Matthew Poole and continuators on Psalms 74:5

5 A man was famous according as he had lifted up axes upon the thick trees .

So the meaning is this, The Temple was so noble a structure, that it was a great Honour to any man to be imployed in the meanest part of the work, though it were but in cutting down the Trees of Lebanon. And this Translation may seem to be favoured by the opposition in the next Verse; But now, &c. But others understand the Words thus translated in another Sence: That every one of the Enemies got Renown, accordingly as they shewed most barbarous Rage in destroying the thick Wood-work (which in the next Verse is called the Carved work) of the Temple. But this seems not to suit well with the opposition between this work and that of the next Verse, which is ushered in by, But now. The words therefore may be (and in part are by some) rendred thus; It is known (or manifest, Heb. It will be known: It will be published to all Posterity, as matter of astonishment and admiration.) That, as one lifteth up his Axe (Heb. Axes, the plural Number for the singular, as it is elsewhere) upon thick Trees, to cut them down. This is the first part of the similitude, called the Pro[illegible: 1+ letters]asis; Then follows the latter part of it, called the Apodosis, in the next Verse; So (Heb. And. Which is sometimes put for a Note of similitude, as in that passage of the Lords Prayer, Mat. 6. 10. as it is in Heaven; and oft in the Book of the Proverbs) now (For though this Psalm was Composed after the thing was done, yet he speaks of it, as if it were now in doing, as the manner of the sacred Writers frequently is, that it may be more Lively represented to mens Minds) They break down the Carved work▪ &c. The meaning is, they neither regard the Sacredness of the place, no[illegible: 1+ letters] the exquisite Curiosity and Art of the work, but cut it down as indifferently, and rashly, as men cut down the thick and intangled boughs of the Trees of the Forest.