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Psalm 80

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

Restore us, O Elohim

1 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock; You who are enthroned above the cherubim, shine forth. 2 Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up Your might, and come to save us. 3 O Elohim, restore us; let Your face shine, that we may be saved.

4 Yahweh Elohim Tsevaot, how long will You fume against the prayer of Your people? 5 You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in full measure. 6 You make us an object of strife to our neighbors, and our enemies laugh among themselves. 7 O Elohim Tsevaot, restore us; let Your face shine, that we may be saved.

The vine out of Egypt

8 You brought a vine out of Egypt; You drove out the nations and planted it. 9 You cleared the ground before it; it took deep root and filled the land. 10 The mountains were covered with its shade, and the cedars of El with its branches. 11 It sent out its boughs to the sea, and its shoots to the River.

12 Why have You broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit? 13 The boar from the forest ravages it, and whatever moves in the field feeds on it.

14 O Elohim Tsevaot, return, we pray; look down from heaven and see, and visit this vine, 15 the stock that Your right hand planted, and the son whom You made strong for Yourself. 16 It is burned with fire; it is cut down; they perish at the rebuke of Your face. 17 Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand, upon the son of man whom You made strong for Yourself. 18 Then we will not turn back from You; revive us, and we will call on Your name. 19 Yahweh Elohim Tsevaot, restore us; let Your face shine, that we may be saved.

Notes

  • 80:1 Title: "According to Lilies" is the term of 45:T and 69:T (see the note at 45:1), and "A Testimony" (edut) is the word of 19:7. Psalm 60 has the singular joined to it, "the Lily of the Testimony" (see the note at 60:1); here shoshannim is plural and not bound to the next word, so the TRB, like many translations, writes the two terms separately. On Asaph see the note at 50:1. In Hebrew Bibles the title is verse 1, so the verse numbers there run one higher than in English Bibles. The "Shepherd of Israel" recalls Jacob's blessing of Joseph, "the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel" (Genesis 49:24), and "enthroned above the cherubim" is the name over the ark (2 Samuel 6:2). Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh (verse 2) are the tribes descended from Rachel; they camped on the west side of the tabernacle and marched right behind it (Numbers 2:18-24; 10:22-24); the psalm seems to speak for the northern tribes, and the ancient Greek title adds "concerning the Assyrian."
  • 80:3 This is the refrain of the psalm (verses 3, 7, 19). Each time the name grows: "O Elohim," then "O Elohim Tsevaot," and at last "Yahweh Elohim Tsevaot." "Restore us" (hashivenu) is literally "cause us to return," both "bring us back" and "turn us back to You"; the same verb is the cry to Elohim in verse 14, "return, we pray." "Let Your face shine" takes up the priestly blessing, "Yahweh make His face shine upon you" (Numbers 6:25): the people ask for the blessing that had been spoken over them.
  • 80:8 Israel as a vine (verses 8-16) is a picture the prophets also use (Isaiah 5:1-7; Jeremiah 2:21; Hosea 10:1). The vine is brought out of Egypt, planted in the land after the nations are driven out, and fills it from the mountains to the "cedars of El," the mightiest cedars (see the note at 36:6), from the sea to the River, the bounds promised in Deuteronomy 11:24. Then the walls are broken (verse 12, as in Isaiah 5:5) and the boar of the forest ravages it. In the Masoretic text the ayin of "forest" (verse 13) is written raised above the line, and later Jewish tradition (Talmud, Kiddushin 30a) counts it the middle letter of the Psalms. Yeshua calls Himself "the true vine" (John 15:1).
  • 80:17 Verse 17 repeats the end of verse 15, "whom You made strong for Yourself," so the "son" of the vine (ben, also used of a branch, Genesis 49:22) becomes "the son of man" (ben-adam, as in 8:4). "The man of Your right hand" may play on the name Benjamin, "son of the right hand" (verse 2). Many understand the man as Israel, Yahweh's son (Exodus 4:22), others as the king who leads it; the ancient Greek has "son of man" in verse 15 as well, and the Targum, a later Jewish Aramaic rendering, calls the son of verse 15 "King Messiah." Many Christian readers have heard in "the son of man" at Yahweh's right hand the title Yeshua used of Himself (Daniel 7:13; Psalm 110:1).

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