Psalms 74:2
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
Remember your congregation, which you have purchased of old; the rod of your inheritance, which you have redeemed; this mount Zion, wherein you have dwelled.
American King James Version (AKJV)
Remember your congregation, which you have purchased of old; the rod of your inheritance, which you have redeemed; this mount Zion, wherein you have dwelled.
American Standard Version (ASV)
Remember thy congregation, which thou hast gotten of old, Which thou hast redeemed to be the tribe of thine inheritance; And mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
Keep in mind your band of worshippers, for whom you gave payment in the days which are past, whom you took for yourself as the people of your heritage; even this mountain of Zion, which has been your resting-place.
Webster's Revision
Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old: the rod of thy inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; this mount Zion, in which thou hast dwelt.
World English Bible
Remember your congregation, which you purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your inheritance; Mount Zion, in which you have lived.
English Revised Version (ERV)
Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old, which thou hast redeemed to be the tribe of thine inheritance; and mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.
Clarke's Psalms 74:2 Bible Commentary
Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old - We are the descendants of that people whom thou didst take unto thyself; the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Wilt thou never more be reconciled to us?
Barnes's Psalms 74:2 Bible Commentary
Remember thy congregation - The word rendered "congregation" means properly an "assembly," a "community," and it is frequently applied to the Israelites, or the Jewish people, considered as a body or a community associated for the service of God. Exodus 12:3; Exodus 16:1-2, Exodus 16:9; Leviticus 4:15; Numbers 27:17. The word used by the Septuagint is συναγωγή sunagōgē - synagogue - but refers here to the whole Jewish people, not to a particular synagogue or congregation.
Which thou hast purchased of old - In ancient times; in a former age. That is, Thou hast "purchased" them to thyself, or as thine own, by redeeming them from bondage, thus securing to thyself the right to them, as one does who redeems or purchases a thing. See the notes at Isaiah 43:3.
The rod of thine inheritance - Margin, as in Hebrew, "tribe." The Hebrew word - שׁבט shêbet - means properly "a staff," stick, rod; then, a shepherd's staff, a crook; then, a scepter; and then it is used to denote a "tribe," so called from the staff or scepter which the chief of the tribe carried as the symbol of authority. Exodus 28:21; Judges 20:2. The word "inheritance" is frequently applied to the children of Israel considered as belonging to God, as property inherited belongs to him who owns it - perhaps suggesting the idea that the right to them had come down, as inherited property does, from age to age. It was a right over them acquired long before, in the days of the patriarchs.
Which thou hast redeemed - By delivering them out of Egyptian bondage. So the church is now redeemed, and, as such, it belongs to God.
This mount Zion - Jerusalem - the seat of government, and of public worship - the capital of the nation.
Wherein thou last dwelt - By the visible symbol of thy presence and power. - On all these considerations the psalmist prays that God would not forget Jerusalem in the present time of desolation and trouble.
Wesley's Psalms 74:2 Bible Commentary
74:2 Thy congregation - Thy people. Thine inheritance - The tribe of Judah, which thou hast in a special manner chosen for thine inheritance, and for the birth of the Messiah. Nor is it strange that he mentions this tribe particularly, because the calamity here remembered, did principally befal this tribe, and Benjamin, which was united with it.