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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0;"/><title>Psalm 44 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/expositors/psalms/44.htm" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001com.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; 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<a href="/psalms/44-15.htm" title="My confusion is continually before me, and the shame of my face has covered me,">Psalm 44:15</a>, we recognise, in this psalm, a hymn expressive not of individual but of national feeling; a feeling, too, which certainly could not have received such an expression before the exile, before the spell of the fascination of the Canaanitish idolatries had passed away. Nor can the psalm be assigned to the exile period itself, for it does not reflect the profound spiritual insight that characterises the literature which undoubtedly belongs to that time. Ewald places it during the months that disturbed the early years of the return from captivity. The majority of critics, however, prefer the time of Antiochus Epiphanes. It might well have been inspired by one of those reverses, which so often came upon the struggling community of Israel, in consequence of their scrupulous concern for the Sabbath day, which did not even allow them to defend themselves. (See Note, <a href="/context/psalms/44-13.htm" title="You make us a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.">Psalm 44:13-14</a>.) The parallelism is fine and well sustained.<p><span class= "ital">Title.</span>—See title, Psalms 42, 32<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/44-1.htm">Psalm 44:1</a></div><div class="verse">To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, Maschil. We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, <i>what</i> work thou didst in their days, in the times of old.</div>(1) <span class= "bld">We have heard.</span>—The glorious traditions of ancient deliverances wrought by Jehovah for His people were a sacred heritage of every Hebrew. (See <a href="/exodus/10-2.htm" title="And that you may tell in the ears of your son, and of your son's son, what things I have worked in Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that you may know how that I am the LORD.">Exodus 10:2</a>; <a href="/exodus/12-26.htm" title="And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say to you, What mean you by this service?">Exodus 12:26</a>, <span class= "ital">seq.</span>; <a href="/deuteronomy/6-20.htm" title="And when your son asks you in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD our God has commanded you?">Deuteronomy 6:20</a>, etc.) This, and all the historical psalms, show how closely interwoven for the Jew were patriotism and religion.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/44-2.htm">Psalm 44:2</a></div><div class="verse"><i>How</i> thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; <i>how</i> thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">Thou . . . with thy hand.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">Thou, Thy hand, </span>which may be, as in the Authorised Version, taken as accusative of instrument, or as a repeated subject.<p><span class= "bld">And cast them out.</span>—This entirely misses the meaning and destroys the parallelism. The Hebrew word is that used for a treo spreading its branches out; comp. <a href="/jeremiah/17-8.htm" title="For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat comes, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.">Jeremiah 17:8</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/17-6.htm" title="And it grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him, and the roots thereof were under him: so it became a vine, and brought forth branches, and shot forth sprigs.">Ezekiel 17:6</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/31-5.htm" title="Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long because of the multitude of waters, when he shot forth.">Ezekiel 31:5</a>, and especially <a href="/psalms/80-11.htm" title="She sent out her boughs to the sea, and her branches to the river.">Psalm 80:11</a>, a passage which is simply an amplification of the figure in this verse, viz., of a vine or other exotic, planted in a soil cleared for its reception, and there caused to grow and flourish. The pronoun <span class= "ital">them </span>in each clause plainly refers to Israel.<p>Thou, with thine hand, didst dispossess the heathen,<p>And planted <span class= "ital">them </span>(Israel) in.<p>Thou didst afflict the peoples.<p>But didst make <span class= "ital">them </span>to spread.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/44-3.htm">Psalm 44:3</a></div><div class="verse">For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">The light of thy countenance.</span>—Notice the contrast to this in <a href="/psalms/44-24.htm" title="Why hide you your face, and forget our affliction and our oppression?">Psalm 44:24</a>; in times of distress God’s face seemed hidden or averted.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/44-4.htm">Psalm 44:4</a></div><div class="verse">Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">Thou art my King.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">Thou, He, my king, </span>an idiomatic way of making a strong assertion, <span class= "ital">Thou, even thou, art my king, O God. </span>(Comp. <a href="/isaiah/43-25.htm" title="I, even I, am he that blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and will not remember your sins.">Isaiah 43:25</a>.) What God has done in the past may be expected again, and for a moment the poet forgets the weight of actual trouble in the faith that has sprung from the grateful retrospect over the past.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/44-5.htm">Psalm 44:5</a></div><div class="verse">Through thee will we push down our enemies: through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">Push down.</span>—The image of the original is lost here, the LXX. have retained it. It is that of a buffalo or other horned animal driving back and goring its enemies. <a href="/deuteronomy/33-17.htm" title="His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.">Deuteronomy 33:17</a> applies it as a special description of the tribe of Joseph. The figure is continued in the next clause; the infuriated animal tramples its victim under foot.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/44-10.htm">Psalm 44:10</a></div><div class="verse">Thou makest us to turn back from the enemy: and they which hate us spoil for themselves.</div>(10) <span class= "bld">For themselves</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e.</span>, at their own will, an expression denoting the completeness of the overthrow of the Jews; they lie absolutely at their enemies’ pleasure.