Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 74:5
[A man] was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees.
5, 6. The R.V. gives the probable sense of these verses, but does not reproduce the pictorial tenses, which represent the work of destruction as though it were going on before the reader’s eyes. Render:
They seem as men that lift up
Axes upon a thicket of trees.
And now the carved work thereof together
They are battering down with hatchet and hammers.
The enemy are compared to wood-cutters hewing down a forest (Jer 46:22-23); and the simile may have been suggested by the fact that the carved work on the Temple walls represented “palm trees and open flowers” (1Ki 6:29).
The P.B.V., “He that hewed timber afore out of the thick trees was known to bring it to an excellent work. But now they break down &c.,” introduced into the Great Bible from Mnster, gives a suggestive contrast between the skill of the artist and the vandalism of the destroyer; but the present Heb. text cannot bear this meaning.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
A man was famous – literally, He is known; or, shall be known. That is, he was or shall be celebrated.
According as he had lifted up axes – literally, As one raising on high axes; that is, as one lifts up his axe high in the air in order to strike an effectual stroke.
Upon the thick trees – The clumps of trees; the trees standing thick together. That is, As he showed skill and ability in cutting these down, and laying them low. His celebrity was founded on the rapidity with which the strokes of the axe fell on the trees, and his success in laying low the pride of the forest. According to our common translation the meaning is, that formerly a man derived his fame from his skill and success in wielding his axe so as to lay the forest low, but that now his fame was to be derived from another source, namely, the skill and power with which he cut down the elaborately-carved work of the sanctuary, despoiled the columns of their ornaments, and demolished the columns themselves. But another interpretation may be given to this, as has been suggested by Prof. Alexander. It is, that the ruthless enemy is known or recognized as dealing with the sanctuary no more tenderly than a woodman with the forest which he fells. The former, however, is the more natural, as well as the more common interpretation. Luther renders it, One sees the axe glitter on high, as one cuts wood in the forest. The Vulgate, and the Septuagint, The signs pointing to the entrance above that they did not know. What idea was attached to this rendering, it is impossible to determine.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 74:5
A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees.
The axe and the altar
Shall we regard the text as an epitaph on the headstone of some worker for God and the good of man, long, long ago? If so, we shall find but the merest fragment of a sentence, which you have to complete by supplying the first two words, as our translators did, when they bent over it, as it were, on hands and knees, to read it. They found no name, and, in order to make sense of the broken record, they had to prefix two words–a man; for his name, whatever it was, has been lost to us, but not to God, in the dim shadows of the past.
I. His work. We must throw our minds back to the time when the temple was in course of building. This man had no gold, or silver, or precious stones to bring: it may have been that he had little or nothing of material substance at his command; but he had strength in his brawny arm, and he gave himself, his time and his labour, and all the ardour of a loving heart to the good cause. Now he is on his way to the stately cedars with a fixed purpose clearly set in his face; he selects those that are best fitted for the roof, or for beams, or pillars, or for the doors, or other finer parts of the work that must be carved with great taste and care; and if he can do nothing else for the national undertaking, he can at least do the rough work of felling trees.
II. His motive. Nothing is said about this in the text, but we may rest assured that his work would never have found a place in the sacred minstrelsy of the ancient Church, had there not been underlying it all a noble motive. It was the cause of God in the land that made him stand forth, and which brought him out of obscurity, just as it has done with many others in seasons of religious awakening, when the peasant and the artisan have come nobly forward to fight side by side, and generously to give of their substance for what was dearer to them than life itself. If the common people are not roused to action in the interests of true godliness, the heart of the nation will never be stirred to that combined effort, which must ever be put forth to secure any permanent good, and to give vitality and stability to any great religious movement. It is, therefore, a pleasing picture to us, to see our man with his axe, which he consecrates most heartily to the cause of righteousness and truth. The work he does with it is not for personal or selfish ends, but for the nation; yea, for the world–for God Himself. It is this that gives surpassing dignity to every stroke, and makes him stand out on the page of the sacred record as a striking example of unselfish service, and true, honest work.
III. His reward.
1. This he received, in the noble enthusiasm with which he inspired others. Such a man could not but have a large following. He was from the people, and many of his comrades, animated by a similar spirit, went forth with him to do valiant things. The man who can move others for good has received a great gift, and when he makes use of it he has his reward in the number of enthusiastic followers he draws into the same path.
