Worthy.Bible » STRONG » Psalms » Chapter 44 » Verse 22

Psalms 44:22 King James Version with Strong's Concordance (STRONG)

22 Yea, for thy sake are we killed H2026 all the day H3117 long; we are counted H2803 as sheep H6629 for the slaughter. H2878

Cross Reference

1 Samuel 22:17-19 STRONG

And the king H4428 said H559 unto the footmen H7323 that stood H5324 about him, Turn, H5437 and slay H4191 the priests H3548 of the LORD; H3068 because their hand H3027 also is with David, H1732 and because they knew H3045 when he fled, H1272 and did not shew H1540 H241 it to me. But the servants H5650 of the king H4428 would H14 not put forth H7971 their hand H3027 to fall H6293 upon the priests H3548 of the LORD. H3068 And the king H4428 said H559 to Doeg, H1673 Turn H5437 thou, and fall H6293 upon the priests. H3548 And Doeg H1673 the Edomite H130 turned, H5437 and he fell H6293 upon the priests, H3548 and slew H4191 on that day H3117 fourscore H8084 and five H2568 persons H376 that did wear H5375 a linen H906 ephod. H646 And Nob, H5011 the city H5892 of the priests, H3548 smote H5221 he with the edge H6310 of the sword, H2719 both men H376 and women, H802 children H5768 and sucklings, H3243 and oxen, H7794 and asses, H2543 and sheep, H7716 with the edge H6310 of the sword. H2719

Psalms 79:2-3 STRONG

The dead bodies H5038 of thy servants H5650 have they given H5414 to be meat H3978 unto the fowls H5775 of the heaven, H8064 the flesh H1320 of thy saints H2623 unto the beasts H2416 of the earth. H776 Their blood H1818 have they shed H8210 like water H4325 round about H5439 Jerusalem; H3389 and there was none to bury H6912 them.

Matthew 5:10-12 STRONG

Blessed G3107 are they which are persecuted G1377 for G1752 righteousness' sake: G1343 for G3754 theirs G846 is G2076 the kingdom G932 of heaven. G3772 Blessed G3107 are ye, G2075 when G3752 men shall revile G3679 you, G5209 and G2532 persecute G1377 you, and G2532 shall say G2036 all manner G3956 of evil G4190 G4487 against G2596 you G5216 falsely, G5574 for my sake. G1752 G1700 Rejoice, G5463 and G2532 be exceeding glad: G21 for G3754 great G4183 is your G5216 reward G3408 in G1722 heaven: G3772 for G1063 so G3779 persecuted they G1377 the prophets G4396 which G3588 were before G4253 you. G5216

John 16:2-3 STRONG

They shall put G4160 you G5209 out of the synagogues: G656 yea, G235 the time G5610 cometh, G2064 that G2443 whosoever G3956 killeth G615 you G5209 will think G1380 that he doeth G4374 God G2316 service. G2999 And G2532 these things G5023 will they do G4160 unto you, G5213 because G3754 they have G1097 not G3756 known G1097 the Father, G3962 nor G3761 me. G1691

1 Corinthians 15:30-31 STRONG

And G2532 why G5101 stand G2793 we G2249 in jeopardy G2793 every G3956 hour? G5610 I protest by G3513 your G5212 rejoicing G2251 G2746 which G3739 I have G2192 in G1722 Christ G5547 Jesus G2424 our G2257 Lord, G2962 I die G599 daily. G2596 G2250

