Bible Strands
Psalms 44:11
You have given us up as sheep to be devoured; You have scattered us among the nations.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist speaks on behalf of the Israelite community to God during a period of military rout and national crisis. The speaker addresses the divine commander who has withdrawn battlefield protection, leaving the people exposed to enemy plunder.
The words — כְּצֹאן (keTzon) = like sheep and זֵרִיתָנוּ (zeRitanu) = you have scattered us. The text literally describes the community as livestock offered as prey and dispersed across foreign territories.
The thread — This scattering motif appears in Deuteronomy 4:27 and Deuteronomy 28:64 as covenant consequences for disobedience. Ezekiel 34:12 later reverses the pattern by promising divine search and rescue for the dispersed flock.
Why it lands — The verse demands honest acknowledgment of divine sovereignty in national defeat. It requires the reader to confront covenant judgment without excusing the suffering or abandoning the plea for intervention.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat; and hast scattered us among the heathen.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 4:27 Then the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the LORD will drive you.
- Deuteronomy 28:64 Then the LORD will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.
- Ezekiel 34:12 As a shepherd looks for his scattered sheep when he is among the flock, so I will look for My flock. I will rescue them from all the places to which they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.
- Romans 8:36 As it is written: “For Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
- Isaiah 11:11 On that day the Lord will extend His hand a second time to recover the remnant of His people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
- Jeremiah 32:37 I will surely gather My people from all the lands to which I have banished them in My furious anger and great wrath, and I will return them to this place and make them dwell in safety.
- 2 Kings 17:6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried away the Israelites to Assyria, where he settled them in Halah, in Gozan by the Habor River, and in the cities of the Medes.
- Psalms 14:4 Will the workers of iniquity never learn? They devour my people like bread; they refuse to call upon the LORD.
- Psalms 60:1 For the choirmaster. To the tune of “The Lily of the Covenant.” A Miktam of David for instruction. When he fought Aram-naharaim and Aram-zobah, and Joab returned and struck down 12,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt. You have rejected us, O God; You have broken us; You have been angry; restore us!
- Psalms 106:27 to disperse their offspring among the nations and scatter them throughout the lands.