Communal lament over sanctuary destruction: The sanctuary burned and signs absent

The congregation asks why the Shepherd's anger smokes over ruined holy space

O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture? Remember thy congregation, which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed; this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt. The plea is covenant memory, not a modern deed to land.

Lift up thy feet unto the perpetual desolations; even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary. Enemies roar in the midst of the congregations and set up their ensigns for signs. A man was famous as he lifted axes upon thick trees; now they break down the carved work at once with axes and hammers. They have cast fire into thy sanctuary; they have defiled by casting down the dwelling place of thy name to the ground.

Meeting-places burn, and no one among the living can say how long

They said in their hearts, Let us destroy them together: they have burned up all the synagogues of God in the land. The KJV's synagogues renders the meeting-places of God; the line is not later synagogue polemic and must not be turned against Jews. We see not our signs: there is no more any prophet: neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.

O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever? Why withdrawest thou thy hand, even thy right hand? pluck it out of thy bosom. The unit is communal lament over an ancient sanctuary catastrophe whose exact date is not fixed in the poem. It is not proof that Israel is rejected, not an antisemitic exhibit, and not a warrant for present territorial war.