You have made us scum and refuse among the nations.
Parallel translations
- WEB You have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the middle of the peoples.
- KJV Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.
- NKJV You have made us an offscouring and refuse In the midst of the peoples.
- NASB You have made us mere refuse and rubbish In the midst of the peoples.
- NLT You have discarded us as refuse and garbage among the nations.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God has made His people the refuse and scum among the nations, an object of contempt.
Overview
Judah laments being reduced to 'off-scouring and refuse,' utterly despised among surrounding peoples. This humiliation is part of the covenant curse for unfaithfulness. Strikingly, the same language is later applied to the apostles for Christ's sake (1 Cor. 4:13), showing how God can transform shame borne for Him into honor.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- 1 Cor 4:13when we are slandered, we answer gently. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.
- Deut 28:44He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail.
- Deut 28:13The LORD will make you the head and not the tail; you will only move upward and never downward, if you hear and carefully follow the commandments of the LORD your God, which I am giving you today.
- Deut 28:37You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the nations to which the LORD will drive you.
- Lam 4:14–15They wandered blind in the streets, defiled by this blood, so that no one dared to touch their garments.
- Lam 2:15All who pass by clap their hands at you in scorn. They hiss and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”
- Lam 3:14I am a laughingstock to all my people; they mock me in song all day long.
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Christ at the center
The weeping over a ruined city and the steadfast mercies that are new every morning point to the man of sorrows who wept over Jerusalem and whose mercy rises new from the grave.
How Lamentations 3:45 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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