Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Romans 8:36
As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
36. As it is written ] In Psalms 44 (LXX. 43):22. The Gr. is verbatim from the LXX. The quotation refers specially to the last previous word, “ sword.” By thus quoting the Psalm of the O. T. confessors and martyrs as divinely meant also for N. T. saints, St Paul indicates (as so often) the continuity of the believing Church of all time.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
As it is written – Psa 44:22. This passage the apostle quotes not as having originally reference to Christians, but as aptly descriptive of their condition. The condition of saints in the time of the psalmist was similar to that of Christians in the time of Paul. The same language would express both.
For thy sake – In thy cause; or on account of attachment to time.
We are killed – We are subject to, or exposed to death. We endure sufferings equivalent to dying; compare 1Co 4:9, God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death.
All the day long – Continually; constantly. There is no intermission to our danger, and to our exposure to death.
We are accounted – We are reckoned; we are regarded, or dealt with. That is, our enemies judge that we ought to die, and deem us the appropriate subjects of slaughter, with as little concern or remorse as the lives of sheep are taken.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 36. As it is written] And these are no more than we may naturally expect from the present constitution of the world, and the positive predictions of the prophet, Ps 44:22, who foresaw that a wicked world would always persecute and oppress the true followers of God.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
He cites this testimony to prove that none of the forementioned evils, no, not death itself, can separate believers from the love of Christ: it is taken out of Psa 44:22. The argument seems to be this: The saints of old have endured all manner of sufferings, and yet were not separated from the love of God; therefore such sufferings cannot separate them now.
For thy sake; not for our sins sake, but for Christs, or for righteousness sake, Mat 5:10; 10:18,39; 1Pe 3:14.
We are killed: how could they say this? Killing takes away all complaining, and makes the parties so dealt with incapable of saying how it is with them. This expression notes the danger and desperateness of their condition. It is usual in Scripture to set forth an eminent danger under the notion of death: see 1Co 15:31; 2Co 1:10; 4:11.
All the day long; i.e. continually, without ceasing: see Psa 38:6,12; 71:24; 73:14; Pro 23:17; Rom 10:21.
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter; i.e. we are designed for destruction. Our enemies make account they can destroy us, as men do sheep, that they have by them in the slaughter-house. They reckon they have us at command, and can cut us off when they list. Or rather thus, they make no reckoning of our destruction; they make no more of killing us, than butchers do of killing sheep: our death is very cheap in their account, Psa 44:11,12. Here let me insert a tragical story of the Christians of Calabria, that suffered persecution, A.D. 1560. They were all shut up in one house together, as in a sheepfold: an executioner comes in, and among them takes one, and blindfolds him with a muffler about his eyes, and so leadeth him forth to a larger place, where he commandeth him to kneel down; which being done, he cutteth his throat, and so leaveth him half dead; and taking his butchers knife and muffler, all of gore blood, he cometh again to the rest, and so leading them one after another, he despatcheth them, to the number of eighty-eight, no otherwise than a butcher doth his sheep. Foxs Acts and Monuments.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
36. As it is written, For thy sake,&c. (Ps 44:22) quotedas descriptive of what God’s faithful people may expect from theirenemies at any period when their hatred of righteousness isroused, and there is nothing to restrain it (see Ga4:29).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
As it is written, for thy sake we are killed,…. This passage is a citation out of Ps 44:22; and the meaning is, that for the sake of God, and his pure worship, Old Testament saints were frequently put to death, or exposed to the persecutions of men, which often issued in death; as New Testament saints have been, for the sake of Christ and his Gospel, even
all the day long; that is, they were liable to death all the day long; or every day, one or other of them was put to death:
we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter; they were reckoned as fit for nothing else, and were continually exposed unto it; were used as sheep are, as if they were made for no other use and service, but to be slaughtered; hence they are called, “the flock of slaughter”, Zec 11:7; and as this expresses the brutality of their persecutors, so their harmlessness, meekness, humility, and patience in sufferings, being under them like lambs or sheep. This testimony is produced, to show that suffering death has been the common lot of the saints in all ages: and is designed to animate the people of God under the Gospel dispensation, to suffer with cheerfulness; the allusion may be to the lambs and sheep daily slain for sacrifice; either to the lambs of the sacrifice slain morning and evening; or to others that were slain in any part of the day from morning to night, for other sacrifices, in the court of the tabernacle and temple.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Even as it is written ( ). He quotes Ps 44:23.
