Psalms 78:62-64 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

He gave his people over unto the sword To the sword of his own justice, and of the enemies' rage, for he was wroth with his inheritance; and that wrath of his was the fire which consumed their young men in the prime of their time, by the sword or sickness, and made such devastation of them, that their maidens were not given in marriage Because the young men, who should have married them, were slain, and there were few or none left to whom they could be given, and because the distresses and calamities of Israel were so great, that the joys of marriage solemnities were judged unseasonable; and it was said, Blessed is the womb that beareth not. Hebrew, בתולתיו לא הוללו, their maidens were not praised; namely, with marriage songs, which was usual at marriage solemnities among the Jews: see Jeremiah 7:34; Jeremiah 16:9; Jeremiah 25:10. Their priests fell by the sword Hophni and Phinehas, and others. And their widows made no lamentation No funeral solemnities; either because they were prevented by their own death, as the wife of Phinehas was, who, instead of lamenting her husband's death, died herself, when she had called her son Ichabod; or because they were so overwhelmed with a sense of public calamities, that the resentment of their private losses was swallowed up by it, and all the ceremonies of mourning were lost and buried in substantial grief.