Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 74:8
They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land.
8. They said in their heart, Let us crush them altogether:
They burned up all the meeting places of God in the land.
For the form of expression cp. Psa 83:4.
The interpretation of this verse is specially important in its bearing on the date of the Psalm. It would be a strong argument for the late date if it really contained an allusion to synagogues. Though the origin of these buildings for purposes of worship and instruction is hidden in obscurity, it can hardly have been earlier than the post-exilic period. (See Schrer, Hist. of the Jewish People, Div. ii. 27, E.T. ii. ii. 54.) But it is doubtful whether there is any such allusion. The word translated synagogues is the same as that used in Psa 74:4, meaning either place or time of meeting. In the plural it always has the latter meaning. Now if the Psalm were Maccabaean and the passage referred to synagogues, it might be expected that the LXX translators, working no long time afterwards, would have so understood it. But they do not; and apparently they had a different text before them, for they render: Come, let us cause the feasts of the Lord to cease out of the land. Similarly the Syriac. These versions then understand the words to refer to the festivals or solemn assemblies. Now the cessation of the festivals is one of the points mentioned in the Lamentations (Psa 1:4; Psa 2:6) as a special calamity; and in Hos 2:11. the Heb. word presumed by the LXX here is used in the prediction of the cessation of religious festivals in the Captivity. This reading and interpretation suit the context. The stated festivals were among the ‘signs,’ the symbols of God’s presence and favour, of which Psa 74:9 speaks.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
They said in their hearts – They purposed; they designed it.
Let us destroy them together – Let us destroy all these buildings, temples, towers, and walls at the same time; let us make an entire destruction of them all.
They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land – The phrase they have burned up must refer to the places or edifices where assemblies for public worship were held, since it cannot be supposed that the idea is that they had burned up the assemblies of worshippers themselves. The word rendered synagogues is the same in the Hebrew that is used in Psa 74:4, and is there rendered congregations. It means assemblies, persons collected together for public worship. See the notes at that verse. It is not used in the Bible to denote places for the meetings of such assemblies, nor is it elsewhere rendered synagogues. It is translated by the word seasons, Gen 1:14; Exo 13:10, et al.; set time, Gen 17:21; Exo 9:5, et al.; time appointed, Exo 23:15; 2Sa 24:15, et al.; congregation, Lev 1:1, Lev 1:3,Lev 1:5; Lev 3:2, Lev 3:8,Lev 3:13, and very often; feasts, Lev 23:2, Lev 23:4,Lev 23:37, et al.; – solemnity, Deu 31:10; Isa 33:20; – and so also, set feasts, solemn feasts, appointed feasts, etc.
But in no instance does it necessarily refer to an edifice, unless it is in the place before us. There is no reason, however, for doubting that, from the necessity of the case, in the course of events, there would be other places for assembling for the worship of God than the temple, and that in different cities, villages, towns, and neighborhoods, persons would be collected together for some form of social religious service. Buildings or tents would be necessary for the accommodation of such assemblages; and this, in time, might be developed into a system, until in this way the whole arrangement for synagogues might have grown up in the land. The exact origin of synagogues is not indeed known. Jahn (Biblical Archaeology, Section 344) supposes that they sprang up during the Babylonian captivity, and that they had their origin in the fact that the people, when deprived of their customary religious privileges, would collect around some prophet, or other pious man, who would teach them and their children the duties of religion, exhort them to good conduct, and read to them out of the sacred books.
Compare Eze 14:1; Eze 20:1; Dan 6:11; Neh 8:18. There seems, however, no good reason for doubting that synagogues may have existed before the time of the captivity, and may have sprung up in the manner suggested above from the necessities of the people, probably at first without any fixed rule or law on the subject, but as convenience suggested, and that they may at last, by custom and law, have grown into the regular form which they assumed as a part of the national worship. Compare Kittos Encyc. Art. synagogue. I see no improbability, therefore, in supposing that the word here may refer to such edifices at the time when this psalm was composed. These, if they existed, would naturally be destroyed by the Chaldeans, as well as the temple itself.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 74:8
They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land.
The synagogues of God
We do not know the precise circumstances under which this psalm was written. But we thank God our synagogues are not destroyed as were those of the Jews.
I. Let us glance at the synagogues of Judaea and in the ancient world. And we note–
1. That they express one of the greatest marvels of Providence. They were to be the places where, and by means of which, the message of the Gospel was to be delivered. The Jews had synagogues everywhere, and thus God by His providence had prepared the field in which first the Gospel seed was sown.
2. They were intimately connected with our Lords work.
3. And with the ministry of the apostles.
II. At the synagogues of God to-day. The word means a coming together, and it expresses an essential idea of Christian worship. And they are synagogues of God. This the main thing. There God works and blesses souls. And think of them all, and of those especially in our own land. May Gods power be manifested in them more and more. (J. Aldis.)