We are killed (). Present passive indicative of for which see on 7:4. Same idea of continuous martyrdom in 1Co 15:31.
As sheep for the slaughter ( ). Objective genitive ().
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “As it is written,” (kathos gegraptai hoti) “Just as it has been written;” history attests that God’s people have faced these tests, endured them, and in divine providence he sustains them, in life and in death, to ultimate victory, Heb 11:32-40; 1Co 10:13.
2) “For thy sake we are killed,” (hoti eneken sou thanatoumetha) “That for your (individual) sake we are being put to death;” many of God’s prophets of old were killed for his sake, Mat 23:31; Mat 23:37; Act 7:52; Rom 11:3; Act 7:59-60. They killed John the Baptist, Stephen, and James, Mat 14:10.
3) “All the day long,” (holen ten hemeran) “The whole day long;” undergoing suffering, near equal to death, all day long, 1Co 15:30-31; 2Co 4:11.
4) “We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter,” (elo-gisthemen hos probata sphages) “we were considered (reckoned or calculated) as sheep of slaughter kind;- by which we enter into the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings, in which experience, the love of Christ and the gift of love is most real, 2Co 1:5; Col 1:24; Gal 6:14.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
36. As it is written, etc. This testimony adds no small weight to the subject; for he intimates, that the dread of death is so far from being a reason to us for falling away, that it has been almost ever the lot of God’s servants to have death as it were present before their eyes. It is indeed probable, that in that Psalm the miserable oppression of the people under the tyranny of Antiochus is described; for it is expressly said, that the worshippers of God were cruelly treated, for no other reason but through hatred to true religion. There is also added a remarkable protestation, that they had not departed from the covenant of God; which Paul, I think, had especially in view. It is no objection that the saints there complain of a calamity which then unusually pressed on them; for since they show, that they were oppressed with so many evils, having before testified their innocence, an argument is hence fitly drawn, that it is no new thing for the Lord to permit his saints to be undeservedly exposed to the cruelty of the ungodly. But this is not done except for their good; for the Scripture teaches us, that it is alien to the righteousness of God to destroy the just with the wicked, (Gen 18:23); but that, on the contrary, it is meet for him to requite affliction to those who afflict, and rest to those who are afflicted. (2Th 1:6.) And then they affirm that they suffer for the Lord; and Christ pronounces them blessed who suffer for the sake of righteousness. (Mat 5:10.) By saying that they died daily, they intimated that death was so suspended over them, that their life differed but little from death.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(36) For thy sake we are killed.The quotation is taken from Psa. 44:22, which was apparently written at some period of great national distress, at what precise period the data do not enable us to say, but probably not earlier than Josiah. The sufferings of Gods people at all times are typical of each other. There is the further reason for the application in the text that the Psalm does not lay stress upon the guilt of the people, but regards their sufferings as undergone in the cause of the theocracy. At the same time, the tone of the Psalmist wants the exulting and triumphant confidence of the Apostle.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
36. Written The quotation, from the Septuagint version of Psa 44:22, confirms the fact that these foes may attain a temporal triumph. By so quoting the apostle ranks the suffering Christians of his day with the glorious army of martyrs of the Old Testament Church.
Killed all the day The continued slaughter extends from sunrise to sunset.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Even as it is written, For your sake we are killed all the day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’
On the other hand the fact that persecution with its consequences is prominent in Paul’s mind comes out in this supporting quotation, which is from Psa 44:22, and refers to our suffering ‘for His sake’. It is equally an assurance that the Scriptures demonstrate that suffering should not come as a surprise to God’s people.
