to break out (in many applications · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
hedges
גְדֵרֶ֑יהָge.de.Rei.ha
H1447
a circumvallation · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
pass
עֹ֥בְרֵיoe.rei
H5674
to cross over · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural construct
way
דָֽרֶךְDa.rekh
H1870
a road (as trodden) · noun, common both genders singular absolute
pluck
וְ֝אָר֗וּהָve.'a.Ru.ha
H717
to pluck · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person common plural + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Isaiah 5:5 And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down t…
Psalms 89:40-41 Thou hast broken down all his hedges; thou hast brought his strong holds to ruin.
Luke 20:16 He shall come and destroy these husbandmen, and shall give the vineyard to others. And when they heard it, they said, God forbid.
Isaiah 18:5-6 For afore the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning…
Nahum 2:2 For the LORD hath turned away the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel: for the emptiers have emptied them out, and marred their…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 80:8–end
The psalmist is here presenting his suit for the Israel of God, and pressing it home at the throne of grace, pleading with God for mercy and grace for them. The church is here represented as a vine (Psa 80:8, Psa 80:14) and a vineyard, Psa 80:15. The root of this vine is Christ, Rom 11:18. The branches are believers, Joh 15:5. The church is like a vine, weak and needing support, unsightly and having an unpromising outside, but spreading and fruitful, and its fruit most excellent. The church is a choice and noble vine; we have reason to acknowledge the goodness of God that he has planted such a vine in the wilderness of this world, and preserved it to this day. Now observe here,
I. How the vi…
Why hast thou then broken down her hedges,.... After having done all this for her; which signifies the Lord's removing his presence, power, and protection, from Israel; which were the hedge he set about them, and by which they were secured and defended from their enemies; but these being gone, they became an easy prey to them; see Job 1:10, the hedge about the church and people of God are the angels that encamp about them; salvation, which is as walls and bulwarks to them; and the Lord himself, who is a wall of fire around them; which may be said to be broken down when he withdraws his presence, and does not exert his power in the protection of them; but suffers them to be exposed to the per…
Psalm 80:8-13
8. Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast expelled the heathen, and planted it. 9. Thou hast cleansed the ground before it: thou hast rooted its roots, and it hath filled the land. 10. The mountains were covered with its shadow, and its branches were like the cedars of God. [389] 11. It extended its branches to the sea, and its shoots to the river. [390] 12. Why then hast thou broken down its hedges, so that all who pass by the way pluck [or tear] it in pieces? 13. The boar out of the forest [391] hath wasted it; [392] and the wild beast of the field hath eaten it up.
8 Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt. Under the figure of a vine, the singular grace which God w…
The Church Fathers
No one who stands blasphemes Jesus, nor anyone who walks aright; for it was those passing by who blasphemed him (or, as the Greek has it, those going past), who also, once the fence of the vineyard has been broken down by God, gather as their vintage those who have remained; for it is written: "Why have you cast down its fence, and all who pass by the way gather it as their vintage?" So long, therefore, as anyone has not passed by the way nor turned aside from the way, or, standing, can say to God: you have set "my feet upon a rock", he does not blaspheme Jesus; but if he has fallen or gone past or crossed over or turned aside, then he blasphemes him. As, further, those who have fallen into evil works, and those who have forsaken "the eternal bounds" and the way of the heavenly church, and are tossed and carried about "by every wind of doctrine in the deceit of men, in craftiness for the contriving of error". For if anyone should say that all heresies are passing by and turning aside, he will not sin, for which reason they too are counted among those passing by and blaspheme Jesus, having no firm head, but wagging it up and down, since they are not prudent nor have their eyes in their head, in which they ought to have had them, as the Preacher (Ecclesiastes) says: "the eyes of the wise man are in his head". It is, therefore, the work of those passing by and turning aside to blaspheme Jesus the Son of God, because "no one speaking in the Spirit of God says: anathema to Jesus".
Then what? "Wherefore have You thrown down her enclosure?" [Psalm 80:12]. Now ye see the overthrow of that nation of the Jews: already out of another Psalm you have heard, "with axe and hammer they have thrown her down." When could this have been done, except her enclosure had been thrown down. What is her enclosure? Her defence. For she bore herself proudly against her planter. The servants that were sent to her and demanded a recompense, the husbandmen they scourged, beat, slew: there came also the Only Son, they said, "This is the Heir; come, let us kill Him, and our own the inheritance will be:" they killed Him, and out of the vineyard they cast Him forth. When cast forth, He did more perfectly possess the place whence He was cast forth. For thus He threatens her through Isaiah, "I will throw down her enclosure." Wherefore? "For I looked that she should bring forth grapes, but she brought forth thorns." [Isaiah 5:2] I looked for fruit from thence, and I found sin. Why then do you ask, O Asaph, "Why have You thrown down her enclosure?" For do you not know why? I looked that she should do judgment, and she did iniquity. Must not her enclosure needs be thrown down? And there came the Gentiles when the enclosure was thrown down, the vineyard was assailed, and the kingdom of the Jews effaced. This at first he is lamenting, but not without hope. For of directing the heart he is now speaking, that is, for the "Assyrians," for "men directing," the Psalm is. "Wherefore have You thrown down her enclosure: and there pluck off her grapes all men passing along the way." What is "men passing along the way?" Men having dominion for a time.
Dictionary and topics
Fence — (Heb. gader), Num. 22:24 (R.V.). Fences were constructions of unmortared stones, to protect gardens, vineyards, sheepfolds, etc. From various causes they were apt to bulge out and fall (Ps. 62:3). In…
Psalms, Book Of — The present Hebrew name of the book is Tehill’im, “Praises;” but in the actual superscriptions of the psalms the word Tehillah is applied only to one, (Psalms 145:1) ... which is indeed emphatically…
Shoshannim-Eduth — In title of Ps. 80 (R.V. marg., “lilies, a testimony”), probably the name of the melody to which the psalm was to be sung.
Grape · .PARABLES OF THE VINE — .PARABLES OF THE VINE
Hedges · Desolation caused by removing — Desolation caused by removing
Parables · Of a vine of Egypt — Of a vine of Egypt
Vine · Parables of — Parables of
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The complaint now assumes a detailing character in this strophe, inasmuch as it contrasts the former days with the present; and the ever more and more importunate prayer moulds itself in accordance therewith. The retrospective description begins, as is rarely the case, with the second modus, inasmuch as "the speaker thinks more of the bare nature of the act than of the time" (Ew. 136, b). As in the blessing of Jacob (Gen 49:22) Joseph is compared to the layer (בּן) of a fruitful growth (פּרת), whose shoots (בּנות) climb over the wall: so here Israel is compared to a vine (Gen 49:22; גּפן פּריּח, Psa 128:3), which has become great in Egypt and been transplanted thence into the Land of Promise…
broken down our walls: God no longer defended Israel (Isa 5:5).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 80:12
Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her?
"Why hast thou then broken down her hedges?" Thou hast withdrawn protection from her after caring for her with all this care; wherefore is this, O Lord? A vine unprotected is exposed to every form of injury; none regard it, all prey upon it: such was Israel when given over to her enemies; such has the church full often been. "So that all they which pass by the way do pluck her." Her cruel neighbours have a pluck at her, and marauding bands, like roaming beasts, must needs pick at her. With God no enemy can harm us, without him none are so weak as to be unable to do us damage.
