Psalm 74:5–6

74:5 They invade like lumberjacks

swinging their axes in a thick forest.11

74:6 And now12 they are tearing down13 all its engravings14

with axes15 and crowbars.16

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11	tn Heb “it is known like one bringing upwards, in a thicket of wood, axes.” The Babylonian invaders destroyed the woodwork in the temple.
12	tn This is the reading of the Qere (marginal reading). The Kethib (consonantal text) has “and a time.”
13	tn The imperfect verbal form vividly describes the act as underway.
14	tn Heb “its engravings together.”
15	tn This Hebrew noun occurs only here in the OT (see H. R. Cohen, Biblical Hapax Legomena [SBLDS], 49–50).
16	tn This Hebrew noun occurs only here in the OT. An Akkadian cognate refers to a “pickaxe” (cf. NEB “hatchet and pick”; NIV “axes and hatchets”; NRSV “hatchets and hammers”).