10 Bible Verses about Byword

For anyone of the house of Israel or among the strangers who immigrate to Israel who separates himself from Me, taking his idols into his heart, and puts right before his face the [vile] stumbling block of his wickedness and guilt, and [then] comes to the prophet to ask of Me for himself, I the Lord will answer him Myself. I will set My face against that man [that hypocrite] and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from among My people; and you will know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord.

“But He has made me a byword and mockery among the people,
And I have become one in whose face people spit.

“And now I have become [the subject of] their taunting;
Yes, I am a byword and a laughingstock to them.

And you will become a horror, a proverb [a mere object lesson], and a taunt [a derisive joke] among all the people to which the Lord drives you.

“But if you or your sons turn away from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them, and I will cast out of My sight the house which I have consecrated for My Name and Presence. Then Israel will become a proverb (a saying) and a byword (object of ridicule) among all the peoples. This house (temple) will become a heap of ruins; everyone who passes by will be appalled and sneer and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this house?’ read more.
And they [who know] will say, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and they have chosen other gods and have worshiped and served them; that is the reason the Lord has brought on them all this adversity.’”

“But if you [people] turn away and abandon My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and you go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot Israel from My land which I have given them; and I will cast this house, which I have consecrated for My Name, out of My sight, and will make it a proverb and an object of scorn among all nations. And as for this house, which was so exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and appalled and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ read more.
Then people will say, ‘It is because they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they adopted other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this adversity and evil on them.’”

‘And as for the bad figs, which are so rotten that they cannot be eaten,’ surely thus says the Lord, ‘so I will abandon Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes, and the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land and those who live in the land of Egypt. I will make them a focus of ridicule and disappointment [tossed back and forth] among all the kingdoms of the earth, a [notorious] disgrace, a byword, a taunt and a curse in all places where I will scatter them. I will send the sword, famine and virulent disease among them until they are consumed from the land which I gave to them and to their fathers.’”

The word of the Lord came to me again, saying, “Son of man, there were two women (Israel and Judah), the daughters of one mother (the united kingdom); and they prostituted themselves in Egypt. From their youth they were grossly immoral; in that place their breasts were embraced and their virgin bosom was grasped. read more.
Their names were Oholah the elder and Oholibah her sister, and they became Mine and they gave birth to sons and daughters. And as for [the identity of] their names, Oholah is Samaria (capital city of Israel) and Oholibah is Jerusalem (capital city of Judah). “Oholah played the prostitute while she was Mine; and she adored and lusted after her lovers (allies), the Assyrians, her neighbors, who were clothed in purple, governors and officials, all of them attractive young men, horsemen riding on horses. She bestowed [freely] her immoralities on them, the choicest men of Assyria, all of them; and with all whom she adored and lusted after, she defiled herself with their idols. She did not give up the acts of prostitution that originated during her time in Egypt; for in her youth men had lain with her, and they handled her virgin bosom and poured out their depravity on her. Therefore, I placed her in the hand of her lovers (allies), into the hand of the Assyrians whom she adored. They uncovered her nakedness; they took her sons and her daughters and they killed her with the sword. So she became notorious among women, and they executed judgments on her.

Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord,
Weep between the porch and the altar,
And let them say, “Have compassion and spare Your people, O Lord,
And do not make Your inheritance (Israel) an object of ridicule,
Or a [humiliating] byword among the [Gentile] nations.
Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’”

But now You have rejected us and brought us to dishonor,
And You do not go out with our armies [to lead us to victory].

You make us turn back from the enemy,
And those who hate us have taken spoil for themselves.

You have made us like sheep to be eaten [as mutton]
And have scattered us [in exile] among the nations.
read more.

You sell Your people cheaply,
And have not increased Your wealth by their sale.

You have made us the reproach and taunt of our neighbors,
A scoffing and a derision to those around us.

You make us a byword among the nations,
A laughingstock among the people.

My dishonor is before me all day long,
And humiliation has covered my face,

Because of the voice of the taunter and reviler,
Because of the presence of the enemy and the avenger.
All this has come upon us, yet we have not forgotten You,
Nor have we been false to Your covenant [which You made with our fathers].

Our heart has not turned back,
Nor have our steps wandered from Your path,

Yet You have [distressingly] crushed us in the place of jackals
And covered us with [the deep darkness of] the shadow of death.
If we had forgotten the name of our God
Or stretched out our hands to a strange god,

Would not God discover this?
For He knows the secrets of the heart.

But for Your sake we are killed all the day long;
We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

Awake! Why do You sleep, O Lord?
Awaken, do not reject us forever.

Why do You hide Your face
And forget our affliction and our oppression?

For our life has melted away into the dust;
Our body clings to the ground.

Rise up! Come be our help,
And ransom us for the sake of Your steadfast love.