2. In the consciousness that he was doing good. The commendation of ones own conscience, and the sunshine of Gods approving smile, are no small part of the reward connected with any work of faith or labour of love.
3. In the sacred memorial of the text. Rough as the work of the man referred to appears to be, in the mere felling of trees, it reached the very depths, and at the same time rose to the sublimest heights of mans spiritual nature, for it was inseparably bound up with the glorious future that lies before the cause of God, in its fullest development in earth or in heaven. The marble may be broken up and crumble into dust, and every feature that genius has impressed upon it may pass away, but the influence and the record of true worth are eternal as the spirit of goodness itself, and like the word of the Lord must endure for ever. So shall it be with the memorial of this man.
4. In the Well done, thou good and faithful servant: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. He did his work for God in a loving spirit, and was called home when it was done to enter into his rest, and to receive his reward.
IV. His life-lessons.
1. It matters not whether we work with the axe or the pen, with hand or with brain; given but the power of true faith, there will be work done, and that of a kind to an extent that will surprise ourselves and others. We have all our daily tasks, and in doing them honestly and thoroughly well, we are doing nobly for ourselves, for others, and for God, and thus the toils of every day may be pervaded by the Masters spirit, and lifted up to a higher level, far above the mere drudgery of life.
2. Passing from this personal view of the work for Christ in our own hearts and in connection with His Church, let me remind you that you are all members of the general community, and as such should be deeply interested in its welfare, and ready to do your part in securing this. (A. Wallace, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
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 Lords prayer, Mat 6:10, 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 mens 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.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5, 6. Though some terms andclauses here are very obscure, the general sense is that the spoilersdestroyed the beauties of the temple with the violence of woodmen.
was famousliterally,”was known.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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:
according as he had lifted up, or “as one that lifts up”
axes upon the thick trees n; that is, the above things were as visible, and as well known, being as easy to be seen as such an action is, a man being obliged to lift his axe above his head, to cut down a thick tree: or rather the sense is, formerly a man was famous for, and it gave him some credit and esteem, to be an hewer of wood in the forest of Lebanon, where he lifted up his axe, and cut down the thick trees for the building of the temple, as the servants of Hiram king of Tyre did; and such an action was esteemed as if a man brought an offering to God; agreeably to which is Kimchi’s note,
“when the temple was built, he who lifted up his axe upon a thick tree, to cut it down for the building, was known, as if he lifted it up above in heaven before the throne of glory; all so rejoiced and gloried in the building:”
and Aben Ezra interprets it of acclamations made above on that account. The words, according to the accents, should be rendered thus, “he” or “it was known, as he that lifteth up on high; even as he that lifteth up on high, axes upon the thick tree”.
m “cognitus erat”, Munster; “noscitur”, Cocceius; “cognoscitur, innotescit”, Gejerus. n “velut adducens”, Montanus, Gejerus; “tanquam sursum tollens et desuper inducens”, Michaelis.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
5. He who lifted up the axe upon the thick trees was renowned. The prophet again aggravates still more the barbarous and brutal cruelty of the enemies of his countrymen, from the circumstance, that they savagely demolished an edifice which had been built at such vast expense, which was embellished with such beauty and magnificence, and finished with so great labor and art. There is some obscurity in the words; but the sense in which they are almost universally understood is, that when the temple was about to be built, those who cut and prepared the wood required for it were in great reputation and renown. Some take the verb מביא, mebi, in an active sense, and explain the words as meaning that the persons spoken of were illustrious and well known, as if they had offered sacrifices to God. The thickness of the trees is set in opposition to the polished beams, to show the more clearly with what exquisite art the rough and unwrought timber was brought into a form of the greatest beauty and magnificence. Or the prophet means, what I am inclined to think is the more correct interpretation, that in the thick forests, where there was vast abundance of wood, great care was taken in the selection of the trees, that none might be cut down but such as were of the very best quality. May it not perhaps be understood in this sense, That in these thick forests the trees to which the axe was to be applied were well known and marked, as being already of great height, and exposed to the view of beholders? Whatever may be as to this, the prophet, there is no doubt, in this verse commends the excellence of the material which was selected with such care, and was so exquisite, that it attracted the gaze and excited the admiration of all who saw it; even as in the following verse, by the carved or graven work is meant the beauty of the building, which was finished with unequalled art, But now it is declared, that the Chaldeans, with utter recklessness, made havoc with their axes upon this splendid edifice, as if it had been their object to tread under foot the glory of God by destroying so magnificent a structure. (223)