The description is vivid. The world marks down God’s people as only suitable for slaughter, as only fit for the charnel house. And it is because the world is at enmity with God. It is precisely because we are His that the world will turn against us, as it turned against Jesus (Joh 15:18-19; Joh 16:2-3).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Rom 8:36 . The marks of parenthesis are to be expunged, because the construction is unbroken, and . in Rom 8:37 refers to Rom 8:35 and Rom 8:36 . On the accumulation of designations that follows, comp. 2Co 6:4 f.; and on the so frequently repeated , Xen. Mem . i. 1. 7, Soph. O. C . 251. By way of scriptural proof for the most extreme element mentioned, for , Paul quotes a passage, in accordance with which even the slaying sword has here its place already prophetically indicated beforehand. In Ps. 43:24 (quoted exactly from the LXX.), where the historical meaning refers to the daily massacres of Jews in the time of the Psalmist (in an age after the exile, but not so late as the Maccabean), he recognises a type of the analogous fate awaiting the Christian people of God, as their sacred-historic destiny . , Theodoret. Therein lies the justification of this typical view. But since our passage specially mentions only the being put to death and the slaying , we have no right to make the reference which Paul gives to them extend, with Hofmann, to the treatment in general which the Christians should have to experience, instead of leaving it limited to .
] for . A part of the quotation, without relevant reference to the connection in our passage.
] There is no reason whatever for departing, with Kllner (comp. Hofmann), from the reference of the original text to God , and referring to Christ . For, in the first place, the probative point of the quotation does not lie in (but in . and . . .); and in the second place, the very massacres of the Christians took place on account of God , because they continued faithful to Him in Christ, while the denial of Christ would have been a denial of God , who had sent Him. Hence martyrdom was regarded as a (Joh 21:19 ).
.] Not quotidie (Castalio, Grotius, and Glckler); Paul follows the LXX., who thus translate . It means: the whole day (comp. Rom 10:21 ; Isa 62:6 ; Exo 10:13 ; 1Sa 19:24 ; 1Ma 5:50 ) are we murdered, so that at every time of the day murder is committed upon us (now on this one, now on that one of us); it ceases not the livelong day. And this is the consequence of the fact, that we have been counted (aorist) as sheep for the slaughter, reckoned like sheep destined for slaughter.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Ver. 36. We are killed all the day ] In Diocletian’s days 17,000 Christians are said to have been slain in one month. In the Parisian massacre 30,000 in as little time, and within the year 300,000.
As sheep to the slaughter ] That lamentable story of the Christians of Calabria that suffered persecution, A. D. 1560, comes home to this text. For being all thrust up in one house together, as in a sheepfold, the executioner comes in, and among them takes one, and blindfolds him with a muffler about his eyes, and so leadeth him forth to a larger place, where he commandeth him to kneel down. Which being done, he cutteth his throat, and so leaveth him half dead; and taking his butcher’s knife and muffler all of gore blood, he cometh again to the rest, and so leading them one after another, he despatcheth them, to the number of 88, no otherwise than doth a butcher kill his calves and sheep.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
36 .] The quotation here expresses, ‘all which things befall us, as they befell God’s saints of old, and it is no new trials to which we are subjected: What, if we verify the ancient description?’
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
As = Even as. App-6.
written. See Rom 1:17.
For Thy sake = On Thine account.
accounted. See Rom 4:5.
sheep, &c. Quoted from Psa 44:22.
for the = of.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
36.] The quotation here expresses,-all which things befall us, as they befell Gods saints of old,-and it is no new trials to which we are subjected:-What, if we verify the ancient description?