Revelation 11:3-9 STRONG

And G2532 I will give G1325 power unto my G3450 two G1417 witnesses, G3144 and G2532 they shall prophesy G4395 a thousand G5507 two hundred G1250 and threescore G1835 days, G2250 clothed in G4016 sackcloth. G4526 These G3778 are G1526 the two G1417 olive G1636 trees, and G2532 the two G1417 candlesticks G3087 standing G2476 before G1799 the God G2316 of the earth. G1093 And G2532 if any man G1536 G846 will G2309 hurt G91 them, G846 fire G4442 proceedeth G1607 out of G1537 their G846 mouth, G4750 and G2532 devoureth G2719 their G846 enemies: G2190 and G2532 if any man G1536 will G2309 hurt G91 them, G846 he must G1163 in this manner G3779 be killed. G615 These G3778 have G2192 power G1849 to shut G2808 heaven, G3772 that G3363 it rain G1026 G5205 not G3363 in G1722 the days G2250 of their G846 prophecy: G4394 and G2532 have G2192 power G1849 over G1909 waters G5204 to turn G4762 them G846 to G1519 blood, G129 and G2532 to smite G3960 the earth G1093 with all G3956 plagues, G4127 as often G3740 as G1437 they will. G2309 And G2532 when G3752 they shall have finished G5055 their G846 testimony, G3141 the beast G2342 that ascendeth G305 out of G1537 the bottomless pit G12 shall make G4160 war G4171 against G3326 them, G846 and G2532 shall overcome G3528 them, G846 and G2532 kill G615 them. G846 And G2532 their G846 dead bodies G4430 shall lie in G1909 the street G4113 of the great G3173 city, G4172 which G3748 spiritually G4153 is called G2564 Sodom G4670 and G2532 Egypt, G125 where G3699 also G2532 our G2257 Lord G2962 was crucified. G4717 And G2532 they G991 of G1537 the people G2992 and G2532 kindreds G5443 and G2532 tongues G1100 and G2532 nations G1484 shall see G991 their G846 dead bodies G4430 three G5140 days G2250 and G2532 an half, G2255 and G2532 shall G863 not G3756 suffer G863 their G846 dead bodies G4430 to be put G5087 in G1519 graves. G3418

Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 44

Commentary on Psalms 44 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary


Introduction

A Litany of Israel, Hard Pressed by the Enemy, and Yet Faithful to Its God

The Korahitic Maskı̂l Psalms 42:1-11, with its counterpart Psalms 43:1-5, if followed by a second, to which a place is here assigned by manifold accords with Ps 42-43, viz., with its complaints (cf. PsPsalms 44:26 with the refrain of Psalms 43:1-5, Psalms 42:1-11; Psalms 44:10, Psalms 44:24. with Psalms 43:2; Psalms 42:10), and prayers (cf. Psalms 44:5 with Psalms 43:3; Psalms 42:9). The counterpart to this Psalm is Psalms 85:1-13. Just as Ps 42-43 and Psalms 84:1-12 form a pair, so do Ps 44 and Psalms 85:1-13 as being Korahitic plaintive and supplicatory Psalms of a national character. Moreover, Psalms 60:1-12 by David, Ps 80 by Asaph, and Ps 89 by Ethan, are nearest akin to it. In all these three there are similar lamentations over the present as contrasting with the former times and with the promise of God; but they do not contain any like expression of consciousness of innocence, a feature in which Ps 44 has no equal.

In this respect the Psalm seems to be most satisfactorily explained by the situation of the חסידים (saints), who under the leadership of the Maccabees defended their nationality and their religion against the Syrians and fell as martyrs by thousands. The war of that period was, in its first beginnings at least, a holy war of religion; and the nation which then went forth on the side of Jahve against Jupiter Olympius, was really, in distinction from the apostates, a people true to its faith and confession, which had to lament over God's doom of wrath in 1 Macc. 1:64, just as in this Psalm. There is even a tradition that it was a stated lamentation Psalm of the time of the Maccabees. The Levites daily ascended the pulpit ( דוכן ) and raised the cry of prayer: Awake, why sleepest Thou, O Lord?! These Levite criers praying for the interposition of God were called מעוררים (wakers). It is related in B. Sota 48a of Jochanan the high priest, i.e., John Hyrcanus (135-107 b.c.), that he put an end to these מעוררים , saying to them: “Doth the Deity sleep? Hath not the Scripture said: Behold the Keeper of Israel slumbereth not and sleepeth not!? Only in a time when Israel was in distress and the peoples of the world in rest and prosperity, only in reference to such circumstances was it said: Awake, why sleepest Thou, O Lord?”

