Psalms 79:11

WEB

Let the sighing of the prisoner come before you. According to the greatness of your power, preserve those who are sentenced to death.

KJV

Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee; according to the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to die;

Commentary

Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee,.... Such as were so in a literal or spiritual sense; and the sighs and groans of such are not hid from the Lord; they come up into his ears as did the sighing and groaning of the chi ldren of Israel when in Egypt, Exo 2:23 , according to the greatness of thy power, preserve thou those that are appointed to die; not by the Lord, as all men are, but by men; who are under a sentence of condemnation, who are ready to die, being appointed to destruction, Pro 31:6 , or are in danger of death, as Jarchi observes; the phrase is used in Talmudic writings; whose lives are exposed to danger, who are killed all the day long, and are accounted as sheep for the slaughter, Psa 44:22 , these it is desired the Lord would keep from dying, or cause them to remain in life; or not suffer their lives to be taken away from them, which he was able to do through "the greatness of his power"; though these words according to the accents belong to the preceding clause. The Targum, and so Jarchi, and other Jewish writers, render the words, "loose thou those", &c. mention being made before of prisoners, or of persons bound.