(223) In the English Common Prayer-Book the 5 and 6 verses are translated thus: — “He that hewed timber afore out of the thick trees was known to bring it to an excellent work. But now they break down all the carved work thereof with axes and hammers.” Dr Nicholls’ paraphrase of this is as follows: “It is well known from the sacred records of our nation to what admirable beauty the skillful hand of the artificers brought the rough cedar trees, which were cut down by the hatchets of Hiram’s woodmen in the thick Tyrian forests. But now they tear down all the curious carvings, that cost so much time and exquisite labor, with axes and hammers, and other rude instruments of iron.” “This is a clear and consistent sense of the passages” says Mant, “and affords a striking and well imagined contrast.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(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 forestthe 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 Psa. 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 (Psa. 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 Solomons Temple represented palm-trees and flowers (1Ki. 6:29), and possibly these were imitated in the second Temple; if so, the image is very appropriate.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5. Lifted up axes upon the thick trees The description, in Psa 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 carved work and panelling of the temple with hatchets and hammers, with the indifference of a woodman. This was with a view to despoiling it of its costly ornaments preparatory to setting it on fire. See this despoiling detailed, Jer 52:17-23
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 74:5-6. A man was famous, &c. They shew themselves as one lifts up axes an high, in the thicket of the trees. Psa 74:6. But now, &c. Houbigant renders it in the perfect tense; and, instead of the carved work thereof, reads, thy gates. But now they have broken down thy gates.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 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.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
was = used to be [considered]. The contrast is with “now” in the next line.
Axes. Compare Jer 46:22, Jer 46:23.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 74:5-6
Psa 74:5-6
“They seemed as men that lifted up
Axes upon a thicket of trees.
And now all the carved work thereof
They brake down with hatchet and hammers.”
These verses describe the destruction of the holy temple itself. The conquering enemy soldiers assaulted the sanctuary just like a company of woodsmen chopping down a grove of trees. “The interior walls of Solomon’s Temple were paneled with cedar and decorated with carvings of cherubim, palm trees and flowers. It was more than the mere instinct of vandals however that motivated all that chopping. ” 1Ki 6:21 f reveals that all that carved work was overlaid with pure gold.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 74:5-6. The enemies were using violence against the institutions of God. Their actions were compared to those of men attacking the trees in the forest.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
1Ki 5:6, 2Ch 2:14, Jer 46:22, Jer 46:23
Reciprocal: Isa 64:11 – holy
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 74:5-6. A man was famous, &c. The meaning, according to this translation, 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 interpretation is favoured by the opposition in the next verse. But now, &c. Some learned expositors, however, translate the first words of this verse, , not, He was famous, but, as is more literal, It is, or will be, well known; and they interpret the two verses thus: It is, or rather, will be, known or manifest; it will be published to all posterity, as matter of astonishment and admiration, that, as one lifteth up axes in the thick wood, or upon thick trees, to cut them down; so now they, the enemies above mentioned, break down the carved wood thereof, namely, of the sanctuary, with axes and hammers. It has been ingeniously observed by some, that the two words thus rendered are not Hebrew, but Chaldee or Syriac words, to point out the time when this was done, even when the Chaldeans brought in their language, together with their arms, among the Israelites. Dr. Horne thinks that the Hebrew word above mentioned may be translated a knowing, or skilful person; and then the sense is, As a skilful person, who understands his business, lifteth up the axe in the thick wood, so now men set themselves to work to demolish the ornaments and timbers of the sanctuary. They neither regard the sacredness of the place, nor the exquisite curiosity and art of the work, (here signified by the term carved work,) but cut it down as indifferently and rashly as men cut down the thick and entangled boughs of the trees of the forest. The words, adds Dr. H., suggest another reason why God should arise and have mercy upon Zion, lest his name should be blasphemed among the nations, when they saw and heard of the sacrilegious and horrible destruction wrought by the enemy; whom neither the majesty of the temple, nor the reverence of its divine inhabitant, could restrain from defacing the beauty of holiness. The ornaments of the internal and spiritual temple sometimes suffer as much from the fury of inordinate affections, as the carved work of the sanctuary ever did from the armies of Nebuchadnezzar or Antiochus.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
74:5 [A man] was famous according as he had {d} lifted up axes upon the thick trees.
(d) He commends the temple for the costly matter, the excellent workmanship and beauty of it, which nonetheless the enemies destroyed.