Psalms 74

1 God, why have you abandoned/rejected us? Will you keep rejecting us forever [RHQ]? Why are you angry with us, since we are like sheep in your pasture [and you are like our shepherd]? [MET, RHQ]

An instruction: of Asaph. Why, O God, hast thou cast off for ever? [why] doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?

2 Do not forget your people whom you chose long ago, the people whom you freed [from being slaves in Egypt] and caused to become your tribe. Do not forget Jerusalem, which was (your home/where you dwelt) [on this earth].

Remember thine assembly, which thou hast purchased of old, which thou hast redeemed [to be] the portion of thine inheritance, this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.

3 Walk along [and see] where everything has been totally ruined; our enemies have destroyed everything in the sacred temple.

Lift up thy steps unto the perpetual desolations: everything in the sanctuary hath the enemy destroyed.

4 Your enemies shouted triumphantly in this sacred place; they erected their banners [to show they had defeated us].

Thine adversaries roar in the midst of thy place of assembly; they set up their signs [for] signs.

5 They cut down all the [engraved objects in the temple] like woodsmen cut down trees.

[A man] was known as he could lift up axes in the thicket of trees;

6 Then they smashed all the carved wood with their axes and hammers.

And now they break down its carved work altogether, with hatchets and hammers.

7 [Then] they burned your temple to the ground; they caused that place where you were worshiped to be unfit for people to worship in.

They have set on fire thy sanctuary, they have profaned the habitation of thy name to the ground.

8 They said to themselves, “We will destroy the Israelis completely,” and they [also] burned down all the other places where we gathered to worship God.

They said in their heart, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all God's places of assembly in the land.

9 All our sacred symbols (OR, miracles) are gone; there are no prophets now/any more, and no one knows how long [this situation will continue].

We see not our signs; there is no more any prophet, neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.

10 God, how long will our enemies make fun of you [RHQ]? Will they insult you [MTY] forever [RHQ]?

How long, O God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy contemn thy name for ever?

11 Why do you refuse to help [MTY, RHQ] us? Why do you keep your hand inside your cloak [instead of using it to destroy our enemies] [RHQ]?

Why withdrawest thou thy hand, and thy right hand? [pluck it] out of thy bosom: consume [them].

12 God, you have been our king [all the time] since we came out of Egypt [HYP], and you have enabled us to defeat [our enemies] in the land [of Israel].

But God is my king of old, accomplishing deliverances in the midst of the earth.

13 By your power you caused the [Red] Sea to divide; [it was as though] you smashed the heads of the [rulers of Egypt who were like] huge sea dragons [MET].

Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength; thou didst break the heads of the monsters on the waters:

14 [It was as though] you crushed the head of the king of Egypt [MET] and gave his body to the animals in the desert to eat.

Thou didst break in pieces the heads of leviathan, thou gavest him to be meat to those that people the desert.

15 You caused springs and streams to flow, and you [also] dried up rivers that had never dried up previously.

Thou didst cleave fountain and torrent, thou driedst up ever-flowing rivers.

16 You created the days and the nights, and you put the sun and the moon in their places.

The day is thine, the night also is thine; thou hast prepared the moon and the sun:

17 You determined where the oceans end and the land begins, and you created the summer/hot season and the winter/cold season.

Thou hast set all the borders of the earth; summer and winter — thou didst form them.

18 Yahweh, do not forget that your enemies laugh at you, and that it is foolish people who despise you [MTY].

Remember this, that an enemy hath reproached Jehovah, and a foolish people have contemned thy name.

19 Do not let your helpless people [MET] fall into the hands of their cruel enemies; do not forget your suffering/persecuted people.

Give not up the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the wild beast; forget not the troop of thine afflicted for ever.

20 Do not forget the agreement that you made with us; remember that there are violent people in every dark place on the earth.

Have respect unto the covenant; for the dark places of the earth are full of the dwellings of violence.

21 Do not allow your oppressed people to be disgraced; help those poor and needy people in order that they will [again] praise you [MTY].

Oh let not the oppressed one return ashamed; let the afflicted and needy praise thy name.

22 God, arise and defend yourself [by defending your people]! Do not forget that foolish people laugh at you (all day long/continually)!

Rise up, O God, plead thine own cause: remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee all the day;

23 Do not forget that your enemies shout angrily [at you]; the uproar that they make [while they oppose you] never stops.

Forget not the voice of thine adversaries: the tumult of those that rise up against thee ascendeth continually.