Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 80:12
Why hast thou [then] broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her?
12. Why &c.] The question is half expostulation, half inquiry, for Israel’s present plight is a riddle to the Psalmist.
hedges ] R.V. fences. Vineyards were always carefully fenced to protect them (Isa 5:5). Almost the same words recur in Psa 89:40-41.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Why hast thou then broken down her hedges? – Why hast thou dealt with thy people as one would with a vineyard who should break down all its enclosures, and leave it open to wild beasts? The word rendered hedges means wall or enclosure. Compare the notes at Isa 5:2.
So that all they which pass by the way – All travelers; or, wild beasts. So that there is nothing to prevent their coming up to the vine and plucking the grapes.
Do pluck her – Pluck, or pick off the grapes; or, if the phrase all which pass by the way denotes wild beasts, then the meaning is, that they eat off the leaves and branches of the vine.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 12. Why hast thou broken down] 7. When a vineyard is planted, it is properly fenced to preserve it from being trodden down, or otherwise injured by beasts, and to protect the fruit from being taken by the unprincipled passenger. So God protected Jerusalem and his temple by his own almighty arm; and none of their enemies could molest them as long as they had that protection. As it was now spoiled, it was a proof that that protection had been withdrawn; therefore the psalmist addresses the Lord with, “Why hast thou broken down her hedges?” Had God continued his protection, Jerusalem would not have been destroyed.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Broken down her hedges; taken away thy protection, which was to them for walls and bulwarks.
Pluck her; pluck up her grapes and boughs, and strike at her very root.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
12. hedges (Isa5:5).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Why hast thou then broken down her hedges,…. After having done all this for her; which signifies the Lord’s removing his presence, power, and protection, from Israel; which were the hedge he set about them, and by which they were secured and defended from their enemies; but these being gone, they became an easy prey to them; see Job 1:10, the hedge about the church and people of God are the angels that encamp about them; salvation, which is as walls and bulwarks to them; and the Lord himself, who is a wall of fire around them; which may be said to be broken down when he withdraws his presence, and does not exert his power in the protection of them; but suffers them to be exposed to the persecutions of men:
so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her? the hedge being broken down, all passengers and travellers plucked the fruit of the vine as they passed along, there being noticing to keep them off from it: this may denote the plunder of the Israelites by their enemies, when left of God, they fell into their hands; and the havoc persecutors make of the church of Christ, and their spoiling them of their goods and substance, when they are permitted to do it.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
12 Why then hast thou broken down its hedges? This is the application of the similitude; for nothing seems more inconsistent than that God should abandon the vine which he had planted with his own hand, to be rooted up by wild beasts. It is true that he often threatened and forewarned the people by his prophets that he would do this; but what constrained him to inflict upon them so strange and dreadful a species of punishment was, that he might render their ingratitude the more detestable. At the same time, it is not without reason that true believers are enjoined to take encouragement from such distinguished liberality on the part of God; that, even in the midst of this rooting up, they might at least hope that He, who never forsakes the work of his own hands, would graciously extend his care towards them, (Psa 138:8.) The people were brought to desolation, on account of their own incurable obstinacy; but God did not fail to save a small number of shoots, by means of which he afterwards restored his vine. This form of supplicating pardon was, indeed, set forth for the use of the whole people, with the view of preventing a horrible destruction. But as very few sought to appease the wrath of God by truly humbling themselves before him, it was enough that these few were delivered from destruction, that from them a new vine might afterwards spring up and flourish. The indignity which was done to the Church is aggravated from the contrast contained in the words, when God, on the one hand, is exhibited to us as a vine-keeper, and when the destroyers of this vine, on the other, are represented to be not only all that pass by, but also the wild boars and other savage beasts. The word כרסם, kiresem, which I have translated to waste, is taken by some for to fill the belly. (394) This sense would very well agree with the present passage; but it is not supported by the ordinary meaning of the word.
(394) “ יכרסמנה, ( jechar-semenna,) will destroy it Targum, Will tear it up with its tusk Fut pih From חרסם, he cut off, cut down, consumed, a quadriliteral, same as the Chaldaic קוסם. Occurs here only in Scripture, and, according to others, is compounded of כרש, a belly, as though וכרש, will fill the belly from it. ” — Bythner
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(12) Pluck.For the same image of the broken fence, and the fruit gathered by the passers by, see Psa. 89:40-41.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 80:12 Why hast thou [then] broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her?
Ver. 12. Why hast thou then broken down her hedges? ] i.e. Taken away thy mighty hand hitherto held over her. This befell not till they degenerated into a strange vine, Jer 2:21 , and brought forth wild grapes, Isa 5:4 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Why . . . ? Figure of speech Erotesis (App-6), for emphasis.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
broken: Psa 89:40, Psa 89:41, Isa 5:5, Isa 18:5, Isa 18:6, Nah 2:2, Luk 20:16
Reciprocal: Jdg 21:3 – why is Job 1:10 – an hedge Psa 44:9 – General Psa 79:1 – the heathen Jer 14:19 – utterly Lam 2:6 – he hath violently Eze 19:12 – she was Hos 2:12 – I will Amo 9:11 – close
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 80:12-13. Why hast thou broken down her hedges That is, taken away thy protection, which was to thy people for walls and bulwarks: so that all they which pass by do pluck her Pluck off her grapes, or tear off her boughs, as the word , aruah, implies. Thus the psalmist, having described the exaltation of Israel, under the figure of a vine, proceeds, under the same figure, to lament her depression. She is now represented as deprived of the protection of God, the counsels of the wise, and the arms of the valiant; of all her bulwarks and fortifications, and whatever else could contribute to her defence and security; so that, like a vineyard without a fence, she lay open, on every side, to the incursion and ravages of her neighbouring adversaries, who soon stripped her of all that was valuable, and trod her under foot. Horne. The boar of the wood doth waste it By which he means some one of their most fierce and furious enemies; and the wild beasts of the field doth devour it Some other potent enemy that made war upon and wasted them. Theodoret says, that Nebuchadnezzar was intended, and that he is very properly termed, The wild beast of the field, because he was more fierce than any other monarch. But the psalmist seems rather to refer to times antecedent to the period in which the Jews suffered so much from Nebuchadnezzar, and to intend some of their other cruel and unrelenting heathen enemies, who, like wild beasts, issuing out of a forest, invaded their country, resolved not only to spoil and plunder, but, if possible, to eradicate and extirpate this vine for ever. The metaphor of the vine is thus continued to a considerable length, and carried on very happily through the several particulars. Among the many elegances with which this allegory abounds, that nicety, observable both in the beginning and close of it, is not the least; the author sliding, as it were, from the comparison into the subject itself, and from thence into the comparison, by an almost insensible gradation. See Bishop Lowths Tenth Prelection.