After expending so much care and attention on his grapevine, why did God abandon it and let it be destroyed? He broke down “the fences” (made of stone, not wood or wire) that protected it, and now any passerby can pluck its fruit, that is, “steal its grapes,” and the wild animals are busy destroying it–a figure of the enemies of Israel invading the land and looting and destroying.

In verse 13a boar (Good News Translation “hogs”) translates the word for swine, pig (see Fauna and Flora of the Bible, pages jmp 80-81|fig:ffb_Swine.htmjmp*); only here are “wild hogs” (boar from the forest) referred to in the Old Testament. The Hebrew singular for boar represents pigs in general. The verb translated ravages occurs only here in the Old Testament; it means “cut in pieces,” either by eating (so most translations) or by trampling on the vine (Briggs, Good News Translation; see Biblia Dios Habla Hoy). If the parallelism with the next line is purely synonymous, the meaning “consume, eat up” seems more likely; New Jerusalem Bible and New English Bible have “gnaws”; another possible version is “tears at.” Something like ravages (Revised Standard Version, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Bible en français courant, New International Version) expresses well the idea of the destruction caused by a wild animal. But it is more likely that the two verbs describe the devastation caused by wild hogs, or boars, as they trample down and devour the vegetation.

Good News Translation “wild animals” in verse 13b translates “what moves in the field” (see Revised Standard Version), a word that occurs only here and in 50.11b; New English Bible translates here “swarming insects from the fields,” which seems unlikely.

Due to the poetic extension of the vine, it is likely that many readers will have lost or forgotten the original reference to the vine in verse 8, and particularly to the symbolism of the vine as representing Israel. Therefore it may be necessary to repeat the referent; for example, “Why did you break down the fences around your vine which is the people of Israel?” or simply “Why did you break down the fences around your vine?” If the analogy with the vine has to be sacrificed in translation for the clarity of meaning, the translator may say something like:

• 12 Why did you let Israel’s enemies invade her land?
Now foreigners go through the land
looting and destroying it.
13 Like wild pigs they trample it,
and like wild animals they destroy it.

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 .