Psalm 44:11

Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat; and hast scattered us among the heathen.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(11) Like sheep.—The image of the sheep appointed for the slaughter; and unable to resist, recalls Isaiah 53:6-7, but does not necessarily connect the Psalm with the exile period, since it was a figure likely to suggest itself in every time of helpless peril.

Benson Commentary

Psalm 44:11-14. Thou hast given us like sheep, &c. — Some of us they killed in the pursuit, without any mercy, like sheep appointed for the shambles. And hast scattered us among the heathen — Those of us who were not slain have been carried into captivity, and dispersed in several places. Thou sellest thy people for naught — Sufferest them to be sold for slaves at very inconsiderable prices. The expression implies the low esteem in which they were with God. And dost not increase thy wealth by their price — “We are thus sadly handled, without the comfort of bringing in any honour to thee by our calamities; since thy church among us is defaced, and no other people taken instead of us, by whom thy name may be glorified.” — Hammond. Or, as Poole interprets the words, “Thou hast not advanced thy honour and service thereby; for thy enemies do not serve thee more than thy people, nor yet so much.” Thou makest us a scorn and derision, &c. — They contemn our persons, and sport themselves with our miseries. Thou makest us a by-word — Or a proverb, as משׁל, mashal, signifies. Thou hast brought upon us the curse pronounced by thy servant Moses, Deuteronomy 28:37. For we are become a by-word among the heathen, who, when they would express the wretchedness of any person, say, He is viler or more miserable than a Jew. A shaking of the head — When they say nothing, they signify their contempt and derision of us, by the scornful motion of their heads.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

44:9-16 The believer must have times of temptation, affliction, and discouragement; the church must have seasons of persecution. At such times the people of God will be ready to fear that he has cast them off, and that his name and truth will be dishonoured. But they should look above the instruments of their trouble, to God, well knowing that their worst enemies have no power against them, but what is permitted from above.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat - Margin, as in Hebrew, "as sheep of meat." That is, as sheep are killed for food, so thou hast allowed us to be put to death.

And hast scattered us among the heathen - Among the surrounding nations. See the notes at Psalm 44:2. That is, they had been discomfited in war; many had fled into surrounding countries; many had been carried away captive. All this undoubtedly occurred at the time at which I have supposed that the psalm was written - the time immediately preceding the Babylonian captivity.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

11. The Babylonian captivity not necessarily meant. There were others (compare 1Ki 8:46).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Those of us who were not slain are carried into captivity, and dispersed in several places.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat,.... To be butchered, and then eaten as sheep are; and therefore are called "the flock of slaughter", Zechariah 11:4; as the church was, not only under the ten persecutions of Rome Pagan, but through the butcheries and massacres of Rome Papal; who have worried many of Christ's sheep, have eaten their flesh and drank their blood, and have become drunken with it; it has been their meat and drink to persecute the saints of the most High;

and hast scattered us among the Heathen: the Pagan world, as the first Christians were, who were scattered up and down in the Gentile world everywhere; see 1 Peter 1:1; or the Papacy, who are sometimes called Gentiles, Revelation 11:2; because much of the Gentile idolatry is introduced into the Popish religion; and among these many of the true members of Christ and of his church have been carried captive and scattered; and such will be found there a little before the destruction of Babylon, and will be called out from thence; see Revelation 13:10.

Geneva Study Bible

Thou hast given us {k} like sheep appointed for meat; and hast scattered us among the heathen.

(k) Knowing God to be author of this calamity, they murmur not, but seek remedy at his hands who wounded them.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

11. Some of God’s people are butchered like sheep (cp. Psalm 44:22); others are sold as slaves. It is evidently not a deportation of the nation that is meant, but the sale of prisoners of war for slaves. Cp. Joel 3:2; Joel 3:6; Amos 1:6; Amos 1:9. To the Israelite with his love of freedom and attachment to his own land such a fate seemed little better than death.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 11. - Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat. "As sheep for the shambles" (Kay) - a free translation, which well expresses the meaning. And hast scattered us among the heathen. Either "caused us to disperse ourselves among our heathen neighbours," or "to be sold for slaves among them by our captors." No general dispersion of the nation is intended. Psalm 44:11

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

(Heb.: 44:10-13) Just as אף signifies imo vero (Psalm 58:3) when it comes after an antecedent clause that is expressly or virtually a negative, it may mean "nevertheless, ho'moos," when it opposes a contrastive to an affirmative assertion, as is very frequently the case with גּם or וגם. True, it does not mean this in itself, but in virtue of its logical relation: we praise Thee, we celebrate Thy name unceasingly - also ( equals nevertheless) Thou hast cast off. From this point the Psalm comes into closest connection with Psalm 89:39, on a still more extended scale, however, with Psalm 60:1-12, which dates from the time of the Syro-Ammonitish war, in which Psalm Psa 44:10 recurs almost word for word. The צבאות are not exactly standing armies (an objection which has been raised against the Maccabean explanation), they are the hosts of the people that are drafted into battle, as in Exodus 12:41, the hosts that went forth out of Egypt. Instead of leading these to victory as their victorious Captain (2 Samuel 5:24), God leaves them to themselves and allows them to be smitten by the enemy. The enemy spoil למו, i.e., just as they like, without meeting with any resistance, to their hearts' content. And whilst He gives over (נתן as in Micah 5:2, and the first יתּן in Isaiah 41:2) one portion of the people as "sheep appointed for food," another becomes a diaspora or dispersion among the heathen, viz., by being sold to them as slaves, and that בּלא־הון, "for not-riches," i.e., for a very low price, a mere nothing. We see from Joel 3:3 in what way this is intended. The form of the litotes is continued in Psalm 44:13: Thou didst not go high in the matter of their purchase-money; the rendering of Maurer is correct: in statuendis pretiis eorum. The ב is in this instance not the Beth of the price as in Psalm 44:13, but, as in the phrase הלּל בּ, the Beth of the sphere and thereby indirectly of the object. רבּה in the sense of the Aramaic רבּי (cf. Proverbs 22:16, and the derivatives תּרבּית, מרבּית), to make a profit, to practise usury (Hupfeld), produces a though that is unworthy of God; vid., on the other hand, Isaiah 52:3. At the heads of the strophe stands (Psalm 44:10) a perfect with an aorist following: ולא תצא is consequently a negative ותּצא. And Psalm 44:18, which sums up the whole, shows that all the rest is also intended to be retrospective.