Nevertheless many considerations are opposed to the composition of the Psalm in the time of the Maccabees. We will mention only a few. In the time of the Maccabees the nation did not exactly suffer any overthrow of its “armies” (Psalms 44:10) after having gathered up its courage: the arms of Judah, of Jonathan, and of Simon were victorious, and the one defeat to which Hitzig refers the Psalm, viz., the defeat of Joseph and Azaria against Gorgias in Jamnia (1 Macc. 5:55ff.), was a punishment brought upon themselves by an indiscreet enterprise. The complaints in Psalms 44:10. are therefore only partially explained by the evmnts of that time; and since a nation is a unit and involved as a whole, it is also surprising that no mention whatever is made of the apostates. But Ewald's reference of the Psalm to the time of the post-exilic Jerusalem is still more inadmissible; and when, in connection with this view, the question is asked, What disaster of war is then intended? no answer can be given; and the reference to the time of Jehoiachin, which Tholuck in vain endeavours to set in a more favourable light - a king who did evil in the eyes of Jahve, 2 Chronicles 36:9, with which the descriptions of character drawn by Jeremiah, Jeremiah 22:20-30, and by Ezekiel, Ezekiel 19:1-14, fully accord - is also inadmissible. On the other hand, the position of the Psalm in the immediate neighbourhood of Psalms belonging to the time of Jehoshaphat, and also to a certain extent its contents, favours the early part of the reign of king Joash, in which, as becomes evident from the prophecy of Joel, there was no idolatry on the part of the people to be punished, and yet there were severe afflictions of the people to be bewailed. It was then not long since the Philistines and Arabs from the neighbourhood of the Cushites had broken in upon Judah, ransacked Jerusalem and sold the captive people of Judah for a mere song to the Greeks (2 Chronicles 21:16., Joel 3:2-8). But this reference to contemporary history is also untenable. That unhappy event, together with others, belongs to the category of well-merited judgments, which came upon king and people in the reign of Jehoram; nor does the Psalm sound like a retrospective glance at the time of Jehoram from the standpoint of the time of Joash: the defeat of which it complains, is one that is now only just experienced.

Thus we seem consequently driven back to the time of David; and the question arises, whether the Psalm does not admit, with Psalms 60:1-12, with which it forms a twin couple, of being understood as the offspring of a similar situation, viz., of the events which resulted from the Syro-Ammonitish war. The fact that a conflict with the foes of the kingdom in the south, viz., with the Edomites, was also mixed up with the wars with the Ammonites and their Syrian allies at that period, becomes evident from Psalms 60:1. when compared with 2 Samuel 8:13, where the words ἐπάταξε τὴν Ἰδουμαίαν (lxx) have fallen out. Whilst David was contending with the Syrians, the Edomites came down upon the country that was denuded of troops. And from 1 Kings 11:15 it is very evident that they then caused great bloodshed; for, according to that passage, Joab buried the slain and took fearful revenge upon the Edomites: he marched, after having slain them in the Valley of Salt, into Idumaea and there smote every male. Perhaps, with Hengstenberg, Keil, and others, the Psalm is to be explained from the position of Israel before this overthrow of the Edomites. The fact that in Psalms 44:12 the nation complains of a dispersion among the heathen may be understood by means of a deduction from Amos 1:6, according to which the Edomites had carried on a traffic in captive Israelites. And the lofty self-consciousness, which finds expression in the Psalm, is after all best explained by the times of David; for these and the early part of the times of Solomon are the only period in the history of Israel when the nation as a whole could boast of being free and pure of all foreign influence in its worship. In the kindred Psalms 60:1-12; 80 (also Ps 89), it is true this self-consciousness does not attain the same lofty expression in this respect Ps 40 stands perfectly alone: it is like the national mirroring of the Book of Job, and by reason of this takes a unique position in the range of Old Testament literature side by side with Lam. 3 and the deutero-Isaiah. Israel's affliction, which could not possibly be of a punitive character, resembles the affliction of Job; in this Psalm, Israel stands in exactly the same relation to God as Job and the “Servant of Jahve” in Isaiah, if we except all that was desponding in Job's complaint and all that was expiatory in the affliction of the Servant of Jahve. But this very self-consciousness does somewhat approximately find expression even in Psalms 60:4. In that passage also no distinction is made between Israel and the God-fearing ones, and the battle, in which Israel is defeated, but not without hope of final victory, is a battle for the truth.

The charge has been brought against this Psalm, that it manifests a very superficial apprehension of the nature of sin, in consequence of which the writer has been betrayed into accusing God of unfaithfulness, instead of seeking for guilt in the congregation of Israel. This judgment is unjust. The writer certainly cannot mean to disown the sins of individuals, nor even this or that transgression of the whole people. but any apostasy on the part of the nation from its God, such as could account for its rejection, did not exist at that time. The supremacy granted to the heathen over Israel is, therefore, an abnormal state of things, and for this very reason the poet, on the ground of Israel's fidelity and of God's loving-kindness, prays for speedy deliverance. A Psalm born directly out of the heart of the New Testament church would certainly sound very differently. For the New Testament church is not a national community; and both as regards the relation between the reality and idea of the church, and as regards the relation between its afflictions and the motive and design of God, the view of the New Testament church penetrates far deeper. It knows that it is God's love that makes it conformable to the passion of Christ, in order that, being crucified unto the world, it may become through suffering partaker of the glory of its Lord and Head.


