Psalms 44:13
in Psalms 44You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, a mockery and derision to those around us.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbors, A scoffing and a derision to them that are round about us.
KJV
Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.
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This verse in Psalms 44
Commentary
8 notes on this verseThat the heathen, the people that were strangers to the commonwealth of Israel and aliens to the covenants of promise, made them a by-word, and shook the head at them, as triumphing in their fall,
This site's exposition
a reproach to our neighbors
on Psalms 44:13-16
The words pile up: a mockery, a byword among the nations, a reproach to our neighbors. Then it narrows to one face, shame has covered my face. Clarke reads the list as built from the nation's humiliation down to one man's shame, at the voice of the scorner.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"You made us a reproach to our neighbours; a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us" [Psalm 44:13].
The Medieval Church1 voice
"You have made us." Above, the Psalmist set forth the oppression of the saints; here he sets forth their vilification. And first he sets forth the vilification they suffered outwardly. Second he shows what results from this in the heart, at "All the day my …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours,.... Which is the common lot of Christians: Christ and his apostles have given reason for the saints in all ages to expect it, and have fortified their minds to bear it patiently, yea, to esteem it an honour, and greater riches than the treasures of the antichristian Egypt; a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us; being always represented as mean and despicable, and reckoned ignorant and accursed, and as the faith of the world, and the offscouring of all things.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours. Scorn is always an intensely bitter ingredient in the cup of the oppressed. The taunts and jeers of the victors pain the vanquished almost as much as their swords and spears. It was a mystery indeed that God should suffer his royal nation, his peculiar people, to be taunted by all who dwelt near them. A scorn and a derision to them that are round about us. The down trodden people had become a common jest; "as base as Israel" cried the cruel tongue of the tyrant: so ordinary had the scorn become that the neighbouring nations, though perhaps equally oppressed, borrowed the language of the conquerors, and joined in the common mockery. To be a derision to both strong and weak, superiors, equals, and inferiors, is hard to bear. The tooth of scoffing bites to the bone. The psalmist sets forth the brutality of the enemy in many words, in order to move the pity of the Lord, to whose just anger he traced all the sorrows of his people: he used the very best of arguments, for the sufferings of his chosen touch the heart of God far more readily than any other reasonings. Blessed be his name, our great Advocate above knows how to avail himself of this powerful plea, and if we are at this hour enduring reproach for truth's sake, he will urge it before the eternal throne; and shall not God avenge his own elect? A father will not long endure to see his children despitefully entreated; he may put up with it for a little, but his love will speedily arouse his anger, and then it will fare ill with the persecutor and reviler.
Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours. Scorn is always an intensely bitter ingredient in the cup of the oppressed. The taunts and jeers of the victors pain the vanquished almost as much as their swords and spears. It was a mystery indeed that God should suffer his royal nation, his peculiar people, to be taunted by all who dwelt near them. A scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbors - Compare the notes at Psa 39:8. The word neighbors here refers to surrounding people or nations. They were reproached, scorned, and derided as forsaken by God, and given up to their foes. They no longer commanded the admiration of mankind as a prosperous, favored, happy people. Surrounding nations treated them with contempt as inspiring no fear, and as having nothing to entitle them to respect.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
You scatter us Epondis nous in Old French, tu nous repandis in modern French.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 6 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| תְּשִׂימֵ֣נוּ | tesimenu | you have made us | H7760 → | 584 times |
| חֶ֭רְפָּה | cherpah | a reproach | H2781 → | 73 times |
| לִשְׁכֵנֵ֑ינוּ | lishkheneinu | to neighbors our | H7934 → | 20 times |
| לַ֥עַג | laag | mockery | H3933 → | 7 times |
| וָ֝קֶ֗לֶס | vakeles | and derision | H7047 → | |
| לִסְבִיבוֹתֵֽינוּ׃ | lisvivoteinu | to [those] around us | H5439 → | 336 times |
תְּשִׂימֵ֣נוּyou have made us
tesimenuH7760 →584 times
חֶ֭רְפָּהa reproach
cherpahH2781 →73 times
לִשְׁכֵנֵ֑ינוּto neighbors our
lishkheneinuH7934 →20 times
לַ֥עַגmockery
laagH3933 →7 times
וָ֝קֶ֗לֶסand derision
vakelesH7047 →
לִסְבִיבוֹתֵֽינוּ׃to [those] around us
lisvivoteinuH5439 →336 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 80:6You make us contend with our neighbors; our enemies mock us.
it leads to
- Psalms 79:4
We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and derision to those around us.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 79:4
Through
Deuteronomy 28:37You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the nations to which the LORD will drive you.
it leads to
- Psalms 44:13–14
You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, a mockery and derision to those around us.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Jeremiah 24:9
I will make them a horror and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a disgrace and an object of scorn, ridicule, and cursing wherever I have banished them.
- Jeremiah 25:9
behold, I will summon all the families of the north, declares the LORD, and I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, whom I will bring against this land, against its residents,…
- 1 Kings 9:7–8
then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. Then Israel will become an…
- Psalms 44:13–14
Through
Jeremiah 24:9I will make them a horror and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a disgrace and an object of scorn, ridicule, and cursing wherever I have banished them.
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 28:37
You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the nations to which the LORD will drive you.
- Jeremiah 29:18
I will pursue them with sword and famine and plague. I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth—a curse, a desolation, and an object of scorn and reproach among…
- Deuteronomy 28:37
Through
Psalms 79:4We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and derision to those around us.
it leads to
- Psalms 80:6
You make us contend with our neighbors; our enemies mock us.
- Psalms 80:6
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Psalms
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 44; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 2; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Exposition on the Psalms of David.