By-word

By-word in the King James Version translates two Hebrew terms used for a person or people who has become a proverb or object of scornful speech among others. The Hebrew millah (Job 30:9) means a word or speech, and Job laments that he has become “their song” and “their by-word”—a figure of ridicule among those who were themselves despised. The more common term mashal (Ps. 44:14; Deut. 28:37; 2 Chr. 7:20) designates a proverb or taunt-song, signifying a person or nation that has become a cautionary example.

The covenant curses of Deuteronomy 28:37 threaten that Israel will become “a horror, a proverb, and a by-word among all the peoples” if it abandons the LORD—a threat fulfilled in the exilic experience and lamented in Psalm 44:14. Solomon's prayer of dedication anticipates this possibility (2 Chr. 7:20: “I will make it a proverb and a by-word among all peoples”). The by-word thus represents the ultimate public shame of a people whose covenant relationship with God was their defining identity, and whose failure of that relationship became a subject of commentary and contempt among the nations.