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Rom 8:36. , as) He gives the reason, why he enumerates in the preceding verse so many trials.–) So the LXX., Psa 44:23. Both the church of the Old Testament, and much more that of the New Testament, might have so spoken; and the latter may still so speak.- , for thy sake) It is a good thing thus [i.e. for Christs sake] to suffer: the sorrows, in which the world abounds, and which are braved for other reasons, are vain.-, we are killed) The first class of the blessed [departed saints] is for the most part filled up with those, who met a violent death, Mat 23:34-35; Heb 11:37; Rev 6:11; Rev 20:4.- ) all the day. So the LXX., in many passages, , a proverbial expression; the whole day, all the day: Mat 20:6. Ps. quoted above, Rom 8:16; Rom 8:9.-, we are accounted) by our enemies, as also by ourselves.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Rom 8:36
Rom 8:36
Even as it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.-The whole Psalm refers to the suffering of Gods people, and this verse is typical of what the followers of Christ would suffer for his name. This was all trial and suffering to discipline them for eternal honors. It was a part of the present suffering that would work out for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
For thy: Psa 44:22, Psa 141:7, Joh 16:2, 1Co 15:30, 2Co 4:11
as sheep: Isa 53:7, Jer 11:19, Jer 12:3, Jer 51:40, Act 8:32
Reciprocal: Psa 44:11 – given Psa 49:14 – Like Psa 79:3 – Their Psa 119:109 – My soul Isa 59:15 – he that Mat 5:11 – for Joh 16:33 – In the 1Co 4:9 – as 1Co 15:31 – die 2Co 6:4 – distresses 2Co 6:9 – behold 2Co 11:27 – nakedness 2Ti 1:8 – be thou
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
:36
Rom 8:36. Killed all the day long denotes that the Lord’s disciples were threatened with death constantly, as if they were fit only for slaughter.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rom 8:36. As it is written. From Psa 44:22, quite exactly in the words of the LXX. The whole Psalm refers to the sufferings of Gods people, and the verse, even if not directly prophetic, is typical of the treatment the world bestows on Gods children. The special point proven by the quotation is the danger of the sword, since to this extremity persecution had gone in the case of the saints of old.
We were accounted, etc. Because thus reckoned as sheep destined for slaughter, they were killed all the day long.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
As if the apostle had said, “The saints of old have endured all manner of suffering, and yet were not separated from the love of God; therefore, the like, or worse suffering shall not be able to separate us now.”
Here note, What may be the lot and portion of believers in this life, and that is, killing for the sake of Christ; For thy sake we are killed all the day long. The words all the day long, denote the continuance of the persecution, the unweariedness of the enemy, and the patience of the saints.
Learn hence, That such as resolve upon the profession of Christianity must prepare for killing, if God requires, and be ready to lay down their lives fo their religion, when God calls: For thy sake we are killed; that is, ready to be sacrificed; a readiness of disposition, and a preparation of mind, is found with us, to part with all that is dear unto us, even life itself, for the sake of Christ.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Vv. 36. The apostle here quotes the sorrowful lament put by a psalmist in the mouth of the faithful under the old covenant, during a time of cruel oppression, Psa 44:22. The quotation follows the LXX. All the day: every hour of the day (Meyer). Any hour is serviceable for dragging them to slaughter. For the love of thee: Jehovah in the O. T. corresponds to Christ in the New. We are accounted: it is long since sentence has been pronounced by hatred, and has hung over their head, though it is not yet executed.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Even as it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter. [Psa 44:22 . This Psalm is supposed to have been written during the Babylonish captivity, and that it is a correct description of the state of the Jew in that day, we may readily conceive from details given in Daniel and Esther. But the Psalm was also prophetic. As the Jew suffered because of the peculiar religion which God had bestowed upon him, so also did the Christian; and in both cases the enemies of the revealed religions looked upon the worshipers as people who were to be killed as a matter of course, without compunction or pity, just as sheep are slain for sacrifice or for the market.]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
36. As has been written that for thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. This is a simple allusion to their daily exposition to martyrdom. I die daily (1Co 15:31); simply affirmatory of the constant peril which everywhere confronted them, with the daily liability of sealing their faith with their blood, which Paul actually did at Rome, whither he was writing this letter.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Suffering has always been the portion of the righteous (Psa 44:22). The sufferings in view are the consequence of our identification with Christ (cf. Act 5:41; 1Pe 2:21-25; 1Pe 4:14-19).