You have made us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples.
Parallel translations
- WEB You make us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples.
- KJV Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people.
- NKJV You make us a byword among the nations, A shaking of the head among the peoples.
- NASB You make us a proverb among the nations, A laughingstock among the peoples.
- NLT You have made us the butt of their jokes; they shake their heads at us in scorn.
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 them a byword and a head-shaking spectacle among the nations. It matters because it expresses the sting of being a proverb of misfortune.
Overview
To become a byword is to be cited as a cautionary example of disaster, met with contemptuous head-shaking. The lament underscores how thorough the people's humiliation feels. Yet this shame, borne while still trusting God, anticipates the suffering Servant who was despised and rejected for our salvation.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Jer 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.
- Job 17:6He has made me a byword among the people, a man in whose face they spit.
- Job 16:4I could also speak like you if you were in my place; I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you.
- Lam 2:15–17All 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?”
- Deut 28:37You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the nations to which the LORD will drive you.
- 2 Kgs 19:21This is the word that the LORD has spoken against him: ‘The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises you and mocks you; the Daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head behind you.
- 1 Kgs 9:7then 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 object of scorn and ridicule among all peoples.
- Isa 37:22this is the word that the LORD has spoken against him: ‘The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises you and mocks you; the Daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head behind you.
- Ps 109:25I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads.
- 2 Chr 7:20then I will uproot Israel from the soil I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. I will make it an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples.
- Ps 22:7All who see me mock me; they sneer and shake their heads:
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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 44:14 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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