Verses 1-3

(Heb.: 44:2-4) The poet opens with a tradition coming down from the time of Moses and of Joshua which they have heard with their own ears, in order to demonstrate the vast distance between the character of the former times and the present, just as Asaph, also, in Psalms 78:3, appeals not to the written but to the spoken word. That which has been heard follows in the oratio directa . Psalms 44:3 explains what kind of “work” is intended: it is the granting of victory over the peoples of Canaan, the work of God for which Moses prays in Psalms 90:16. Concerning ידך , vid., on Psalms 3:5; Psalms 17:14. The position of the words here, as in Psalms 69:11; 83:19, leads one to suppose that ידך is treated as a permutative of אתּה , and consequently in the same case with it. The figure of “planting” (after Exodus 15:17) is carried forward in ותּשׁלּחם ; for this word means to send forth far away, to make wide-branching, a figure which is wrought up in Ps 80. It was not Israel's own work, but ( כּי , no indeed, for [Germ. nein, denn ] = imo ) God's work: “Thy right hand and Thine arm and the light of Thy countenance,” they it was which brought Israel salvation, i.e., victory. The combination of synonyms ימינך וּזרועך is just as in Psalms 74:11, Sir. 33:7, χείρα καὶ βραχίονα δεξιόν , and is explained by both the names of the members of the body as applied to God being only figures: the right hand being a figure for energetic interposition, and the arm for an effectual power that carries through the thing designed (cf. e.g., Psalms 77:16; Psalms 53:1), just as the light of His countenance is a figure for His loving-kindness which lights up all darkness. The final cause was His purpose of love: for (inasmuch as) Thou wast favourable to them ( רצה as in Psalms 85:2). The very same thought, viz., that Israel owes the possession of Canaan to nothing but Jahve's free grace, runs all through Deut. 9.


Verses 4-8

(Heb.: 44:5-9) Out of the retrospective glance at the past, so rich in mercy springs up (Psalms 44:5) the confident prayer concerning the present, based upon the fact of the theocratic relationship which began in the time of the deliverance wrought under Moses (Deuteronomy 33:5). In the substantival clause אתּה הוּא מלכּי , הוּא is neither logical copula nor predicate (as in Psalms 102:28; Deuteronomy 32:39, there equivalent to אתּה הוּא אשׁר , cf. 1 Chronicles 21:17), but an expressive resumption of the subject, as in Isaiah 43:25; Jeremiah 49:12; Nehemiah 9:6., Ezra 5:11, and in the frequently recurring expression יהוה הוא האלהים ; it is therefore to be rendered: Thou-He who (such an one) is my King. May He therefore, by virtue of His duty as king which He has voluntarily taken upon Himself, and of the kingly authority and power indwelling in Him, command the salvation of Jacob, full and entire (Ps 18:51; 53:7). צוּה as in Psalms 42:9. Jacob is used for Israel just as Elohim is used instead of Jahve . If Elohim, Jacob's King, now turns graciously to His people, they will again be victorious and invincible, as Psalms 44:6 affirms. נגּח with reference to קרן as a figure and emblem of strength, as in Psalms 89:25 and frequently; קמינוּ equivalent to קמים עלינוּ . But only in the strength of God ( בּך as in Psalms 18:30); for not in my bow do I trust, etc., Psalms 44:7. This teaching Israel has gathered from the history of the former times; there is no bidding defiance with the bow and sword and all the carnal weapons of attack, but Thou, etc., Psalms 44:8. This “Thou” in הושׁעתּנוּ is the emphatic word; the preterites describe facts of experience belonging to history. It is not Israel's own might that gives them the supremacy, but God's gracious might in Israel's weakness. Elohim is, therefore, Israel's glory or pride: “In Elohim do we praise,” i.e., we glory or make our boast in Him; cf. הלּל על , Psalms 10:3. The music here joins in after the manner of a hymn. The Psalm here soars aloft to the more joyous height of praise, from which it now falls abruptly into bitter complaint.