The synagogue a post-exilian institution
Dr. Prideux affirms that the Jews had no synagogues before the Babylonish captivity; for the main service of the synagogue being the reading of the law unto the people, where there was no book of the law to be read, there certainly would be no synagogue. How rare the book of the law was through all Judaea before the captivity, many texts of Scripture tell us. Dr. Fairbairn, in support of the same view, says, There is every reason to think that this psalm was composed during the Babylonish captivity, and was intended to describe the desolation which had been brought by the Chaldeans upon all the sacred spots of Palestine. The word for synagogue in the original, however, properly expresses the places of the revelation of God, and can refer only to the temple, that one place on which God had chosen to put His name.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 8. Let us destroy them] Their object was totally to annihilate the political existence of the Jewish people.
They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land.] It is supposed that there were no synagogues in the land till after the Babylonish captivity. How then could the Chaldeans burn up any in Judea? The word moadey, which we translate synagogues, may be taken in a more general sense, and mean any places where religious assemblies were held: and that such places and assemblies did exist long before the Babylonish captivity, is pretty evident from different parts of Scripture. It appears that Elisha kept such at his house on the sabbaths and new moons. See 2Kg 4:23. And perhaps to such St. James may refer, Ac 15:23, a species of synagogues, where the law was read of old, in every city of the land. And it appears that such religious meetings were held at the house of the Prophet Ezekiel, Eze 33:31. And perhaps every prophet’s house was such. This is the only place in the Old Testament where we have the word synagogue. Indeed, wherever there was a place in which God met with patriarch or prophet, and any memorial of it was preserved, there was a moed, or place of religious meeting; and all such places the Chaldeans would destroy, pursuant to their design to extinguish the Jewish religion, and blot out all its memorials from the earth. And this was certainly the most likely means to effect their purpose. How soon would Christianity be destroyed in England if all the churches, chapels, and places of worship were destroyed, and only the poor of the people left in the land; who, from their circumstances, could not build a place for the worship of God! After such desolation, what a miracle was the restoration of the Jews!
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Destroy them together, root and branch, one as well as another, or all at once. So they desired, and many of them intended, although afterwards, it seems, they changed their counsel, and carried some away captives, and left others to manage the land.
All the synagogues of God in the land, i.e. all the public places wherein the Jews used to meet together to worship God every sabbath day, as is noted, Act 13:27, and upon other occasions. That the Jews had such synagogues is manifest, both from these and other places of Scripture; and from the testimony of the Hebrew doctors, and other ancient and learned writers, who affirm it, and particularly of Jerusalem, in which they say there were above four hundred synagogues; and from the nature and necessity of the thing; for seeing it is undeniable that they did worship God publicly, in every sabbath, and other holy times, even then when they neither did nor could go up to Jerusalem, both conscience and prudence must needs direct them to appoint convenient places for that purpose.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. togetherat once, allalike.
synagoguesliterally,”assemblies,” for places of assembly, whether such asschools of the prophets (2Ki 4:23),or “synagogues” in the usual sense, there is much doubt.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
They said in their hearts, let us destroy them together,…. The Targum is,
“their children, are together;”
or “their kindred”, as the Septuagint Vulgate Latin, Ethiopic, and Arabic versions, taking the word to be of , which signifies a “son”; and the sense to be, that seeing they were all together, as the Jews were at the taking of Jerusalem, they might be cut off at once. Jarchi explains it of their rulers; Marinus, as Aben Ezra observes, derives it from a word which signifies to afflict and oppress, to which he agrees; see Ps 83:3,
they have burnt up all the synagogues of God in the land; not only in Jerusalem, where there were, the Jewish q writers say, four hundred and sixty, and others four hundred and eighty of them, but also in all the land of Judea; of these synagogues there is much mention made in the New Testament; they were places for public worship, in which, prayer was made, and the Scriptures were read and explained; see Mt 6:5, but it may be doubted whether they are meant here, since it does not appear that there were any until after the return of the Jews from Babylon r; the temple, and the parts of it, may be meant, as Jarchi and Aben Ezra; or the schools of the prophets; though the psalm may refer to times after the Babylonish captivity, and so may design Jewish synagogues, and even take in places of worship among Christians.
q T. Hieros. Cetubot, fol. 35. 3. & Megillah, fol. 73. 4. r Vid. Vitringam de Synagog. Vet. l. 1. par. 2. c. 9. Reland. Antiqu. Heb. par. 1. c. 16. sect. 3. Burmannum de Synagogis disp. I. sect. 9.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
8. They have said in their heart, Let us destroy them all together. To express the more forcibly the atrocious cruelty of the enemies of the Church, the prophet introduces them speaking together, and exciting one another to commit devastation without limit or measure. His language implies, that each of them, as if they had not possessed enough of courage to do mischief, stirred up and stimulated his fellow to waste and destroy the whole of God’s people, without leaving so much as one of them. In the close of the verse he asserts that all the synagogues were burned. I readily take the Hebrew word מועדים, moadim, in the sense of synagogues, (225) because he says ALL the sanctuaries, and speaks expressly of the whole land. It is a frigid explanation which is given by some, that these enemies, upon finding that they could not hurt or do violence to the sanctuary of God in heaven, turned their rage against the material temple or synagogues. The prophet simply complains that they were so intent upon blotting out the name of God, that they left not a single corner on which there was not the mark of the hand of violence. The Hebrew word מועדים, moadim, is commonly taken for the sanctuary; but when we consider its etymology, it is not inappropriately applied to those places where the holy assemblies were wont to be held, not only for reading and expounding the prophets, but also for calling upon the name of God. The wicked, as if the prophet had said, have done all in their power to extinguish and annihilate the worship of God in Judea.
