(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.
Verse 13. - The boar out of the wood doth waste it. The "boar out of the wood," i.e. the wild boar - is probably Tiglath-pileser (2 Kings 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. Jeremiah 5:6).
80:8-16 The church is represented as a vine and a vineyard. The root of this vine is Christ, the branches are believers. The church is like a vine, needing support, but spreading and fruitful. If a vine do not bring forth fruit, no tree is so worthless. And are not we planted as in a well-cultivated garden, with every means of being fruitful in works of righteousness? But the useless leaves of profession, and the empty boughs of notions and forms, abound far more than real piety. It was wasted and ruined. There was a good reason for this change in God's way toward them. And it is well or ill with us, according as we are under God's smiles or frowns. When we consider the state of the purest part of the visible church, we cannot wonder that it is visited with sharp corrections. They request that God would help the vine. Lord, it is formed by thyself, and for thyself, therefore it may, with humble confidence, be committed to thyself.
The boar out of the wood doth waste it,.... As Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, who carried the ten tribes captive; the title of this psalm in the Septuagint version is, a psalm for the Assyrian. Vitringa, on Isaiah 24:2 interprets this of Antiochus Epiphanes, to whose times he thinks the psalm refers; but the Jews (r) of the fourth beast in Daniel 7:7, which designs the Roman empire: the wild boar is alluded to, which lives in woods and forests (s), and wastes, fields, and vineyards:
and the wild beast of the field doth devour it; as Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who carried the two tribes captive, and who for a while lived among and lived as the beasts of the field; both these, in their turns, wasted and devoured the people of Israel; see Jeremiah 50:17. Jarchi interprets this of Esau or Edom, that is, Rome; and says the whole of the paragraph respects the Roman captivity; that is, their present one; but rather the words describe the persecutors of the Christian church in general, comparable to wild boars and wild beasts for their fierceness and cruelty; and perhaps, in particular, Rome Pagan may be pointed at by the one, and Rome Papal by the other; though the latter is signified by two beasts, one that rose out of the sea, and the other out of the earth; which have made dreadful havoc of the church of Christ, his vine, and have shed the blood of the saints in great abundance; see Revelation 12:3, unless we should rather by the one understand the pope, and by the other the Turk, as the Jews interpret them of Esau and of Ishmael.
(r) Gloss. in T. Bab. Pesachim, fol. 118. 2.((s) Homer. Odyss. xix. v. 439.
"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.
and the wild beast of the field doth devour it; as Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who carried the two tribes captive, and who for a while lived among and lived as the beasts of the field; both these, in their turns, wasted and devoured the people of Israel; see Jeremiah 50:17. Jarchi interprets this of Esau or Edom, that is, Rome; and says the whole of the paragraph respects the Roman captivity; that is, their present one; but rather the words describe the persecutors of the Christian church in general, comparable to wild boars and wild beasts for their fierceness and cruelty; and perhaps, in particular, Rome Pagan may be pointed at by the one, and Rome Papal by the other; though the latter is signified by two beasts, one that rose out of the sea, and the other out of the earth; which have made dreadful havoc of the church of Christ, his vine, and have shed the blood of the saints in great abundance; see Revelation 12:3, unless we should rather by the one understand the pope, and by the other the Turk, as the Jews interpret them of Esau and of Ishmael.
(r) Gloss. in T. Bab. Pesachim, fol. 118. 2.((s) Homer. Odyss. xix. v. 439.