Psalm 44:14

Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(14) Shaking of the head.—Comp. Psalm 22:7.

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 makest us a byword among heathen - The word rendered "by-word" - משׁל mâshâl - means properly a similitude or parable; then, a sententious saying, and apophthegm; then, a proverb; then, a song or verse, particularly a satirical song, or a song of derision. The idea here is, that they were made a proverb, or were referred to as a striking instance of the divine abandonment, or as something marked to which the nations might and did refer as an example of calamity, judgment, misfortune, failure; a warning to all. See Deuteronomy 28:37.

A shaking of the head among the people - An occasion for the shaking of the head, in derision and scorn. Compare the notes at Psalm 22:7.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

13, 14. (Compare De 28:37; Ps 79:4).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

A by-word, or a proverb. They used to say proverbially, More despicable or miserable than an Israelite.

A shaking of the head; a gesture of scorn and insultation. See Poole "Psalm 22:7".

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Thou makest us a byword among the Heathen,.... Among the Papists, as the Jews were among the Gentiles, Deuteronomy 28:37; calling them schismatics, heretics, fanatics, and what not?

a shaking of the head among the people; by way of indignation, scorn, and contempt; see Psalm 22:7.

Geneva Study Bible

Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

14. the heathen … the people] Render with R.V., the nations … the peoples. They point to our fate as a proverbial instance of a people abandoned by its God, and make us the subject of taunting songs: they shake their heads at us in derision. Cp. Deuteronomy 28:37; 1 Kings 9:7; Jeremiah 24:9; Joel 2:17 (R.V. marg.); Psalm 22:7; and generally Lamentations 2:15 ff.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 14. - Thou makest us a byword among the heathen (comp. Job 17:6; Jeremiah 24:9). A shaking of the head among the people; rather, among the peoples (comp. Psalm 22:7). Psalm 44:14

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

(Heb.: 44:14-17) To this defeat is now also added the shame that springs out of it. A distinction is made between the neighbouring nations, or those countries lying immediately round about Israel (סביבות, as in the exactly similar passage Psalm 79:4, cf. Psalm 80:7, which closely resembles it), and the nations of the earth that dwell farther away from Israel. משׁל is here a jesting, taunting proverb, and one that holds Israel up as an example of a nation undergoing chastisement (vid., Habakkuk 2:6). The shaking of the head is, as in Psalm 22:8, a gesture of malicious astonishment. In נגדּי תּמיד (as in Psalm 38:18) we have both the permanent aspect or look and the perpetual consciousness. Instead of "shame covers my face," the expression is "the shame of my face covers me," i.e., it has overwhelmed my entire inward and outward being (cf. concerning the radical notions of בּושׁ, Psalm 6:11, and חפר, Psalm 34:6). The juxtaposition of "enemy and revengeful man" has its origin in Psalm 8:3. In Psalm 44:17 מקּול and מפּני alternate; the former is used of the impression made by the jeering voice, the other of the impression produced by the enraged mien.