(225) It has been objected, that if this psalm was composed at the time of the captivity of the Jews by Nebuchadnezzar, and the desolation of the Holy Land by the Chaldeans, מועדי, moadey, cannot signify synagogues, because the Jews had no synagogues for public worship or public instruction till after the Babylonish captivity. Accordingly, Dr Prideaux thinks that the Proseuchae are meant. These were courts resembling those in which the people prayed at the tabernacle, and afterwards at the temple, built by those who lived at a distance from Jerusalem, and who were unable at all times to resort thither. They were erected as places in which the Jews might offer up their daily prayers. “They differed,” says Prideaux, “from synagogues in several particulars. For, first, In synagogues the prayers were offered up in public forms in common for the whole congregation; but in the Proseuchae they prayed as in the temple, every one apart for himself. Secondly, The synagogues were covered houses; but the Proseuchae were open courts, built in the manner of forums, which were open enclosures. Thirdly, Synagogues were all built within the cities to which they did belong; but the Proseuchae without.” — Connection of the History, etc., Part 1, Book 6, pages 139-141. Synagogues were afterwards used for the same purpose as the Proseuchae, and hence both come to be designated by the same name. The same author supposes that those places in the cities of the Levites, and the schools of the prophets, whither the people resorted for instruction, having been called, as well as the Proseuchae, מועדי-אל, moadey-el, are also here intended. “The word מועדי, moadey, ” says Dr Adam Clarke, “which we translate synagogues, may be taken in a more general sense, and mean any places where religious assemblies were held; and that such places and assemblies did exist long before the Babylonish captivity is pretty evident from different parts of Scripture.” See 2Kg 4:23; Eze 33:31; Act 15:21. All such places were consumed to ashes by the hostile invaders whose ravages are bewailed, it having been their purpose to extinguish for ever the Jewish religion, and, as the most likely means of effecting their object, to destroy every memorial of it.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(8) All the synagogues of God in the land.This expression excludes from moed either of the meanings possible for it in Psa. 74:4, the Temple or the assembly. Buildings, and these places of worship, must be meant, and it is implied that they are scattered over the land, and can therefore mean nothing but synagogues. The high places would not be called Gods, nor would Bethel and Dan have been so called, being connected with irregular and unorthodox worship. Thus we have a clear note of time, indicating a period not only later than the rise of the synagogue in Ezras time, but much later, since it takes time for a new institution to spread over a country. Aquila and Symmachus actually render synagogues. Possibly the LXX. are right in putting the latter clause into the mouth of the enemies, let us burn, &c
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. They said Let us destroy them together We will destroy them at once: or utterly; that is, all the sacred places of Jehovah.
They have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land The synagogue proper dates during and after the captivity, and the word is not to be taken here in the restricted sense which it afterward received, but in the general sense of sacred places of meeting, or assembly, perhaps like the proseuchae places of prayer mostly in the open field, or by the river side. Thus, Act 16:16: “As we went to prayer,” , to the place of prayer. Such oratories they might have had before the exile. Germs of them appear in the time of Samuel. 1Sa 9:12 ; 1Sa 10:5. Later, the “schools of the prophets” were gatherings for instruction and devotion, open, it would seem, to all who would come. Such gatherings also seem implied in 2Ki 4:23, and other places. But “synagogues of God” certainly is not a happy rendering of , which simply means, meetingplaces of God. In Lam 2:6, it is rendered “places of the assembly.” The root of the verb means simply to gather, particularly at set times and for religious purposes; though in Psa 75:2, it applies to a judicial assembly, or court. The object of the enemy was, as alluded to in the text, to destroy all places of religious worship or resort, and break up and annihilate all vestiges of the Hebrew system of religion.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 74:8 They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land.
Ver. 8. Let us destroy them together ] “Them,” that is, the saints; let us prey upon them, as hawks do upon doves: or “them,” that is, the temples and schools; these the devil ever sought to destroy, as contrary to his kingdom; and so he doth still by the Turks and Papists and other heretics.
They have burnt up all the synayoyues
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
together: or, at once.
synagogues = meeting-places. See note on “congregations”, Psa 74:4. This rendering comes from the Septuagint
GOD. Hebrew El. App-4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
said: Psa 83:4, Psa 137:7, Est 3:8, Est 3:9
destroy: Heb. break
all the synagogues: 2Ki 2:3, 2Ki 2:5, 2Ki 4:23, 2Ch 17:9, Mat 4:23
Reciprocal: Psa 35:25 – say Psa 79:1 – holy Psa 83:12 – General Psa 94:5 – break Psa 124:3 – Then they Lam 1:9 – for
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
74:8 They said in their {e} hearts, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land.
(e) They encouraged one another to cruelty, that not only God’s people might be destroyed, but also his religion utterly in all places suppressed.