Psalms 80:13

Psa 80:13 The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it.

Ver. 13. The boar out of the wood] All swine (but wild ones especially) are vitibus inimici, saith Theodoret, destructions to vines. And Melancthon thinks that therefore God forbad the Jews to eat swine’s flesh, Eo quod sues omnia sursum deorsum vertant vastentque, because they turn up all, rooting things up by the roots, as the word here signifieth, Exvineavit, ελυμηνατο αυτην (Sept.). Austin understands it of Vespasian, others of Antiochus, or Antichrist.

And the wild beast] The soldiers, 2Ch 25:18.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Psa_80:13

The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it.

People to be feared

By this homely but expressive figure, the text sets forth the bad influences which in olden time broke in upon Gods heritage, as with swines foot trampling, and as with swines snout uprooting the vineyards of prosperity. What was true then is true now. There have been enough trees of righteousness planted to overshadow the whole earth, had it not been for the axemen who hewed them down.

I. I propose to point out to you those whom I consider to be the uprooting and devouring classes of society.

1. First, the public criminals. What is the fire that burns your store down compared with the conflagration which consumes your morals? What is the theft of the gold and silver from your money safe compared with the theft of your childrens virtue?

2. Again: in this class of uprooting and devouring population are untrustworthy officials (Ecc_10:16). It is a great calamity to a city when bad men get into public authority. Too great leniency to criminals is too great severity to society.

3. Again: among the uprooting and devouring classes in our midst, are the idle. When the French nobleman was asked why he kept busy when he had so large a property, he said: I keep on engraving so I may not hang myself. I do not care who the man is, you cannot afford to be idle. It is from the idle classes that the criminal classes are made up. Character, like water, gets putrid if it stands still too long.

4. Again: among the uprooting classes I place the oppressed poor. While there is no excuse for criminality, even in oppression, I state it as a simple fact that much of the scoundrelism of the community is consequent upon ill-treatment. There are many men and women battered and bruised, and stung until the hour of despair has come, and they stand with the ferocity of a wild beast, which, pursued until it can run no longer, turns round, foaming and bleeding, to fight the hounds. I want you to know who are the uprooting classes of society.

II. Because I want you to be more discriminating in your charities. Because I want your hearts open with generosity, and your hands open with charity. Because I want you to be made the sworn friends of all city evangelization, and all newsboys lodging houses, and all Howard missions, and Childrens Aid Societies. But more than that, I have preached the sermon because I thought in the contrast you would see how very kindly God had dealt with you, and I thought that you would go to-day to your comfortable homes, and sit at your well-filled tables, and look at the round faces of your children, and that then you would burst into tears at the review of Gods goodness to you, and that you would go to your room and lock the door; and kneel down, and say: O Lord, I have been an ingrate; make me Thy child. (T. De Witt Talmage.)

Ecclesiastical ruins

Whatever may have been the period when this psalm was written, it is a remarkable fact that it has been suitable for every age, from the days of the Judges until now, and been found expressive of the prayer and outlook of the people of the Lord. Failure has ever attended the ecclesiastical systems of earth. The theocracy which Joshua left was soon in ruins. The magnificent and well-ordered temple ritual organized by David and established by Solomon did not continue in its glory for one generation. Again and again it was restored by reforms, but grew worse and worse till the Lord Christ came. Then followed the Christian Church; but as that slowly rose into power it became a degenerate vine, and Catholicism grew to be such a curse that one-third of the Christian world rose in open protest, and the revolt of another third was stifled with blood. Then came the Reformed Churches. For a while they flourish, but full soon when the Master looks for fruit they bring forth wild grapes. The holiest souls in each to-day are crying, as they have through all the ages, The forest boar rends it, and the wild beast feeds upon it. This continued failure is solemn and instructive. As yet every religious system has sooner or later degenerated. Its fence has been broken down and wayfarers have mocked. Man was not made for ecclesiastical organization, but ecclesiastical organization for man. The work of the Holy Spirit of God is upon separate souls, and sometimes ecclesiastical failure drives the soul into closer communion with the true God. Grand spirits, like Asaph, are developed amidst Church disorder. Let the psalmists and the prophets, let the heroes of successive reformations, Columba and Patrick, Wickliffle and Luther, Wesley and Whitfield bear testimony to this. (J. H. Cooke.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14. (Psa 80:13) The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the beast of the field feeds upon it. For the precise sense of the word translated beast, see above, on Psa 50:11, the only other place where it occurs in such an application, being thus peculiar to the psalms which bear the name of Asaph. The essential idea conveyed by the figures of this verse is that of fierce and greedy enemies. If any more specific explanation be admissible, the wild boar may denote the Assyrian power, and the parallel term its allies and dependents. Feeds upon it, as a sheep upon its pasture. See above, on Psa 37:3.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

