Chapter 44 is the prayer of the sons of Korah concerning the afflictions of the exile. The first part of the chapter describes thanksgiving for the salvations of the past, and for the fact that we never attributed victory to our own strength. From this point forward, the chapter turns to describe the deterioration: step by step, from one setback to another, down to the lowest depths - concluding with an outcry for salvation. We will follow the order of the verses according to the commentary of the Malbim, alongside the insights of Rashi, the Radak, and the Ibn Ezra.
כִּי הוֹשַׁעְתָּנוּ מִצָּרֵינוּ וּמְשַׂנְאֵינוּ הֱבִישׁוֹתָ׃ בֵּאלֹהִים הִלַּלְנוּ כׇל הַיּוֹם וְשִׁמְךָ לְעוֹלָם נוֹדֶה סֶלָה׃ - For You have saved us from our adversaries, and You have put to shame those who hate us. In God we have gloried all the day, and Your Name we will give thanks to forever. Selah.
Here David brings proof that we ourselves admit that we are incapable of fighting and triumphing through our own strength. Whenever You saved us from our adversaries, we never attributed the salvation to ourselves, nor did we say, "My own hand has saved me," neither through our own bravery nor through the army's preparations for the day of battle. Always, in every salvation You wrought for us, we remembered You and thanked You. This serves as proof that we fully understand that victory does not stem from our own strength or might, but solely from Your power.
"In God we have gloried all the day" - when salvation arrived, not for a moment did we attribute it to our own strength. "And Your Name we will give thanks to forever" - our mouths are always filled only with thanksgiving, and we harbor no desire to take credit for the victory. We possess no power, counsel, or valor for war; everything stems entirely from Your power. And "Selah," in the view of the Malbim, always signifies the conclusion of a matter.
What is the difference between "our adversaries" (tzareinu) and "those who hate us" (mesan'einu)? The "adversary" is one who causes active harm, whereas the "hater" - as the Malbim explains in several places - is one who harbors hatred in his heart. From the adversaries, who actively came to afflict us, You saved us. But from those who hate only in their hearts, who do not cause active distress, a tangible physical salvation is not required - them You "put to shame": whoever hated in his heart, thinking that the Jewish people were lowly and completely devoid of strength and might, suddenly saw that Hashem was with them and that they attained salvation, and he was thoroughly ashamed of himself.
אַף זָנַחְתָּ וַתַּכְלִימֵנוּ וְלֹא תֵצֵא בְּצִבְאוֹתֵינוּ׃ - Yet You have cast off and put us to shame, and You do not go forth with our armies.
The Radak explains: Every day we wait and yearn for salvation, yet not only do You not save us, but You even abandon us and leave us in the hands of the enemies to do us harm. "And put us to shame" - You have further brought us to shame and humiliation. Why? Because we would always boast before the enemies, saying: We have a great God, Hashem will save us, we trust in Hashem and Hashem is with us. But now they see that salvation is far from us, and they say to us: Where are your claims now, and where is the One Who saves you? Where is that which you boasted of, where is the salvation, where is your God? "And You do not go forth with our armies" - we used to tell our enemies that the Holy One, blessed be He, goes out with our hosts, that the Jewish people go into battle with Heavenly assistance, and that He will deliver us from exile just as we departed from Egypt. Yet still You do not go forth with our armies, and still we remain in exile.
The Malbim explains that a new subject begins here, for after the "Selah" in the preceding verse, the previous topic concluded. David begins by saying: Master of the Universe, not only do You not perform salvations as in days of old - setting aside salvations, which represent the merit of great deliverance - but we see that we are in such a terrible state that we deteriorate from one setback to another. If only we were not in a state of continuous decline! From here on, he depicts the afflictions: how the Jewish people descend step by step, continually falling, as if the Holy One, blessed be He, does not watch over them and protect them.
"You do not go forth, O God, with our armies" - even when we went forth as an army to wage war, You left us to the hand of chance: sometimes we were victorious, and sometimes we were defeated.
תְּשִׁיבֵנוּ אָחוֹר מִנִּי צָר וּמְשַׂנְאֵינוּ שָׁסוּ לָמוֹ׃ - You make us turn back from the adversary, and our haters plunder at will.
And not only this, but You brought further misfortune upon us: even when by the laws of nature we were supposed to win - against a weak nation, against whom we possessed natural strength - You seemingly aided those who besieged us and drove us back. "And our haters plunder at will" - our enemies plunder, looting and seizing our wealth.
תִּתְּנֵנוּ כְּצֹאן מַאֲכָל וּבַגּוֹיִם זֵרִיתָנוּ׃ - You have given us like sheep for food, and scattered us among the nations.
A further deterioration: we became like sheep designated for food. You scattered and dispersed us among the nations like someone scattering sheep among wolves - they need only come and take, the meal is ready, and they devoured us greedily.
