Why do you look the other way? Why do you ignore our suffering and oppression?
Parallel translations
- WEB Why do you hide your face, and forget our affliction and our oppression?
- KJV Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest 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?
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 13:24Why hide you your face, and hold me for your enemy?
- Deut 32:20He said, “I will hide my face from them. I will see what their end will be; for they are a very perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness.
- Ps 42:9I will ask God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”
- Exod 2:23–24In the course of those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.
- Ps 74:23Don’t forget the voice of your adversaries. The tumult of those who rise up against you ascends continually.
- Ps 13:1For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. How long, Yahweh? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
- Ps 10:11He says in his heart, “God has forgotten. He hides his face. He will never see it.”
- Ps 43:1–4Vindicate me, God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation. Oh, deliver me from deceitful and wicked men.
- Ps 10:1Why do you stand far off, Yahweh? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
- Ps 74:19Don’t deliver the soul of your dove to wild beasts. Don’t forget the life of your poor forever.
- Rev 6:9–10When he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been killed for the Word of God, and for the testimony of the Lamb which they had.
- Isa 40:27–28Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel, “My way is hidden from Yahweh, and the justice due me is disregarded by my God?”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 44:24 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.