80:13 The surrounding nations were ceremonially unclean, like a wild boar or vicious wild animals.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

That is, as well they that hate our religion, as they that hate our persons.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 13. The boar out of the wood] Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who was a fierce and cruel sovereign. The allusion is plain. The wild hogs 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.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(13) Boar.—This is the sole mention of the wild boar in Scripture. But it must not therefore be inferred that it was rare in Palestine. (See Tristram’s Nat. Hist. Bib., p. 54.) The writer gives a sad picture of the ravage a herd of them will make in a single night. Comp.—

“In vengeance of neglected sacrifice,

On Oencus’ fields she sent a monstrous boar,

That levell’d harvests and whole forests tore.”

HOMER: Iliad (Pope’s Trans.).

Wild beast.—It seems natural, at first, to take this beast as the emblem of some particular power or oppressor, as the crocodile is of Egypt, the lion of Assyria, &c. But the general term—literally, that moving in the field (see Ps. 1:11)—makes against such an identification.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

13. The boar out of the forest doth ravage it,

And the wild beasts of the field feed on it.

“Under Hermon,” says Dr Tristram, “in the vineyard districts, we heard grievous lamentations of the damage done to the vines by the boars, which not only devour the grapes, but also munch up the bearing shoots.” Nat. Hist. of Bible, p. 56. Israel’s land is laid waste by remorseless enemies.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts,.... The Lord had been with his vine, the people of Israel, when he brought them out of Egypt, and planted and settled them in the land of Canaan, and made them a flourishing people; but had departed from them when he suffered the hedges about them to be broken down, and the boar and wild beast to enter and devour them; and here he is entreated to return and restore them to their former prosperity. So the Lord sometimes departs from his church and people, and hides his face from them; and may be said to return, when he manifests himself, shows his face and his favour again, and grants his gracious presence, than which nothing is more desirable; and if he, the Lord of hosts and armies, above and below, is with his people, none can be against them to their hurt; they have nothing to fear from any enemy:

look down from heaven: the habitation of his holiness, the high and holy place where he dwells, and his throne is, from whence he takes a survey of men and things; where he now was at a distance from his people, being returned to his place in resentment, and covered himself with a cloud from their sight; and from whence it would be a condescension in him to look on them on earth, so very undeserving of a look of love and mercy from him:

and behold; the affliction and distress his people were in, as he formerly beheld the affliction of Israel in Egypt, and sympathized with them, and brought them out of it:

and visit this vine; before described, for whom he had done such great things, and now was in such a ruinous condition; the visit desired is in a way of mercy and kind providence; so the Targum,

"and remember in mercies this vine;''

so the Lord visits his chosen people by the mission and incarnation of his Son, and by the redemption of them by him, and by the effectual calling of them by his Spirit and grace through the ministration of the Gospel; and which perhaps may, in the mystical sense, be respected here; see Luk 1:68.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The wood; where boars use to lodge, as it is noted by many authors; by which he understands their fierce and furious enemies.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 13. 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.

Ver. 13. The boar out of the wood doth waste it. The very boar that laid her waste is a singular wild beast. Singular, because proud. For thus saith every proud one, It is I, it is I, and no other. Augustine.

