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44. Psalm 44

1 We have heard it with our ears, O God;
   our ancestors have told us
what you did in their days,
   in days long ago.
2 With your hand you drove out the nations
   and planted our ancestors;
you crushed the peoples
   and made our ancestors flourish.
3 It was not by their sword that they won the land,
   nor did their arm bring them victory;
it was your right hand, your arm,
   and the light of your face, for you loved them.

    4 You are my King and my God,
   who decrees Septuagint, Aquila and Syriac; Hebrew King, O God; / command victories for Jacob.
5 Through you we push back our enemies;
   through your name we trample our foes.
6 I put no trust in my bow,
   my sword does not bring me victory;
7 but you give us victory over our enemies,
   you put our adversaries to shame.
8 In God we make our boast all day long,
   and we will praise your name forever. The Hebrew has Selah (a word of uncertain meaning) here.

    9 But now you have rejected and humbled us;
   you no longer go out with our armies.
10 You made us retreat before the enemy,
   and our adversaries have plundered us.
11 You gave us up to be devoured like sheep
   and have scattered us among the nations.
12 You sold your people for a pittance,
   gaining nothing from their sale.

    13 You have made us a reproach to our neighbors,
   the scorn and derision of those around us.
14 You have made us a byword among the nations;
   the peoples shake their heads at us.
15 I live in disgrace all day long,
   and my face is covered with shame
16 at the taunts of those who reproach and revile me,
   because of the enemy, who is bent on revenge.

    17 All this came upon us,
   though we had not forgotten you;
   we had not been false to your covenant.
18 Our hearts had not turned back;
   our feet had not strayed from your path.
19 But you crushed us and made us a haunt for jackals;
   you covered us over with deep darkness.

    20 If we had forgotten the name of our God
   or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
21 would not God have discovered it,
   since he knows the secrets of the heart?
22 Yet for your sake we face death all day long;
   we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

    23 Awake, Lord! Why do you sleep?
   Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever.
24 Why do you hide your face
   and forget our misery and oppression?

    25 We are brought down to the dust;
   our bodies cling to the ground.
26 Rise up and help us;
   rescue us because of your unfailing love.

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

15 My reproach is daily before me. The Hebrew words כלהיום, col-hayom, mean all the day, and denote long continuance: but they may be understood in two ways, either for the whole or entire day, from morning to evening, or for continued succession of days. According to either of these interpretations, the meaning is, that there is no end to their misfortunes. As to the change of the number from the plural to the singular, it is not at all inconsistent that what is spoken in the name of the Church should be uttered, as it were, in the person of one man. The reason is added why they were so overwhelmed with shame, that they dared not to lift up their eyes and their face, namely, because they had no respite, but were incessantly subjected to the insolence and reproach of their enemies. Had they been allowed to hide themselves in some corner, they might have endured, as well as they were able, their calamities in secret; but when their enemies openly derided them with the greatest insolence, it served to redouble the wound inflicted upon them. They, therefore, complain that their calamities had accumulated to such an extent, that they were forced unceasingly to hear blasphemies and bitter reproaches. They describe their enemies by the epithet avengers, a term which, among the Hebrews, denotes barbarity and cruelty, accompanied with pride, as we have remarked on the 8th Psalm
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