Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 79:4
We are become a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us.
4. A repetition of Psa 44:13, with the change of ‘thou makest us’ to ‘we are become.’ Cp. Psa 80:6; Eze 22:4; Eze 25:6 ff. Dan 9:16 combines this verse with Psa 79:8 a.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
We are become a reproach to our neighbours – See the language in this verse explained in the notes at Psa 44:13. The words in the Hebrew are the same, and the one seems to have been copied from the other.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 4. We are become a reproach to our neighbours] The Idumeans, Philistines, Phoenicians, Ammonites, and Moabites, all gloried in the subjugation of this people; and their insults to them were mixed with blasphemies against God.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
We, who were their terror and scourge, are now neither feared nor pitied, but become the matter of their scoffs and reproaches. See Psa 80:6; 137:7; Eze 35:2,12, &c.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. (Compare Psa 44:13;Jer 42:18; Lam 2:15).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
We are become a reproach to our neighbours,…. That is, those that remained; so the Jews were to the Edomites, especially at the time of the Babylonish captivity, Ps 137:7,
a scorn and derision to them that are round about us; as the Christians in all ages have been to the men of the world, and especially will be insulted and triumphed over when the witnesses are slain, Re 11:10.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
4 We have been a reproach to our neighbors. Here another complaint is uttered, to excite the mercy of God. The more proudly the ungodly mock and triumph over us, the more confidently may we expect that our deliverance is near; for God will not bear with their insolence when it breaks forth so audaciously; especially when it redounds to the reproach of his holy name: even as it is said in Isaiah,
“
This is the word which the Lord hath spoken concerning him, The virgin, the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee. Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed; and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.” (Isa 37:22)
And assuredly their neighbors, (372) who were partly apostates, or the degenerate children of Abraham, and partly the avowed enemies of religion, when they molested and reproached this miserable people, did not refrain from blaspheming God. Let us, therefore, remember that the faithful do not here complain of the derision with which they were treated as individuals, but of that which they saw to be indirectly levelled against God and his law. We shall again meet with a similar complaint in the concluding part of the psalm.
(372) Street, instead of “our neighbors,” reads, “those that dwell among us;” and has the following note: — “Those foreigners who sojourn among us; לשכנינו, from שכן, to inhabit or dwell; γειτοσιν ἡμων, our neighbors, Septuagint. But that rendering does not sufficiently express the distressed and humbled state of Israel, as described in the Hebrew; they were so reduced, that not only neighboring nations, but even those foreigners who sojourned amongst them, had the insolence to deride them, even in their own country.” Dr Adam Clarke explains, We are become a reproach to our neighbors, thus: “The Idumeans, Philistines, Phoenicians, Ammonites, and Moabites, all gloried in the subjugation of this people; and their insults to them were mixed with blasphemies against God.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(4) This verse occurs Psa. 44:13. Also possibly a Maccaban psalm. (See Introduction to that psalm.)
The scenes still witnessed by travellers at the Jews wailing-place offer a striking illustration of the foregoing verses, showing, as they do, how deep-seated is the love of an ancient place in the Oriental mind. (See a striking description in Porters Giant Cities of Bashan.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. We are become a reproach scorn derision This is not the least ingredient in the punishment of sin, (see Psa 44:12-16,) and is here urged to induce God to interfere in mercy, as the reproach was also on his name.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 79:4 We are become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us.
Ver. 4. We are become a reproach to our neighbours ] To the Edomites, Philistines, Syrians, Tyrians, &c., who do now compose comedies out of our tragedies.
A scorn and derision to them that are round about us
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 79:4
Psa 79:4
“We are become a reproach to our neighbors,
A scoffing and a derision to them that are round about us.”
Psa 79:10 should be noted in this connection. The object of the taunting neighbors was to claim a triumph over the God of Israel. “Where is thy God?” Among all the nations of antiquity, any disaster that overcame a people was always considered as proof that the God or gods worshipped by that people had no power to protect them. See more on this under Psa 79:10.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 79:4. The defeat and injustice inflicted upon the nation of Israel should have caused witnesses to sympathize with them. Instead, they ridiculed them and treated them with contempt, holding them up to scorn.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
become: Psa 44:13, Psa 44:14, Psa 80:6, Psa 89:41, Deu 28:37, Jer 24:9, Jer 25:18, Jer 42:18, Lam 2:15, Lam 2:16, Lam 5:1, Eze 35:12, Eze 36:3, Eze 36:15
scorn: 1Ki 9:7, Neh 2:19, Neh 4:1-4
Reciprocal: Neh 1:3 – reproach Neh 2:17 – a reproach Psa 30:1 – hast not Psa 39:8 – make Psa 74:10 – General Isa 43:28 – and have Jer 48:27 – was not Jer 51:51 – are confounded Lam 1:7 – the adversaries Lam 3:14 – General Lam 3:46 – have Eze 5:15 – an instruction Eze 22:4 – have I Eze 36:4 – a prey Dan 9:16 – Jerusalem Joe 2:17 – and give Zec 8:13 – a curse
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 79:4. We are become a reproach, &c. We, who were the terror of our neighbours, and whom they stood in awe of, and were afraid to offend, are now neither feared nor pitied, but are become the objects of their scoffs and reproaches. For they study to abuse us and load us with contempt, upbraiding us with our sins and sufferings, and giving the lie to our relation to God, and expectations from him. If Gods professing people degenerate from what themselves and their fathers were, they must expect to be told of it; and it is well if a just reproach will help to bring them to a true repentance. But it has been the lot of the gospel Israel to be unjustly made a reproach and derision. The apostles and evangelists themselves, who were the wisest and best men that ever lived, and the greatest friends and benefactors of the human race, were counted as the filth of the world, and the offscouring of all things.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
79:4 We are become a reproach to our {d} neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us.
(d) Of which some came from Abraham but were degenerate: and others were open enemies to your religion, but they both laughed at our miseries.