This expression also appears in the Torah: "And I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured," which refers to prophecies of difficult periods. Why specifically the phrasing "and they shall be devoured" (literally, "and it shall be for eating")? Because when a person slaughters an animal and eats meat, he feels no pangs of conscience. He senses no moral conflict whatsoever, despite all the campaigns and advertisements on the sides of buses. An animal's end is for slaughter and man's end is for death, and we know that the Holy One, blessed be He, designated the animal for human consumption. Not only does one cause no harm to the animal, but he elevates it: the animal's way of rising higher is for man, the speaker, who possesses a part of God from above, to eat it and elevate its status - and this is its spiritual rectification. If the animal could speak, this is what you would hear from it.
However, people who are distant do not understand this, and to them it seems like sheer cruelty. And in truth, to a certain extent they are correct: for them, it is indeed forbidden to eat meat, just as the Gemara states that an am ha'aretz is forbidden to eat meat. After all, the entire permission to consume another zoological species exists because you possess a divine soul from above and elevate the meat to its rectification, sanctifying your eating and reciting a blessing over it, just as blessings are recited over the shechitah. But a person who uses the sustenance of meat to commit further sins - the animal rightly demands of him: Why did you eat me? While I was alive I fulfilled the will of Hashem; Hashem created me to graze in the pasture and provide milk, and that is what I did. And when you slaughtered me, what did you do? You used me as fuel for your sins. So they are right in their campaign, except that it ought to be directed to the proper quarters and the proper people.
Returning to our matter: "and they shall be devoured" means that just as a person eating meat feels no pangs of conscience, so too the nations will slaughter and butcher us like someone taking animals to slaughter without feeling the slightest remorse. And this is the meaning of: "You have given us like sheep for food, and scattered us among the nations."
תִּמְכֹּר עַמְּךָ בְלֹא הוֹן וְלֹא רִבִּיתָ בִּמְחִירֵיהֶם׃ - You sell Your people for no wealth, and do not set a high price for them.
The Radak explains: When a person sells something, he does not expect to see it again. The battered old car you sold, you never planned to encounter again. In this manner, You seemingly sold us to the nations, like one who, Heaven forbid, has no desire to ever see our redemption. Furthermore, an ordinary seller at least receives payment in return for his sale, whereas here, "you were sold for nothing" - which is an appalling disgrace, like someone who comes and asks: How much should I pay you for this? And the answer is: Just take it, just take it. "For no wealth" - for You have no need of wealth; the silver is Yours and the gold is Yours, as it is written, "If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and all it contains is Mine." "And do not set a high price for them" - You did not increase Your wealth, as it were, through the price You demanded for them. Our humiliation is thus so absolute that the Holy One, blessed be He, seemingly cast us away for nothing at all.
The Malbim explains: Not only did You make us like sheep for slaughter, scatter us among the nations, and leave us as plunder - where everyone acquired us and became masters over us as if we were their monetary property, and You sold us - but You did not even sell us for great wealth. When a person pays a high price for something, he takes care of it. If a person bought a slave at a "bargain price," and the slave causes trouble and he kills him, his heart does not ache. But if he paid one hundred thousand dollars for him, he watches over him carefully: this is a skilled slave, a slave bought at a high price. Here, as it were, You sold us for next to nothing, and therefore the master who acquired us does not pity his money - and he does not care if he kills us and treats us with contempt.
Furthermore: sometimes a person sells an item and says to the buyer, "Keep the hundred thousand dollars with you as a loan," and this is worthwhile for him because the sum will accrue interest in the meantime. Regarding this it is said, "and You did not demand interest in their prices" - for the price remaining in the buyer's hand, You did not even take interest. This too reflects our low state. The Malbim always explains *ribit* in the sense of monetary interest, as in "Woe to him who increases what is not his," where he also interpreted it this way, and whoever wishes can hear this in the shiurim on Chavakuk.
תְּשִׂימֵנוּ חֶרְפָּה לִשְׁכֵנֵינוּ לַעַג וָקֶלֶס לִסְבִיבוֹתֵינוּ׃ - You make us a disgrace to our neighbors, a scorn and a mockery to those around us.
The Malbim explains that here the descent continues from step to step, reaching a state where we did not even have masters: "And there you will offer yourselves for sale as slaves and maidservants, but there will be no buyer" - no nation even wanted us among them, even for the profit they might derive from us. And then it is a disgrace to anyone who bears the name Jew: "Juden raus" - Jews out. It is well known that at the start of the "Final Solution," Hitler, may his name be blotted out, refused to accept any fortune in exchange for freeing Jews rather than destroying them: as far as he was concerned they were worth nothing, and even if paid a fortune, he did not want it. Just as Achashverosh said: "The silver is given to you, and the people to do with them as seems good to you" - take it, keep the money yourself, I forgo it so long as they are not here.