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/44-11.htm">Psalm 44:11</a></div><div class="verse">Thou hast given us like sheep <i>appointed</i> for meat; and hast scattered us among the heathen.</div>(11) <span class= "bld">Like sheep.</span>—The image of the sheep appointed for the slaughter; and unable to resist, recalls <a href="/context/isaiah/53-6.htm" title="All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.">Isaiah 53:6-7</a>, but does not necessarily connect the Psalm with the exile period, since it was a figure likely to suggest itself in every time of helpless peril.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/44-12.htm">Psalm 44:12</a></div><div class="verse">Thou sellest thy people for nought, and dost not increase <i>thy wealth</i> by their price.</div>(12) <span class= "bld">For nought.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">for not riches </span>(comp. <a href="/jeremiah/15-13.htm" title="Your substance and your treasures will I give to the spoil without price, and that for all your sins, even in all your borders.">Jeremiah 15:13</a>); notice the contrast to <a href="/psalms/72-14.htm" title="He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in his sight.">Psalm 72:14</a>.<p><span class= "bld">And dost not increase thy wealth by their price.</span>—This rendering takes the verb as in <a href="/proverbs/22-16.htm" title="He that oppresses the poor to increase his riches, and he that gives to the rich, shall surely come to want.">Proverbs 22:16</a>; but to make the two places exactly parallel, we should have “dost not increase <span class= "ital">for thee.” </span>It is better, therefore, to make the clause synonymous with the last, and render <span class= "ital">thou didst not increase in </span>(<span class= "ital">the matter of</span>)<span class= "ital"> their price, i.e., </span>thou didst not set a high price on them.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/44-13.htm">Psalm 44:13</a></div><div class="verse">Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.</div>(13, 14) These verses become very suggestive, if we refer them to one of those periods under the Seleucidæ, when the Jews were so frequently attacked on the Sabbath, and from their scrupulous regard to it would make no resistance.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/44-14.htm">Psalm 44:14</a></div><div class="verse">Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people.</div>(14) <span class= "bld">Shaking of the head.</span>—Comp. <a href="/psalms/22-7.htm" title="All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,">Psalm 22:7</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/44-15.htm">Psalm 44:15</a></div><div class="verse">My confusion <i>is</i> continually before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me,</div>(15) <span class= "bld">The shame.</span>—Better take <span class= "ital">the face </span>as a second object—<span class= "ital">shame hath covered me as to my face, i.e., covered my face. </span>Though the record of the facts of a sad reality, these verses have also the value of a prophecy sadder still. Twenty centuries of misery are summed up in these few lines, which have been most literally repeated,<p>“By the torture, prolonged from age to age,<p>By the infamy, Israel’s heritage;<p>By the Ghetto’s plague, by the garb’s disgrace,<p>By the badge of shame, by the felon’s place.”<p>R. BROWNING: <span class= "ital">Holy Cross Day.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/44-19.htm">Psalm 44:19</a></div><div class="verse">Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death.</div>(19) <span class= "bld">In the place of dragons.</span>—This expression evidently means <span class= "ital">a wild desert place, </span>from comparison with <a href="/jeremiah/9-11.htm" title="And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.">Jeremiah 9:11</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/10-22.htm" title="Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons.">Jeremiah 10:22</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/49-33.htm" title="And Hazor shall be a dwelling for dragons, and a desolation for ever: there shall no man abide there, nor any son of man dwell in it.">Jeremiah 49:33</a>. So Aquila has “an uninhabitable place.” The rendering <span class= "ital">dragons </span>for <span class= "ital">tannim </span>arose from its resemblance to <span class= "ital">tannîn </span>(sea monster). The <span class= "ital">tan </span>must be a wild beast, since it is connected with <span class= "ital">ostriches </span>(<a href="/isaiah/34-13.htm" title="And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls.">Isaiah 34:13</a>) and <span class= "ital">wild asses, </span>whom it resembles in <span class= "ital">snuffing up the wind </span>(<a href="/jeremiah/14-6.htm" title="And the wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes did fail, because there was no grass.">Jeremiah 14:6</a>), and is described as uttering a mournful howl (<a href="/isaiah/43-20.htm" title="The beast of the field shall honor me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.">Isaiah 43:20</a>; <a href="/micah/1-8.htm" title="Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls.">Micah 1:8</a>; <a href="/job/30-29.htm" title="I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.">Job 30:29</a>). The jackal is the animal that best answers these requirements. The LXX. and Vulg., which give various different renderings for the word, have here, “in the place of affliction.”<p><span class= "bld">Shadow of death.</span>—See Note, <a href="/psalms/23-4.htm" title="Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for you are with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me.">Psalm 23:4</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/44-22.htm">Psalm 44:22</a></div><div class="verse">Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.</div>(22) <span class= "bld">For thy sake.</span>—For St. Paul’s quotation of this verse (<a href="/romans/8-36.htm" title="As it is written, For your sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.">Romans 8:36</a>), see Note, <span class= "ital">N. Test. Commentary.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/psalms/44-23.htm">Psalm 44:23</a></div><div class="verse">Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast <i>us</i> not off for ever.</div>(</span>23<span class= "ital">)</span> <span class= "bld">Why sleepest.</span>—Comp. <a href="/psalms/7-6.htm" title="Arise, O LORD, in your anger, lift up yourself because of the rage of my enemies: and awake for me to the judgment that you have commanded.">Psalm 7:6</a>, and see refs.<p> <div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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