Bible Strands
Psalms 44:14
You have made us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses God, describing the nation's collective experience of public humiliation after military defeat. The speaker reports the concrete reality of Israel being mocked by surrounding groups.
The words — The text employs מָשָׁל (ma.shol), literally "a byword," and the phrase מְנוֹד רֹאשׁ בַּל־אֻמִּים (me.nod ro.sh bal-'u.mim), meaning "a shaking of head among the peoples."
The thread — This pattern of foreign scorn appears in Deuteronomy 28:37, Jeremiah 24:9, and 2 Kings 19:21, where displaced or besieged Israel becomes an object of ridicule.
Why it lands — The verse demands the reader confront the factual weight of communal disgrace before seeking resolution. It frames shame as a historical condition requiring divine action rather than a rhetorical device.
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 makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 24:9 I will make them a horror and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a disgrace and an object of scorn, ridicule, and cursing wherever I have banished them.
- Deuteronomy 28:37 You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the nations to which the LORD will drive you.
- 2 Kings 19:21 This is the word that the LORD has spoken against him: ‘The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises you and mocks you; the Daughter of Jerusalem shakes her head behind you.
- Job 16:4 I could also speak like you if you were in my place; I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you.
- Job 17:6 He has made me a byword among the people, a man in whose face they spit.
- Lamentations 2:15 All who pass by clap their hands at you in scorn. They hiss and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”
- 1 Kings 9:7 then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. Then Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all peoples.
- 2 Chronicles 7:20 then I will uproot Israel from the soil I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. I will make it an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples.
- Psalms 22:7 All who see me mock me; they sneer and shake their heads:
- Psalms 109:25 I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads.