Barnes' Notes on Psalms 74:6

A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.

Notes on the Whole Bible
Albert Barnes (1798–1870) · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.

But now they break down the carved work thereof ... - literally, “But now the carvings of it together, at once, with sledge and hammers they beat down.” The carved work refers evidently to the ornaments of the temple. The word used here - פתוח pittûach - is rendered engraving, carved work, or carving; Exodus 28:11, Exodus 28:21, Exodus 28:36; Exodus 39:6, Exodus 39:14, Exodus 39:30; Zechariah 3:9; 2 Chronicles 2:14. It is the very word which in 1 Kings 6:29 is applied to the ornaments around the walls of the temple - the “carved figures of cherubim, and palm trees, and open flowers,” and there can be no doubt that the allusion here is to those ornaments. These were rudely cut down, or knocked off, with axes and hammers, as a man lays low the trees of the wood. The phrase “at once” means that they drove forward the work with all despatch. They spared none of them. They treated them all alike as an axeman does the trees of a forest when his object is to clear the land. return to 'Top of Page'

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