As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Parallel translations
- WEB Even as it is written, “For your sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
- BSB As it is written: “For Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
- NKJV As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
- NASB Just as it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We were regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
- NLT (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”)
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
Paul quotes Psalm 44 to show that God's people have long faced deadly suffering, even being regarded as sheep for slaughter. Hardship is the historic experience of the faithful, not a sign of rejection.
Overview
Citing Psalm 44:22, Paul grounds the sufferings of v. 35 in Scripture, showing that the righteous have always endured persecution. The quotation guards against the idea that affliction means God has abandoned his people. Instead, such suffering walks in the footsteps of the faithful before us, and supremely in the path of Christ, the true suffering servant, yet it cannot separate us from his love.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Ps 44:22Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
- Isa 53:7He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
- 1 Cor 15:30And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?
- 2 Cor 4:10–11Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
- 1 Cor 4:9For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.
- Acts 8:32The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth:
- Acts 20:24But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
- Jer 11:19But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.
- Jer 12:3But thou, O LORD, knowest me: thou hast seen me, and tried mine heart toward thee: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.
- John 16:2They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.
- Jer 51:40I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he goats.
- Ps 141:7Our bones are scattered at the grave’s mouth, as when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 8:36 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 Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.