Rashi on TanakhPsalms 79

into heaps Now what is this song? Is it not a lamentation? But because it says (Lam. 4:11): “The Lord has spent His fury.” With what has He spent it? “He has kindled a fire in Zion.” This is a song and an occasion for singing, for He poured out His fury on the wood and stones and did not utterly destroy His children.

the flesh of Your pious ones Now were they not wicked? But since they received their punishment, they are accounted as pious men. Similarly, Scripture states (Deut. 25:3): “your brother would be degraded before your eyes.” As soon as he is lashed, he is your brother. It is explained in this manner in the Aggadah (Mid. Ps. 79:4).

and derision Heb. וקלס, an expression of speech, to speak of them as for a byword.

How long Heb. עד מה [lit. until what.] Until when?

Your jealousy Your wrath,

that You are jealous to wreak vengeance, an expression of (Exod. 20:5): “a jealous (קנא) God,” emportement or enprenemant in Old French, zealous anger.

set free Heb. הותר, release the prisoners from their prison, as (below 105:20): “A king sent and released him (ויתירהו)”; (146:7), “sets loose (מתיר) the bound.”

the children of the mother who died The children of her who was killed because of You; enmorinede in Old French, doomed to die. There is an example in the Sages’ language: “It is better that Jews eat the flesh of slaughtered dying beasts rather than eat the flesh of the carcasses of dying animals.” That means the flesh of a dying animal that was slaughtered, in tractate Kiddushin (21b).