Psalms

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Psalm 7

1 A musical composition by David, which he sang to the Lord concerning a Benjaminite named Cush. O Lord my God, in you I have taken shelter. Deliver me from all who chase me. Rescue me! 2 Otherwise they will rip me to shreds like a lion; they will tear me to bits and no one will be able to rescue me.⁠ 3 O Lord my God, if I have done what they say, or am guilty of unjust actions, 4 or have wronged my ally, or helped his lawless enemy, 5 may an enemy relentlessly chase me and catch me; may he trample me to death and leave me lying dishonored in the dust. (Selah) 6 Stand up angrily, Lord. Rise up with raging fury against my enemies. Wake up for my sake, and execute the judgment you have decreed for them. 7 The countries are assembled all around you; take once more your rightful place over them. 8 The Lord judges the nations.⁠ Vindicate me, Lord, because I am innocent, because I am blameless, O Exalted One. 9 May the evil deeds of the wicked come to an end. But make the innocent secure, O righteous God, you who examine hearts and kidneys³².⁠ 10 The Exalted God is my shield, the one who delivers the morally upright. 11 God is a just judge; he is angry throughout the day. 12 If a person does not repent, God will wield his sword. He has prepared to shoot his bow. 13 He has prepared deadly weapons to use against him; he gets ready to shoot flaming arrows. 14 See the one who is pregnant with wickedness, who conceives destructive plans, and gives birth to harmful lies— 15 he digs a pit and then falls into the hole he has made.⁠ 16 He becomes the victim of his own destructive plans— and the violence he intended for others falls on his own head. 17 I will thank the Lord for his justice; I will sing praises to the Lord Most High!

Texts in conversation

Compare Psalm 7:15 and 2 Maccabees 9:6

Hebrew Bible · Deuterocanon

Summary

2 Maccabees describes Antiochus IV suffering the same violent fate he intended for others, using the language of Psalm 7 to describe a reversal in which destructive plans ironically happen to those who plan them.

Passages

Psalm 7:15

Hebrew Bible

13 He has prepared deadly weapons to use against him; he gets ready to shoot flaming arrows. 14 See the one who is pregnant with wickedness, who conceives destructive plans, and gives birth to harmful lies— 15 he digs a pit and then falls into the hole he has made. 16 He becomes the victim of his own destructive plans— and the violence he intended for others falls on his own head. 17 I will thank the Lord for his justice; I will sing praises to the Lord Most High!

600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

2 Maccabees 9:6

Deuterocanon

4 Being overcome by his anger, he planned to make the Jews suffer for the evil deeds of those who had put him to flight. Therefore, with judgment from heaven even now accompanying him, he ordered his charioteer to drive without ceasing until he completed the journey; for he arrogantly said this: “I will make Jerusalem a common graveyard of Jews when I come there.” 5 But the All-seeing Lord, the God of Israel, struck him with a fatal and invisible stroke. As soon as he had finished speaking this word, an incurable pain of the bowels seized him, with bitter torments of the inner parts— 6 and that most justly, for he had tormented other men’s bowels with many and strange sufferings. 7 But he in no way ceased from his rude insolence. No, he was filled with even more arrogance, breathing fire in his passion against the Jews, and giving orders to hasten the journey. But it came to pass moreover that he fell from his chariot as it rushed along, and having a grievous fall was tortured in all of the members of his body.

160–63 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Maccabees

References

"... The plea for the Lord “to look upon” Jews who suffer oppression recalls Lord’s decisive “looking upon” Israel to deliver them from Egypt (1:27; compare Exodus 2:25). The epitome picks up this strand to begin the reversal of fortunes in Jerusalem and Israel as the people pray that the Lord would look upon them (2 Maccabees 8:2; compare 7:6). The description of the Jews as “rejected and despised” reflects the humiliation of the exiles (Isaiah 49:7). The deliverance of Israel would reveal to the gentile oppressors that the Lord is God (1:27). This theme derives from Hezekiah’s prayer in the temple as Sennacherib’s forces surrounded Jerusalem, Solomon’s petition at the dedication of the First Temple, and the effect of the exiles returning to Judah according to Deutero–Isaiah (Isaiah 37:20; 1 Kings 8:60; Isaiah 40:5; 45:3; 49:26). In 2 Maccabees, Antiochus IV Epiphanes is the gentile adversary whose afflictions provoke him to acknowledge that the Lord of Israel is God, but at a point in time that is too late to save him (2 Maccabees 9:12, 17–18). Retributive theology associates the petition to afflict the adversaries in the festal letter with the fate of Antiochus IV Epiphanes in the epitome. The verb “to punish” (2 Maccabees 1:28) describes both the torture that the king inflicted upon the Jews and also the affliction he eventually suffered in return (9:6; 7:13, 17). The arrogance of oppressors points to the disposition, which Antiochus manifested in his attacks on the temple but which also, by the king’s own admission, hastened his death ..."

Michael W. Duggan, “Rediscoveries in Judaism: The Temple and the Return to Israel in 2 Macc 1:10–2:18,” in On Wings of Prayer: Sources of Jewish Worship: Essays in Honor of Professor Stefan C. Reif on the Occasion of His Seventy-Fifth Birthday, ed. Stefan C. Reif et al. (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2019), 83–99.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Psalms150 psalms

Compare Psalm 7:15 and 2 Maccabees 9:6

Summary

Passages

Psalm 7:15

2 Maccabees 9:6

References

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