Psalms 44:12

12 You sold your own people for a small price as though they had little value.

Psalms 44:12 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 44:12

Thou sellest thy people for nought
So God, when he is said to deliver up his people into the hands of their enemies, is said to sell them to them; see ( Judges 2:14 ) ( 3:8 ) ( 4:2 ) ; and selling them for nought suggests, that in their apprehensions he had no esteem of them and value for them; just as men, when they have any person or thing to dispose of they have no regard unto, but choose to be rid of, will part with it for nothing: and as it follows, and dost not increase [thy wealth] by their price;
get nothing by the bargain. This must be understood after the manner of men, and in the opinion of the church, and not as in reality; no otherwise than as it has been true, that God has suffered some of his people to be in the bondage and slavery of mystical Babylon, called Egypt, one part of whose wares and merchandises are slaves and souls of men, ( Revelation 11:8 ) ( 18:13 ) .

Psalms 44:12 In-Context

10 You made us run from our enemies, and they took for themselves what was ours.
11 You allowed us to be slaughtered like sheep; you scattered us in foreign countries.
12 You sold your own people for a small price as though they had little value.
13 Our neighbors see what you did to us, and they mock us and laugh at us.
14 You have made us a joke among the nations; they shake their heads at us in scorn.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. as . . . value; [or] and made no profit from the sale.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.