Bible Strands
Psalms 79:4
We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and derision to those around us.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist speaks on behalf of the defeated community directly to God, immediately after describing the unburied dead and spilled blood around Jerusalem.
The words — חֶרְפָּה (Cher.pah) translates literally as a reproach, and לַעַג (La.'ag) means mockery or scorn. These terms describe the public shame inflicted by surrounding populations.
The thread — This pattern of national disgrace among neighbors appears in Psalms 80:6, Psalms 89:41, and Lamentations 5:1. Each passage links military defeat with social humiliation before God.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to confront the reality of communal shame without softening the language. It demands a direct appeal to God as the only source of relief from prolonged disgrace.
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
We are become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us.
Cross-references
- Psalms 80:6 You make us contend with our neighbors; our enemies mock us.
- Psalms 89:41 All who pass by plunder him; he has become a reproach to his neighbors.
- Lamentations 5:1 Remember, O LORD, what has happened to us. Look and see our disgrace!
- Ezekiel 36:15 I will no longer allow the taunts of the nations to be heard against you, and you will no longer endure the reproach of the peoples or cause your nation to stumble, declares the Lord GOD.”
- Deuteronomy 28:37 You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the nations to which the LORD will drive you.
- 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.
- Nehemiah 2:19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard about this, they mocked us and ridiculed us, saying, “What is this you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”
- Nehemiah 4:1 Now when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he was furious and filled with indignation. He ridiculed the Jews
- Psalms 44:13 You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, a mockery and derision to those around us.
- 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.