Bible Strands
Psalms 44:22
Yet for Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses God directly, positioning the community's suffering between a rhetorical question about divine knowledge in verse 21 and a command to awaken in verse 23. The speaker describes the collective experience of Israel during a prolonged period of perceived abandonment and persecution.
The words — The Hebrew עָלֶיךָ ('A.lei./kha) translates literally as "for you" or "on account of you," while טִבְחָה (tiv.Chah) means "slaughter." These terms frame the community's daily mortality as both a consequence of divine will and a state of defenseless victimhood.
The thread — The New Testament quotes this verse verbatim in Romans 8:36 to describe the apostolic experience of persecution. The slaughter imagery also runs through Isaiah 53:7, which depicts the suffering figure being led like a lamb to slaughter.
Why it lands — The text demands a reader acknowledge that faithful endurance does not guarantee immediate deliverance. It requires the reader to confront the tension between divine sovereignty and unexplained suffering without offering comfort that bypasses the raw reality of the words.
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
Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
Cross-references
- 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 53:7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth.
- Psalms 44:11 You have given us up as sheep to be devoured; You have scattered us among the nations.
- John 15:21 But they will treat you like this because of My name, since they do not know the One who sent Me.
- John 16:2 They will put you out of the synagogues. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God.
- 1 Corinthians 4:9 For it seems to me that God has displayed us apostles at the end of the procession, like prisoners appointed for death. We have become a spectacle to the whole world, to angels as well as to men.
- Matthew 5:10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
- 1 Corinthians 15:30 And why do we endanger ourselves every hour?
- 1 Samuel 22:17 Then the king ordered the guards at his side, “Turn and kill the priests of the LORD, because they too sided with David. For they knew he was fleeing, but they did not tell me.” But the king’s servants would not lift a hand to strike the priests of the LORD.
- 1 Kings 19:10 “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of Hosts,” he replied, “but the Israelites have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I am the only one left, and they are seeking my life as well.”