We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and derision to those around us.
Parallel translations
- WEB We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scoffing and derision to those who are around us.
- KJV We are become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us.
- NKJV We have become a reproach to our neighbors, A scorn and derision to those who are around us.
- NASB We have become a disgrace before our neighbors, An object of derision and ridicule to those around us.
- NLT We are mocked by our neighbors, an object of scorn and derision to those around us.
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
Israel became an object of scorn and ridicule to surrounding nations. Their downfall brought public shame.
Overview
The people had become 'a reproach to our neighbors,' mocked by those around them. Their humiliation seemed to call into question God's faithfulness before the watching nations. This concern for God's reputation among the peoples shapes the prayer that follows, longing for Him to act for the honor of His name.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Ps 80:6You make us contend with our neighbors; our enemies mock us.
- Ps 89:41All who pass by plunder him; he has become a reproach to his neighbors.
- Ezek 36:15I will no longer allow the taunts of the nations to be heard against you, and you will no longer endure the reproach of the peoples or cause your nation to stumble, declares the Lord GOD.”
- Lam 5:1Remember, O LORD, what has happened to us. Look and see our disgrace!
- Neh 4:1–4Now when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he was furious and filled with indignation. He ridiculed the Jews
- Ezek 35:12Then you will know that I, the LORD, have heard every contemptuous word you uttered against the mountains of Israel when you said, ‘They are desolate; they are given to us to devour!’
- Jer 25:18to make them a ruin, an object of horror and contempt and cursing, as they are to this day—Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and officials;
- 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.
- Jer 42:18For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘Just as My anger and wrath were poured out on the residents of Jerusalem, so will My wrath be poured out on you if you go to Egypt. You will become an object of cursing and horror, of vilification and disgrace, and you will never see this place again.’
- Dan 9:16O Lord, in keeping with all Your righteous acts, I pray that Your anger and wrath may turn away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; for because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all around us.
- Lam 2:15–16All 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?”
- 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.
- Deut 28:37You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the nations to which the LORD will drive you.
- Neh 2:19But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard about this, they mocked us and ridiculed us, saying, “What is this you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”
- Ps 44:13–14You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, a mockery and derision to those around us.
- Ezek 36:3therefore prophesy and declare that this is what the Lord GOD says: Because they have made you desolate and have trampled you on every side, so that you became a possession of the rest of the nations and were taken up in slander by the lips of their talkers,
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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 79:4 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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