Bible Strands
Psalms 44:12
You sell Your people for nothing; no profit do You gain from their sale.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses God directly, recounting Israel's sudden military collapse and national humiliation. The speaker describes a moment of corporate crisis where divine withdrawal follows prolonged corporate obedience.
The words — The Hebrew תִּמְכֹּר (tim.kor) literally means "you have sold," paired with בְּלֹא הוֹן (be.lo hon) for "without wealth." This phrasing frames national disaster not as a commercial transaction but as a sovereign act yielding no financial gain.
The thread — This motif appears in Isaiah 52:3, where God promises redemption without money, and Deuteronomy 32:30, which attributes battlefield defeat to the Rock selling them. Jeremiah 15:13 extends the imagery by describing God giving wealth as plunder without charge for sin.
Why it lands — The text demands acknowledgment that national catastrophe stems from divine permission rather than human failure or divine greed. It requires the reader to separate suffering from the assumption that God profits from human ruin.
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 sellest thy people for nought, and dost not increase thy wealth by their price.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 15:13 Your wealth and your treasures I will give up as plunder, without charge for all your sins within all your borders.
- Deuteronomy 32:30 How could one man pursue a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up?
- Isaiah 52:3 For this is what the LORD says: “You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed.”
- Judges 2:14 Then the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He delivered them into the hands of those who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist.
- Judges 3:8 Then the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He sold them into the hand of Cushan-rishathaim king of Aram-naharaim, and the Israelites served him eight years.
- Isaiah 50:1 This is what the LORD says: “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of My creditors did I sell you? Look, you were sold for your iniquities, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.
- Nehemiah 5:8 and said, “We have done our best to buy back our Jewish brothers who were sold to foreigners, but now you are selling your own brothers, that they may be sold back to us!” But they remained silent, for they could find nothing to say.
- Revelation 18:13 of cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, and frankincense; of wine, olive oil, fine flour, and wheat; of cattle, sheep, horses, and carriages; of bodies and souls of slaves.