Psalms 80:13
in Psalms 80The boar from the forest ravages it, and the creatures of the field feed upon it.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
The boar out of the wood doth ravage it, And the wild beasts of the field feed on it.
KJV
The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it.
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This verse in Psalms 80
Commentary
11 notes on this verseThe boar out of the wood doth waste it,.... As Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, who carried the ten tribes captive; the title of this psalm in the Septuagint version is, a psalm for the Assyrian.
This site's exposition
Why have You broken down its walls
on Psalms 80:12-13
The walls come down and every passerby picks the fruit. A boar from the forest ravages the vine and the creatures of the field feed on it. Barnes reads the animals as active destruction, and the text keeps them as animals.
This site's exposition
The boar from the forest ravages it
Augustine noted that the boar was unclean to Israel, so the picture casts the invader as a savage Gentile. Clarke named the boar from the forest as Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. With the walls broken down, the vine lies open.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
What is there in human life that can be safe if innocence is made the object of accusation? I am the householder who finds that while he slept the enemy has sown tares among his wheat. "The wild boar out of the wood has rooted up my vineyard, and the strange wild beast has devoured it." I keep silence, but a letter that is not mine speaks against me. I am ignorant of the crime laid against me, yet I am made to confess the crime all through the world. "Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me a man to be judged and condemned in the whole earth."
"There has laid her waste the boar from the wood" [Psalm 80:13]. In the boar from the wood what do we understand? To the Jews a swine is an abomination, and in a swine they imagine as it were the uncleanness of the Gentiles. But by the Gentiles was overthrown the nation of the Jews: but that king who overthrew, was not only an unclean swine, but was also a boar. For what is a boar but a savage swine, a furious swine? "A boar from the wood has laid her waste." "From the wood," from the Gentiles. For she was a vineyard, but the Gentiles were woods. But when the Gentiles believed, there was said what? "Then there shall exult all the trees of the woods." "The boar from the wood has laid her waste; and a singular wild beast has devoured her." "A singular wild beast" is what? The very boar that laid her waste is the singular wild beast. Singular, because proud. For thus says every proud one, It is I, it is I, and no other.
[Daniel 7:7] "After this, I beheld in the night-vision, and behold, there was a fourth beast, terrible and wonderful and exceedingly strong. He had large iron teeth, devouring and crushing, and everything that was left he stamped to pieces under his feet." The fourth empire is the Roman Empire, which now occupies the entire world, and concerning which it was said in connection with the image, "Its lower legs were of iron, and part of its feet were of iron, and part of clay."
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
The devil could not hurt Job so long as God continued the hedge round about him, Job i. See how much it is the interest of any people to keep themselves in the favour of God and then they need not fear any wild beast of the field, Job v. 23 . If we provoke God to withdraw, our defence has departed from us, and we are undone.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
The boar out of the wood doth waste it. Such creatures are famous for rending and devouring vines. Babylon, like a beast from the marshes of the Euphrates, came up and wasted Judah and Israel. Fierce peoples, comparable to wild swine of the forest, warred with the Jewish nation, until it was gored and torn like a vine destroyed by greedy hogs. And the wild beast of the field doth devour it. First one foe and then another wreaked vengeance on the nation, neither did God interpose to chase them away.
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
The boar out of the wood doth waste it. Such creatures are famous for rending and devouring vines. Babylon, like a beast from the marshes of the Euphrates, came up and wasted Judah and Israel. Fierce peoples, comparable to wild swine of the forest, warred with the Jewish nation, until it was gored and torn like a vine destroyed by greedy hogs. And the wild beast of the field doth devour it. First one foe and then another wreaked vengeance on the nation, neither did God interpose to chase them away. Ruin followed ruin; the fox devoured the young shoots which had been saved from the damage wrought by the boar. Alas, poor land. How low wast thou brought! An oak or cedar might have been crushed by such ravages, but how canst thou endure it, O weak and tender vine? See what evils follow in the train of sin, and how terrible a thing it is for a people to be forsaken of their God.
The boar out of the wood - Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who was a fierce and cruel sovereign. The allusion is plain. The wild hops and buffaloes make sad havoc in the fields of the Hindoos, and in their orchards: to keep them out, men are placed at night on covered stages in the fields.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
The boar out of the wood - Men come in and ravage the land, whose character may be compared with the wild boar. The word rendered boar means simply swine. The addition of the phrase “out of the wood” determines its meaning here, and shows that the reference is to wild or untamed swine; swine that roam the woods - an animal always extremely fierce and savage. Doth waste it - The word used here occurs nowhere else. It means to cut down or cut off; to devour; to lay waste. And the wild beast of the field - Of the unenclosed field; or, that roams at large - such as lions, panthers, tigers, wolves. The word here used - זיז zı̂yz - occurs besides only in Psa 50:11; and Isa 66:11. In Isa 66:11, it is rendered abundance. Doth devour it - So the people from abroad consumed all that the land produced, or thus they laid it waste.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| יְכַרְסְמֶ֣נָּֽה | yekharsemenah | it eats away it | H3765 → | |
| חֲזִ֣יר | chazir | wild boar | H2386 → | |
| מִיָּ֑עַר | miyaar | from [the] forest | H3293 → | 59 times |
| וְזִ֖יז | veziz | and moving creature[s] of | H2123 → | |
| שָׂדַ֣י | sadai | [the] field | H7704 → | 334 times |
| יִרְעֶֽנָּה׃ | yirenah | it grazes on it | H7462 → | 177 times |
יְכַרְסְמֶ֣נָּֽהit eats away it
yekharsemenahH3765 →
חֲזִ֣ירwild boar
chazirH2386 →
מִיָּ֑עַרfrom [the] forest
miyaarH3293 →59 times
וְזִ֖יזand moving creature[s] of
vezizH2123 →
שָׂדַ֣י[the] field
sadaiH7704 →334 times
יִרְעֶֽנָּה׃it grazes on it
yirenahH7462 →177 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 4:7A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations has set out. He has left his lair to lay waste your land. Your cities will be reduced to ruins and…
it leads to
- Ezekiel 26:7–10
For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I will bring against Tyre from the north Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, with horses and chariots, with cavalry and a great company…
- Jeremiah 5:6
Therefore a lion from the forest will strike them down, a wolf from the desert will ravage them. A leopard will lie in wait near their cities, and everyone who ventures out will be…
- Jeremiah 2:15
The young lions have roared at him; they have growled with a loud voice. They have laid waste his land; his cities lie in ruins, without inhabitant.
- Isaiah 1:7
Your land is desolate; your cities are burned with fire. Foreigners devour your fields before you—a desolation demolished by strangers.
- Isaiah 6:11
Then I asked: “How long, O Lord?” And He replied: “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left unoccupied and the land is desolate and ravaged,
- Ezekiel 26:7–10
Through
Jeremiah 5:6Therefore a lion from the forest will strike them down, a wolf from the desert will ravage them. A leopard will lie in wait near their cities, and everyone who ventures out will be…
it leads to
- Jeremiah 4:7
A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations has set out. He has left his lair to lay waste your land. Your cities will be reduced to ruins and…
- Habakkuk 1:8
Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves of the night. Their horsemen charge ahead, and their cavalry comes from afar. They fly like a vulture, swooping down to devour.
- Zephaniah 3:3
Her princes are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves, leaving nothing for the morning.
- Jeremiah 4:7
Where this verse is studied
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About Psalms
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 80; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 4; Jerome, Against Rufinus 2.24; Jerome, St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel, CHAPTER SEVEN; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.