Psalms 74:7,8 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

They have cast fire into thy sanctuary, &c. The Chaldeans first polluted, and then set fire to Solomon's temple, and burned that stately and costly fabric down to the ground. And Antiochus set fire to the gates of the second temple, (1Ma 4:28,) and afterward the Romans razed it from the foundation, and left not one stone upon another. They said, Let us destroy them together Root and branch, one as well as another, or all at once. So they desired, and so, it seems, many of them intended, although afterward they changed their counsel, and carried some away captive, and left others to cultivate the ground. They have burned up all the synagogues All the public places wherein the Jews used to meet together to worship God every sabbath day, as is mentioned Acts 13:27, and upon other occasions. That the Jews had such synagogues is manifest, both from these and other places of Scripture, and from the testimony of the Hebrew doctors, and other ancient and learned writers, who affirm it, and particularly of Jerusalem, in which they say there were above four hundred; and from the necessity of such places: for seeing it is undeniable that they did worship God publicly on every sabbath, and at other holy times, even when they could not go up to Jerusalem, both conscience and prudence must needs have directed them to appoint convenient places for that purpose.