You sell Your people for nothing; no profit do You gain from their sale.
Parallel translations
- WEB You sell your people for nothing, and have gained nothing from their sale.
- KJV Thou sellest thy people for nought, and dost not increase thy wealth by their price.
- NKJV You sell Your people for next to nothing, And are not enriched by selling them.
- NASB You sell Your people cheaply, And have not profited by their sale.
- NLT You sold your precious people for a pittance, making nothing on the sale.
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, as it were, sold His people for nothing, gaining no profit from the sale. It matters because it laments how cheaply God's people seem to have been given over to suffering.
Overview
The vivid image of selling at no price expresses the people's sense of being abandoned without cause or benefit. The complaint is bold yet reverent, addressed to the God who owns them. It heightens the longing for redemption, the very thing God will accomplish at infinite cost through Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Jer 15:13Your wealth and your treasures I will give up as plunder, without charge for all your sins within all your borders.
- Deut 32:30How could one man pursue a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up?
- Isa 52:3–4For this is what the LORD says: “You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed.”
- Judg 3:8Then the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He sold them into the hand of Cushan-rishathaim king of Aram-naharaim, and the Israelites served him eight years.
- Judg 2:14Then the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He delivered them into the hands of those who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist.
- Isa 50:1This is what the LORD says: “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of My creditors did I sell you? Look, you were sold for your iniquities, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.
- Rev 18:13of cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, and frankincense; of wine, olive oil, fine flour, and wheat; of cattle, sheep, horses, and chariots; of slaves and souls of men.
- Neh 5:8–12and said, “We have done our best to buy back our Jewish brothers who were sold to foreigners, but now you are selling your own brothers, that they may be sold back to us!” But they remained silent, for they could find nothing to say.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 44:12 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.