| Psalm 80 | |
| Subtitle: | "Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel" |
| Image Upright: | 1.2 |
| Language: | Hebrew (original) |
Psalm 80 is the 80th psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock". In the slightly different numbering system used in the Greek Septuagint and Latin Vulgate translations of the Bible, this psalm is Psalm 79. In Latin, it is known as "Qui regis Israel intende".[1] It is one of the 12 Psalms of Asaph.[2] The New American Bible (Revised Edition) calls it "a prayer for Jerusalem".[3] The Jerusalem Bible describes it as "a prayer for the restoration of Israel".[4]
The psalm forms a regular part of Jewish, Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican and other Protestant liturgies. It has been set to music, by composers including John Bennet and Heinrich Schütz, and notably Albert Roussel who composed an extended setting in English for tenor, choir and orchestra, completed in 1928.
The following table shows the Hebrew text[5] [6] of the Psalm with vowels alongside an English translation based upon the JPS 1917 translation (now in the public domain).
| Verse | Hebrew | English translation (JPS 1917) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | For the Leader; upon Shoshannim. A testimony. A Psalm of Asaph. | |
| 2 | Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; Thou that art enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth. | |
| 3 | Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up Thy might, And come to save us. | |
| 4 | O God, restore us; And cause Thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. | |
| 5 | O LORD God of hosts, How long wilt Thou be angry against the prayer of Thy people? | |
| 6 | Thou hast fed them with the bread of tears, And given them tears to drink in large measure. | |
| 7 | Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbours; And our enemies mock as they please. | |
| 8 | O God of hosts, restore us; And cause Thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. | |
| 9 | Thou didst pluck up a vine out of Egypt; Thou didst drive out the nations, and didst plant it. | |
| 10 | Thou didst clear a place before it, And it took deep root, and filled the land. | |
| 11 | The mountains were covered with the shadow of it, And the mighty cedars with the boughs thereof. | |
| 12 | She sent out her branches unto the sea, And her shoots unto the River. | |
| 13 | Why hast Thou broken down her fences, So that all they that pass by the way do pluck her? | |
| 14 | The boar out of the wood doth ravage it, That which moveth in the field feedeth on it. | |
| 15 | O God of hosts, return, we beseech Thee; Look from heaven, and behold, and be mindful of this vine, | |
| 16 | And of the stock which Thy right hand hath planted, And the branch that Thou madest strong for Thyself. . | |
| 17 | It is burned with fire, it is cut down; They perish at the rebuke of Thy countenance. | |
| 18 | Let Thy hand be upon the man of Thy right hand, Upon the son of man whom Thou madest strong for Thyself. | |
| 19 | So shall we not turn back from Thee; Quicken Thou us, and we will call upon Thy name. | |
| 20 | O LORD God of hosts, restore us; Cause Thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. | |
The following is the English text of the Psalm from the King James Bible.
To the chief Musician upon ShoshannimEduth, A Psalm of Asaph.
This psalm is classified as a 'communal lament'. Northern Israel is its main concern, so it may come from the period towards the end of the northern kingdom, although the Jerusalem Bible suggest that "it could apply equally well ... to Judah after the sack of Jerusalem in 586 BC".[7]
Some links have been traced to Isaiah, with a 'similar image of a vineyard whose wall God breaks down' (Isaiah 5:1–7), also to Jeremiah and Ezekiel, who both refer to YHWH as shepherd, although the exact phrase 'Shepherd of Israel' is unique in this psalm.
The existence of a refrain (verses 3, 7, 19) is unusual, and the first two mark off the first two parts of the psalm, with the rest of the psalm forming a final section. The division is as follows:
Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand,
Upon the son of man whom You made strong for Yourself.[9] This verse probably alludes to Zerubbabel, who returned to Jerusalem in the first wave of liberated exiles under the decree of Cyrus the Great in 538 BC.[10]
John Bennet contributed Psalm 80 in English, Thou heard that Israel dost keepe, among a few others, to the 1621 colection The Whole Booke of Psalmes. Heinrich Schütz set the psalm in a metred version in German, "Du Hirt Israel, höre uns", SWV 177, as part of the Becker Psalter, first published in 1628.
Albert Roussel composed an extended setting in English for tenor, choir and orchestra, , completed in 1928 and first performed the following year. Alan Hovhaness made an unpublished setting of this psalm in 1953 titled Shepherd of Israel for tenor, recorder (or flute), trumpet ad lib. & string quartet (or orchestra).[13] Emil Naumann composed a choral work setting the psalm in German, Du Hirte Israels, höre, published in Berlin in 2003.