Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 44:11

Thou hast given us like sheep [appointed] for meat; and hast scattered us among the heathen.

11. Some of God’s people are butchered like sheep (cp. Psa 44:22); others are sold as slaves. It is evidently not a deportation of the nation that is meant, but the sale of prisoners of war for slaves. Cp. Joe 3:2; Joe 3:6; Amo 1:6; Amo 1:9. To the Israelite with his love of freedom and attachment to his own land such a fate seemed little better than death.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat – Margin, as in Hebrew, as sheep of meat. That is, as sheep are killed for food, so thou hast allowed us to be put to death.

And hast scattered us among the heathen – Among the surrounding nations. See the notes at Psa 44:2. That is, they had been discomfited in war; many had fled into surrounding countries; many had been carried away captive. All this undoubtedly occurred at the time at which I have supposed that the psalm was written – the time immediately preceding the Babylonian captivity.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 11. And hast scattered us among the heathen.] This most evidently alludes to the captivity. From the successful wars of the kings of Assyria and Chaldea against the kings of Israel and Judah, and the dispersion of the tribes under Tiglath-pileser, Shalmaneser, and Nebuchadnezzar, Jews have been found in every province of the east; there they settled, and there their successors may be found to the present day.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Those of us who were not slain are carried into captivity, and dispersed in several places.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

11. The Babylonian captivity notnecessarily meant. There were others (compare 1Ki8:46).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Thou hast given us like sheep [appointed] for meat,…. To be butchered, and then eaten as sheep are; and therefore are called “the flock of slaughter”, Zec 11:4; as the church was, not only under the ten persecutions of Rome Pagan, but through the butcheries and massacres of Rome Papal; who have worried many of Christ’s sheep, have eaten their flesh and drank their blood, and have become drunken with it; it has been their meat and drink to persecute the saints of the most High;

and hast scattered us among the Heathen: the Pagan world, as the first Christians were, who were scattered up and down in the Gentile world everywhere; see 1Pe 1:1; or the Papacy, who are sometimes called Gentiles, Re 11:2; because much of the Gentile idolatry is introduced into the Popish religion; and among these many of the true members of Christ and of his church have been carried captive and scattered; and such will be found there a little before the destruction of Babylon, and will be called out from thence; see Re 13:10.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

To the same purpose is that other comparison, (verse 11) in which they say that they were given as sheep for food (141) By this the prophet intimates, that being already vanquished previous to the battle, they fell down, as it were, upon the earth before their enemies, ready to be devoured by them, (142) and not fit for any thing else than to gratify their insatiable cruelty. It ought to be observed, that when the faithful represent God as the author of their calamities, it is not in the way of murmuring against him, but that they may with greater confidence seek relief, as it were, from the same hand which smote and wounded them. It is certainly impossible that those who impute their miseries to fortune can sincerely have recourse to God, or look for help and salvation from him. If, therefore, we would expect a remedy from God for our miseries, we must believe that they befall us not by fortune or mere chance, but that they are inflicted upon us properly by his hand. Having stated that they were thus abandoned to the will of their enemies, they add, at the same time, that they were scattered among the heathen: a dispersion which was a hundred times more grievous to them than death. The whole glory and felicity of that people consisted in this, that, being united under one God and one King, they formed one body; and that such being the case, it was a sign that the curse of God lay heavy upon them to be mingled among the heathen, and scattered hither and thither like broken members.

(141) “This very strongly and strikingly intimates the extent of the persecution and slaughter to which they were exposed; there being no creature in the world of which such vast numbers are constantly slaughtered as of sheep, for the subsistence of man. The constancy of such slaughter is also mentioned in verse 22, as illustrating the continual oppression to which the Hebrews were subject.” — Illustrated Commentary upon the Bible.

(142) “ Prests a estre par eux devorez.” — Fr.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(11) Like sheep.The image of the sheep appointed for the slaughter; and unable to resist, recalls Isa. 53:6-7, 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.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

Psa 44:11 Thou hast given us like sheep [appointed] for meat; and hast scattered us among the heathen.

Ver. 11. Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat ] Aliqui occisi, dispersi alii, et venundati gratias, Some of us are slain, others scattered here and there, and sold for nought (Aben-Ezra).

And hast scattered us, &c. ] Oh the many miseries of such a banishment! The poet Tyrtaeus thus expresses it:

Est miserum, patria amissa laribusque vagare:

Mendiea et timida voce rogare cibos.

Cum natisque errare suis, et coniuge moesta,

Et cum matre pia, cumque parente sene.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)