Verses 9-12

(Heb.: 44:10-13) Just as אף signifies imo vero (Psalms 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 (= nevertheless) Thou hast cast off. From this point the Psalm comes into closest connection with Psalms 89:39, on a still more extended scale, however, with Psalms 60:1-12, which dates from the time of the Syro-Ammonitish war, in which Psalm Psalms 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 Psalms 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 Psalms 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 ( Psalms 44:10 ) a perfect with an aorist following: ולא תצא is consequently a negative ותּצא . And Psalms 44:18, which sums up the whole, shows that all the rest is also intended to be retrospective.


Verses 13-16

(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 Psalms 79:4, cf. Psalms 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 Psalms 22:8, a gesture of malicious astonishment. In נגדּי תּמיד (as in Psalms 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 , Ps 6:11, and חפר , Psalms 34:6). The juxtaposition of “enemy and revengeful man” has its origin in Psalms 8:3. In Psalms 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.


Verses 17-21

(Heb.: 44:18-22) If Israel compares its conduct towards God with this its lot, it cannot possibly regard it as a punishment that it has justly incurred. Construed with the accusative, בּוא signifies, as in Psalms 35:8; Psalms 36:12, to come upon one, and more especially of an evil lot and of powers that are hostile. שׁקּר , to lie or deceive, with בּ of the object on whom the deception or treachery is practised, as in Psalms 89:34. In Psalms 44:19 אשּׁוּר is construed as fem ., exactly as in Job 31:8; the fut. consec . is also intended as such (as e.g., in Job 3:10; Numbers 16:14): that our step should have declined from, etc.; inward apostasy is followed by outward wandering and downfall. This is therefore not one of the many instances in which the לא of one clause also has influence over the clause that follows (Ges. §152, 3). כּי , Psalms 44:20, has the sense of quod : we have not revolted against Thee, that Thou shouldest on that account have done to us the thing which is now befallen us. Concerning תּנּיּם vid., Isaiah 13:22. A “place of jackals” is, like a habitation of dragons (Jeremiah 10:22), the most lonesome and terrible wilderness; the place chosen was, according to this, an inhospitable מדבר , far removed from the dwellings of men. כּסּה is construed with על of the person covered, and with בּ of that with which (1 Samuel 19:13) he is covered: Thou coveredst us over with deepest darkness (vid., Psalms 23:4). אם , Psalms 44:21, is not that of asseveration (verily we have not forgotten), but, as the interrogatory apodosis Psalms 44:22 shows, conditional: if we have (= should have) forgotten. This would not remain hidden from Him who knoweth the heart, for the secrets of men's hearts are known to Him. Both the form and matter here again strongly remind one of Job 31, more especially Job 31:4; cf. also on תּעלמות , Job 11:6; Job 28:11.


Verses 22-26

(Heb.: 44:23-27) The church is not conscious of any apostasy, for on the contrary it is suffering for the sake of its fidelity. Such is the meaning intended by כּי , Psalms 44:23 (cf. Psalms 37:20). The emphasis lies on עליך , which is used exactly as in Psalms 69:8. Paul, in Romans 8:36, transfers this utterance to the sufferings of the New Testament church borne in witnessing for the truth, or I should rather say he considers it as a divine utterance corresponding as it were prophetically to the sufferings of the New Testament church, and by anticipation, coined concerning it and for its use, inasmuch as he cites it with the words καθὼς γέγραπται . The suppliant cries עוּרה and הקיצה are Davidic, and found in his earlier Ps; Psalms 7:7; Psalms 35:23; Psalms 59:5., cf. Psalms 78:65. God is said to sleep when He does not interpose in whatever is taking place in the outward world here below; for the very nature of sleep is a turning in into one's own self from all relationship to the outer world, and a resting of the powers which act outwardly. The writer of our Psalm is fond of couplets of synonyms like ענינוּ ולחצנוּ in Psalms 44:25; cf. Psalms 44:4, ימינך וּזרועך . Psalms 119:25 is an echo of Psalms 44:26. The suppliant cry קוּמה (in this instance in connection with the עזרתה which follows, it is to be accented on the ultima ) is Davidic, Psalms 3:8; Psalms 7:7; but originally it is Mosaic. Concerning the ah of עזרתה , here as also in Psalms 63:8 of like meaning with לעזרתי , Psalms 22:20, and frequently, vid., on Psalms 3:3.