And if you should say, let us live in ghettos and designated towns - to this the verse says, "a scorn and a mockery to those around us": they did not even want to live in the vicinity of Jews. Anyone called an Israelite was considered despised and outcast. "Our neighbors," says the Malbim, refers to those who dwell nearby, whereas "those around us" refers to those further away. To our close neighbors we became a disgrace, and "disgrace" means actually reviling someone directly. Meanwhile, those who surround us, near whom we do not dwell in direct proximity, still mock and ridicule us.
And what is the difference between *la'ag* (scorn) and *keles* (mockery)? Incidentally, *keles* is a contronym, a word with opposite meanings, like *lehashrish* (to take root) and *lesharesh* (to uproot), and there are other such expressions. *Lekales* can be an expression of praise, while in contrast, *la'ag vakeles* is an expression of humiliation. *La'ag* is when someone is mocked, whereas *keles* is when one is not merely mocked, but also tagged with a derogatory epithet: "and they jeered (*vayitkalesu*) at him" - they called him, "Go up, baldhead!"; and "those near and those far will mock you, you defiled of name, full of turmoil" - an actual derogatory epithet.
תְּשִׂימֵנוּ מָשָׁל בַּגּוֹיִם מְנוֹד רֹאשׁ בַּלְאֻמִּים׃ - You make us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples.
One might have said: At least if you are so despised, no one will bother with you, and we will be granted rest. But that was not the case. We became like a despised matter that everyone talks about, and we became a byword. Because we were once so honored, and afterward fell and descended step by step to the lowest rung, we became a byword in the mouths of the nations and a shaking of the head among the peoples.
As noted previously, *Goyim* refers to nations that lack an organized religion and legal constitution - being merely an agglomeration of people - whereas *Le'umim* refers to nations that possess a distinct faith and organized laws. Therefore, with respect to our being gathered as a nation like the *Goyim*, it says, "You make us a byword among the nations (*Goyim*)" - we became a byword and a taunt in their mouths: whenever they wanted to give an example of someone who fell from a high roof into a deep pit, they cited the example of the Jewish people. And with respect to our religion - "a shaking of the head among the peoples (*Le'umim*)": because of our laws and faith, the peoples who possessed religion and an orderly legal system scoffed at us.
And here is a profound point: our decline was not one in which we became utterly insignificant and no one took note of us; rather, on the contrary, we were singled out for ill. Whenever we were mentioned, it was always negatively. Most meetings of the UN Security Council and its resolutions regarding human rights violations concern the Jews, the IDF, the State of Israel. A few percent were dedicated to Syria as well, but the problematic ones - it is always us.
This is what the Torah foretold: "And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword (sheninah)." Rashi explains that lesheninah comes from yeshanenu, meaning they will speak of you constantly, from morning to evening: the Jews, the Jews, the State of Israel, the State of Israel. After all, the Iranian nuclear threat affects the entire Middle East, yet who is spoken of? Israel and America. Is Israel anything like America? It is not even the size of a single neighborhood in America! Yet at Tehran University, two flags are laid out on the ground for every student to trample upon entering: Israel and America. And our Prime Minister meets with Putin and Trump as if he were the head of a global superpower.
There is a story of a Chinese ambassador who met the Israeli ambassador and asked: "Tell me, you make so much noise in the world, every news broadcast opens with 'Israel, Israel' - how many of you are there anyway?" The Israeli replied: "Between five and six million." The Chinese diplomat responded in disbelief: "Only five million, and you make such a commotion? In China's national census, five million is just a rounding error! You wouldn't even make up a district in China." This is what the Torah meant by "they will speak of you" - you will never be ignored, though unfortunately, not for good. They will constantly highlight the "crimes" of the IDF, to the point that chiefs of staff cannot set foot in Britain, France, or other countries because warrants were issued against them at The Hague - for the crime of stopping suicide bombers. A person comes to blow himself up, and how dare you kill him? After all, he has a right to self-detonation... Look how distorted the world is, and what a web of falsehood surrounds us. This is "You have made us a byword among the nations." Can one not see that Someone directed this from Above? That we are living in a reality orchestrated and set into motion from on High, completely beyond the realm of nature?
Radak explains "You make us a byword": any bad or disgraceful thing is made into a parable about the Jews. When people want to cite an example of something vile, they say "like the Jews." Greed for money - the Jews; imperialism and global domination, "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" - the Jews. For every negative thing in the world, the archetype is the Jew. And "a shaking of the head" - like someone shaking their head in dismay, thinking: "Here they are causing trouble again, always the problem children." As Scripture says: "They open wide with their lips, they shake their head." We are the headache of the United Nations; if there is chaos in the world, it is always blamed on Israel.