Ver. 13. The boar out of the wood doth waste it. No image of a destructive enemy could be more appropriate than that which is used. We have read of the little foxes that spoil the vines, but the wild boar is a much more destructive enemy, breaking its way through fences, rooting up the ground, tearing down the vines themselves, and treading them under its feet. A single party of these animals will sometimes destroy an entire vineyard in a single night. We can well imagine the damage that would be done to a vineyard even by the domesticated swine, but the wild boar is infinitely more destructive. It is of a very great size, often resembling a donkey rather than a boar, and is swift and active beyond conception. The wild boar is scarcely recognizable as the very near relation of the domestic species. It runs with such speed, that a high bred horse finds some difficulty in overtaking it, while an indifferent steed would be left hopelessly behind. Even on level ground the hunter has hard work to overtake it; and if it can get upon broken or hilly ground, no horse can catch it. The wild boar can leap to a considerable distance, and can wheel and turn when at full speed, with an agility that makes it a singularly dangerous foe. Indeed, the inhabitants of countries where the wild boar flourishes would as soon face a lion as one of these animals, the stroke of whose razor like tusks is made with lightning swiftness, and which is sufficient to rip up a horse, and cut a dog nearly asunder. J. G. Wood, in "Bible Animals." 1869.

Ver. 13. The boar.

In vengeance of neglected sacrifice,

On Aneus' fields she sent a monstrous boar,

That levelled harvests and whole forests tore. Pope's Homer's Iliad.

Ver. 13. The wood. Or rather marsh; that is, a moist marshy piece of ground, where trees and plants flourish, and which wild beasts delight in. Such is the neighbourhood of the river Jordan, thus described by Maundrell: "After having descended to the outermost banks, you go about a furlong upon a level strand, before you come to the immediate bank of the river. The second bank is so beset with bushes and trees, such as tamarisks, willows, oleanders, and the like, that you can see no water till you have made your way through them. In this thicket anciently (and the same is reported of it to this day), several sorts of wild beasts were wont to harbour themselves." ...In these places, according to the same author, live many wild boars. Bp. Pococke in particular observed very large herds of them on the other side of Jordan, where it flows out of the Sea of Tiberias; and several of them on the same side on which he was, lying among the reeds by the sea. Richard Mant.

Ver. 13. According to the Talmud, the middle letter of the word rendered wood, in this verse, is the middle letter of the Hebrew Psalter. Daniel Cresswell.

Ver. 13. What are the greatest enemies of the Church? Where do they come from? How shall we defeat them?

Psalms 80:14*

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

13. The boar out of the wood doth waste it—Wild hogs are numerous in the East, and their destructiveness a terror to the husbandman and vine-dresser. They go in herds, led by old boars, and move with great speed and fierceness. No ordinary fence will resist them, and they soon devastate a garden, or turn up a plot or field of turf to get the roots. They are very ferocious, never hesitating to attack a man or beast if obstructed. They still inhabit northern Palestine. The wild “boar” in the text may fitly point to Tiglath-pileser, the Assyrian king, who had already “wasted” Israel, and carried away numerous captives. 2Ki_15:29; 1Ch_5:26. See note on the title of the psalm. The moral application of the figure is easily seen.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The boar out of the wood doth waste it. The "boar out of the wood," i.e. the wild boar is probably Tiglath-pileser, (2Ki_15:29) or the Assyrian power generally. And the wild beast of the field doth devour it. Other beasts, i.e. other enemies of Israel, join in and share in the plundering. (see above, ver. 6, and comp. Jer_5:6)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Why now?

have You breached its fences of that vineyard?

so that all wayfarers have plucked its fruit וארוה. All who came plucked it, as (Song 5:1): “I gathered (אריתי) my myrrh with my spices.” Similarly, in the language of the Mishnah (Shevi’ith 1:2): “as much space as is required by a picker (אורה) and his basket.”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.