10 Bible Verses about Byword

For {each person} from the house of Israel, and from the alien who dwells as an alien in Israel, who separates himself {from following me} and brings up his idols into his heart and {places before himself} a stumbling block of his guilt, and [yet] he comes to the prophet to consult him concerning me, I Yahweh will answer him myself. And I will set my face against that person, and I will make him to [be] a sign and [make him] into [the subject of] proverbs; and I will cut him off from the midst of my people, and you will know I [am] Yahweh.

"And he has made me a proverb for [the] peoples, {and I am one before whom people spit}.

"But now I am their mocking song, and I have become a byword for them.

And you will become a horror and a proverb and ridicule among all the peoples where Yahweh drives you there.

"If ever you or any of your descendants turn from [following] me and do not keep my commandments [and] my ordinances that I have set before you and you go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then I will cut Israel off from the face of the land that I have given to them, [even] the house which I have consecrated for my name I will cast away from my face; and Israel shall become a proverb and an object of taunting among all the peoples. This house shall become a heap of ruins; all those passing by will be appalled by it and hiss, and they will say, 'On what account did Yahweh do this to this land and to this house?'read more.
And they will say, 'Because they have forsaken Yahweh their God who brought their ancestors out from the land of Egypt and they embraced other gods and bowed down to them and served them. Therefore, Yahweh brought on them all of this disaster.'"

"But if you turn yourselves away and forsake my ordinances and my commandments which I have given before you [all] and will go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then I will uproot them from upon my land that I have given to them, and this house that I have consecrated for my name I will send away from before my face, and I will make it a proverb and a taunt among all the nations. And [as for] this house, which was exalted, all who pass by it will be appalled and will say, 'Why has Yahweh done thus to this land and to this house?'read more.
Then they will say, 'Because they forsook Yahweh, the God of their ancestors, who brought them out from the land of Egypt, and [they] laid hold of other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore he has brought upon them all this evil.'"

But like the bad figs that cannot be eaten because of [their] bad quality--for thus says Yahweh--so I will treat Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his officials, and the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who live in the land of Egypt. And I will make them as a terror, an evil to all the kingdoms of the earth, as a disgrace and a proverb, as a taunt and a curse, in all the places where I will drive them. And I will send among them the sword, the famine, and the plague, until they perish from the land that I gave to them and their ancestors.'"

And the word of Yahweh {came} to me, {saying}, "Son of man, there were two women, [the] daughters of one mother, and they prostituted [themselves] in Egypt in their childhood; they were prostituting [themselves] there, [and] their breasts were fondled, and there they caressed the bosoms of their virginity.read more.
Now [as for] their names, the older [was] Oholah, and Oholibah [was] her sister. And {they became mine}, and they bore sons and daughters, and their names [are] Samaria [for] Oholah, and Jerusalem [for] Oholibah And Oholah prostituted [herself] {while she was still mine}, and she lusted for her lovers, for Assyria [who was] nearby, clothed in blue cloth, governors and prefects, {handsome young men} [and] all of them horsemen, {experts on horseback}. And she bestowed her fornication on them, [on] the choice [ones] of the {Assyrians}, all of them, and with every one [after] which she lusted; with all of their idols she defiled herself. And her whorings from [the time of] Egypt she [did] not abandon, for they slept with her in her childhood, and they caressed the bosoms of her virginity, and they poured out their fornication on her. Therefore I gave her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the {Assyrians} {after whom she lusted}. They uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters, and they killed her with the sword. And she became a name for the women, and they executed judgments against her.

Between the colonnade and the altar, let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh, weep. And let them say, "Take pity, Yahweh, on your people. Do not make your inheritance a reproach, a byword among [the] nations. Why should they say among the nations, 'Where [is] their God?'"

Surely you have rejected and disgraced us, and have not gone out with our armies. You have caused us to pull back from [the] enemy, and [so] those who hate us have plundered for themselves. You have given us as sheep [for] food, and among the nations you have scattered us.read more.
You have sold your people {cheaply}, and did not profit by their price. You have made us a taunt to our neighbors, a derision and a scorn to those around us. You have made us a byword among the nations, a shaking of [the] head among [the] peoples. {All day long} my disgrace [is] before me, and the shame of my face covers me, because of [the] voice of [the] taunter and [the] reviler, because of [the] enemy and [the] avenger. All this has befallen us, though we have not forgotten you, and we have not been false to your covenant. Our heart has not turned back, and our steps have [not] turned aside from your way. But you have crushed us in a place of jackals, and have covered us with deep shadow. If we had forgotten the name of our God, or had spread out our hands [in prayer] to a foreign god, would not God discover this, for he knows [the] secrets of [the] heart? Rather, on account of you we are killed {all day long}; we are accounted as sheep for slaughter. Wake up! Why do you sleep, O Lord? Awake! Do not reject forever. Why do you hide your face? [Have] you forgotten our misery and our oppression? For our soul is bowed down to the dust. Our {body} clings to the ground. Rise up! [Be a] help for us, and redeem us for the sake of your loyal love.