the original.

9You cleared the ground in front of it, and you made it take deep root, and it filled the whole land.

9Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land.

NoteClearing ground, breaking it up and pulling out stones is the ordinary first work of planting a vineyard; the image treats the conquest of the land as that preparation.

10The hills were covered by its shade, and its branches were like the great cedar trees.

10The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars.

NoteThe cedars of Lebanon were the tallest and most valuable timber trees known to the region, the standard comparison for great height and grandeur. The Hebrew literally reads "cedars of God," which in this construction most likely functions as a superlative, the mightiest cedars of all.

11It stretched its branches out as far as the Sea, and its shoots as far as the River.

11She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river.

Note"The Sea" is the Mediterranean, the western limit; "the River" with no name attached is the Euphrates, the eastern one. Together they mark the widest boundaries the kingdom ever claimed, so the line means the vine grew to fill the whole territory from edge to edge.

12So why have you broken down the walls around it, so that everyone who walks by pulls off its fruit?

12Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her?

NoteVineyards were ringed with a low stone wall or a thorn hedge to keep out animals and passers-by; breaking it down left the fruit free for anyone. A walled vineyard was private property, an unwalled one effectively abandoned.

13The wild pig from the forest tears it up, and the animals of the field feed on it.

13The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it.

NoteWild boar were a real and hated menace to vineyards, capable of rooting up vines overnight. In the Hebrew manuscripts the middle letter of the word for "forest" is written raised above the line, an old scribal marking whose purpose is no longer certain.

14Come back to us, God who commands armies, we beg you. Look down from heaven and see. Take care of this vine,

14Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine;

15and the stock that your own right hand planted, and the son that you made strong for yourself.

15And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself.

NoteThe Hebrew word here means "son," and translators divide over it: some read it as a horticultural term for a shoot or stock continuing the vine image, which is the way the King James took it in printing "the branch"; others keep "son," taking it of the king or the nation. The ambiguity is in the text itself.

16It has been burned with fire; it has been cut down. Your people are dying because you look at them with anger.

16It is burned with fire, it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.

17Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, on the son of man you made strong for yourself.

17Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself.

NoteTo be at a ruler's right hand was to hold the position of honor and delegated authority beside him. There is also a play on names: Benjamin, one of the tribes named in verse 2, means "son of the right hand." "Son of man" is ordinary Hebrew for a human being, a mortal, it stresses the frailty of the person being asked for, not a title.

18Then we will not turn away from you. Give us life again, and we will call on your name.

18So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.

19Bring us back, LORD God who commands armies. Let your face shine on us, and we will be saved.

19Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.