You have made us mere refuse and rubbish In the midst of the peoples.
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.
- BSB You have made us scum and refuse among the nations.
- NKJV You have made us an offscouring and refuse 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 4:13Being defamed, we entreat. We are made as the filth of the world, the dirt wiped off by all, even until now.
- Deut 28:44He will lend to you, and you won’t lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail.
- Deut 28:13Yahweh will make you the head, and not the tail. You will be above only, and you will not be beneath; if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I command you today, to observe and to do,
- Deut 28:37You will become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where Yahweh will lead you away.
- Lam 4:14–15They wander as blind men in the streets. They are polluted with blood, So that men can’t touch their garments.
- Lam 2:15All that pass by clap their hands at you. They hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, “Is this the city that men called ‘The perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth’?”
- Lam 3:14I have become a derision to all my people, and their 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.