Jerusalem has been captured by the enemy and its defenses destroyed (verse 40). The land is open to neighboring peoples, who plunder it and mock the king and his people (verse 41). All of these misfortunes are God’s doing; and in the whole bitter narrative, not once is there any admission of sin which might account for God’s anger.

In verse 40a the word translated breached means to break through the walls, normally by destroying a section so as to gain entrance into the city through the break in the wall. Here, however, all his walls shows that the walls have been broken down completely; thus Good News Translation “You have torn down the walls of his city.” The same Hebrew word occurs in 80.12a, “broken down.” His walls (Good News Translation “walls of his city”) may have to be recast to say, for example, “the walls that protect his city.”

For translation notes on strongholds (Good News Translation “forts”) see 18.45, “fastnesses.”

All that pass by, verse 41, is the same expression as in 80.12b. Despoil means to take away everything that belongs to someone else, to plunder.

He has become the scorn of his neighbors resembles the scene pictured in 44.14; 79.4; 80.6. It would be better to translate neighbors as “all the neighboring peoples” or “the people of all the nearby nations….”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .