44:10 You made us retreat 1 from the enemy.
Those who hate us take whatever they want from us. 2
44:11 You handed us 3 over like sheep to be eaten;
you scattered us among the nations.
44:12 You sold 4 your people for a pittance; 5
you did not ask a high price for them. 6
44:13 You made us 7 an object of disdain to our neighbors;
those who live on our borders taunt and insult us. 8
44:14 You made us 9 an object of ridicule 10 among the nations;
foreigners treat us with contempt. 11
80:13 The wild boars of the forest ruin it; 12
the insects 13 of the field feed on it.
10:6 I sent him 14 against a godless 15 nation,
I ordered him to attack the people with whom I was angry, 16
to take plunder and to carry away loot,
to trample them down 17 like dirt in the streets.
50:17 “The people of Israel are like scattered sheep
which lions have chased away.
First the king of Assyria devoured them. 18
Now last of all King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has gnawed their bones. 19
1 tn Heb “you caused us to turn backward.”
2 tn Heb “plunder for themselves.” The prepositional phrase לָמוֹ (lamo, “for themselves”) here has the nuance “at their will” or “as they please” (see Ps 80:6).
3 tn The prefixed verbal form is a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive).
4 tn The prefixed verbal form is a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive).
5 tn Heb “for what is not wealth.”
6 tn Heb “you did not multiply their purchase prices.”
7 tn The prefixed verbal form is a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive).
8 tn Heb “an [object of] taunting and [of] mockery to those around us.”
9 tn The prefixed verbal form is a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive).
10 tn Heb “a proverb,” or “[the subject of] a mocking song.”
11 tn Heb “a shaking of the head among the peoples.” Shaking the head was a derisive gesture (see Jer 18:16; Lam 2:15).
12 tn The Hebrew verb כִּרְסֵם (kirsem, “to eat away; to ruin”) occurs only here in the OT.
13 tn The precise referent of the Hebrew word translated “insects,” which occurs only here and in Ps 50:11, is uncertain. Aramaic, Arabic, and Akkadian cognates refer to insects, such as locusts or crickets.
14 sn Throughout this section singular forms are used to refer to Assyria; perhaps the king of Assyria is in view (see v. 12).
15 tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “impious”; NCV “separated from God.”
16 tn Heb “and against the people of my anger I ordered him.”
17 tn Heb “to make it [i.e., the people] a trampled place.”
18 sn The king of Assyria devoured them. This refers to the devastation wrought on northern Israel by the kings of Assyria beginning in 738
19 tn The verb used here only occurs this one time in the Hebrew Bible. It is a denominative from the Hebrew word for “bones” (עֶצֶם, ’etsem). BDB 1126 s.v. עֶָצַם, denom Pi, define it as “break his bones.” HALOT 822 s.v. II עָצַם Pi defines it as “gnaw on his bones.”