Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression?
Parallel translations
- WEB Why do you hide your face, and forget our affliction and our oppression?
- BSB Why do You hide Your face and forget our affliction and oppression?
- NKJV Why do You hide Your face, And forget our affliction and our oppression?
- NASB Why do You hide Your face And forget our affliction and oppression?
- NLT Why do you look the other way? Why do you ignore our suffering and oppression?
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
They ask why God hides His face and forgets their affliction and oppression. It matters because it voices the anguish of feeling forgotten by God.
Overview
The hidden face signifies the withdrawal of God's favorable presence, the deepest distress for a believer. The questions are not accusations of injustice but pleas for restored fellowship. The cry of feeling forsaken finds its ultimate answer at the cross, where Christ bore the hiding of God's face so His people never need be forgotten.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Job 13:24Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy?
- Deut 32:20And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith.
- Ps 42:9I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
- Exod 2:23–24And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.
- Ps 74:23Forget not the voice of thine enemies: the tumult of those that rise up against thee increaseth continually.
- Ps 13:1How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me?
- Ps 10:11He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.
- Ps 43:1–4Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.
- Ps 10:1Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?
- Ps 74:19O deliver not the soul of thy turtledove unto the multitude of the wicked: forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever.
- Rev 6:9–10And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
- Isa 40:27–28Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God?
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 44:24 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.