Introduction
LXXIX.
The relation of this psalm to Psalms 74:0 is so close, notwithstanding some points of difference, that commentators are almost unanimous in assigning them to the same period, if not the same author. Psalms 79:1, indeed, by itself seems to point to a profanation of the Temple, such as that by Antiochus, and not a destruction like Nebuchadnezzar’s. To one of these events the psalm must refer. Great importance is attached to the similarity of Psalms 79:6-7, with Jeremiah 10:25, and it certainly looks as if the latter were an adaptation and expansion of the psalmist. Again, Psalms 79:3 (see Note) appears to be quoted in 1Ma. 7:17. On the other hand, every one allows that the best commentary on the psalm is the 1st chapter of 1 Maccabees. A Maccabæan editor may have taken a song of the Captivity period and slightly altered it to suit the events before his eyes. The psalter affords other instances of such adaptation. (See, e.g., Psalms 60:0) The verse flows smoothly, now in triplets, now in couplets.
Title.—See Title, Psalms 1:0.
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