(3) Their blood.--In 1 Maccabees 7:17, we read "The flesh of thy saints and their blood have they shed round about Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them," introduced by "according to the word which he wrote." This is evidently a free quotation from this psalm, and seems to imply a reference to a contemporary.

None to bury.--For this aggravation of the evil comp. Jeremiah 14:16; Jeremiah 22:18-19.

Verse 3. - Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem. During the long siege (eighteen months) the number slain in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem would be very large. And there was none to bury them (compare the prophecy of Jeremiah, Jeremiah 14:16). The population being for the most part carried into captivity, and but few left in the land (Jeremiah 52:15, 16), the bodies of the slain lay unburied, the few left not being able to bury them. Compare the preceding verse.

79:1-5 God is complained to: whither should children go but to a Father able and willing to help them? See what a change sin made in the holy city, when the heathen were suffered to pour in upon them. God's own people defiled it by their sins, therefore he suffered their enemies to defile it by their insolence. They desired that God would be reconciled. Those who desire God's favour as better than life, cannot but dread his wrath as worse than death. In every affliction we should first beseech the Lord to cleanse away the guilt of our sins; then he will visit us with his tender mercies.Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem,.... Without any concern of mind, or remorse of conscience; without any fear of God or man; as if it had been so much water only; and this they shed in great abundance: from the Apocrypha:

"And when he had taken all away, he went into his own land, having made a great massacre, and spoken very proudly.'' (1 Maccabees 1:24)

"And spake peaceable words unto them, but all was deceit: for when they had given him credence, he fell suddenly upon the city, and smote it very sore, and destroyed much people of Israel.'' (1 Maccabees 1:30)

"Thus they shed innocent blood on every side of the sanctuary, and defiled it:'' (1 Maccabees 1:37)

"So they rose up against them in battle on the sabbath, and they slew them, with their wives and children and their cattle, to the number of a thousand people.'' (1 Maccabees 2:38)

in like manner the blood of the saints has been shed by the antichristian beast of Rome, for which he and his followers will be righteously retaliated, Revelation 17:6.

and there was none to bury them: either the number of the slain was so great, that there were not left enough to bury the dead, or they that did remain were not suffered to do it; this will be the case of the two witnesses, when slain, Revelation 11:7.