כׇּל הַיּוֹם כְּלִמָּתִי נֶגְדִּי וּבֹשֶׁת פָּנַי כִּסָּתְנִי׃ מִקּוֹל מְחָרֵף וּמְגַדֵּף מִפְּנֵי אוֹיֵב וּמִתְנַקֵּם׃ - All day my disgrace is before me, and the shame of my face covers me; from the voice of the taunter and blasphemer, because of the enemy and avenger.
Malbim distinguishes between the two terms: kelimah (disgrace or humiliation) is the indignity and insult inflicted by others, whereas boshet (shame) is the humiliation a person feels within himself. A person does not say, "I was disgraced in myself," but rather "I felt ashamed of myself" - because boshet is internal, while kelimah comes from others shaming him, as Scripture says, "I did not hide my face from humiliation and spit." Thus: "All day my disgrace (kelimati) is before me" - coming from others; "and the shame of my face (boshet panai) covers me" - as a result, I become ashamed even within myself.
And where does this humiliation come from? "From the voice of the taunter (mecharef) and blasphemer (megadef)." Malbim explains in several places that blasphemy (giduf) always pertains to religion and faith. This is the difference between a taunter and a blasphemer: a mecharef insults human relationships and personal standing, while a megadef blasphemes against religion and faith, like the blasphemer in the Torah who cursed God's Name: "Take the blasphemer outside the camp." Here, they blaspheme against my faith in Hashem, and taunt me regarding my standing among the surrounding nations. "And the shame of my face covers me" - because of the enemy and avenger who relentlessly pursues me.
כׇּל זֹאת בָּאַתְנוּ וְלֹא שְׁכַחֲנוּךָ וְלֹא שִׁקַּרְנוּ בִּבְרִיתֶךָ׃ - All this has befallen us, yet we have not forgotten You, nor have we been false to Your covenant.
After everything described - the escalating deterioration, reaching the point where "all day my disgrace is before me" from the voice of the taunter and blasphemer - despite all this, we have not forgotten You in our hearts, nor have we been false to Your covenant. We did not violate the covenant: Shabbat, brit milah, and all the other covenants between us and Hashem. We continued to observe Your mitzvot even while persecuted by the nations, and Jews were even killed for doing so, as the Midrash recounts: "Why are you being led out to be executed? Because I circumcised my son. Why are you being led out to be executed? Because I kept Shabbat." They were ready to give their lives for this. And although normally there is no requirement of martyrdom for these specific commandments, in a time of religious persecution (shemad), even over a shoe strap (arketa de-mesana), even changing the color of shoelaces, one is obligated to give up his life if their intention is to force him to abandon his religion.
לֹא נָסוֹג אָחוֹר לִבֵּנוּ וַתֵּט אֲשֻׁרֵינוּ מִנִּי אׇרְחֶךָ׃ - Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps strayed from Your path.
According to the Malbim: even though, due to the heavy burden of exile, "and our steps turned aside from Your path" - our walking strayed from Your way, and we were unable to observe the mitzvot properly - nonetheless, "our heart has not turned back": we did not abandon Your mitzvot because of this, and in our hearts we remained whole with Hashem. "Orach" means a path, and "ashureinu" means our walking (and some say that "ashur" is related to a wall, as in "alei shur").
The Radak and Ibn Ezra explain differently: the "lo" mentioned here "stands in place of two," meaning it carries over to the next phrase - the word of negation at the beginning of the sentence also applies to the following clause. Thus: "Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps strayed from Your path." This grammatical rule appears elsewhere as well, and we encounter it every day in Aleinu: "Shelo sam chelkeinu kahem vegoralenu kechol hamonam" - some have the text "velo goralenu" (following the approach of Rav Mazuz, and so is the Yemenite custom), whereas the Sephardic text does not have "velo," since the initial "lo" applies to the next phrase as if it were written twice. According to their approach here: despite all that has happened to us, our steps have not strayed from Your path either, and we remain cleaved to Your ways, serving You wholeheartedly.
כִּי דִכִּיתָנוּ בִּמְקוֹם תַּנִּים וַתְּכַס עָלֵינוּ בְצַלְמָוֶת׃ אִם שָׁכַחְנוּ שֵׁם אֱלֹהֵינוּ וַנִּפְרֹשׂ כַּפֵּינוּ לְאֵל זָר׃ - Though You have crushed us in the place of jackals, and covered us with the shadow of death. If we have forgotten the name of our God, or spread out our hands to a strange god...
Rashi explains that the word "ki" here, of the four meanings that the word "ki" can bear, is used in the sense of "when": when You humbled us in a desolate and sunken land, a wilderness and a place of jackals, and covered us with the shadow of death, which is utter darkness - did we, even then, forget the name of our God and spread out our hands to a strange god?
Ibn Ezra explains "tannim" - the letter *mem* replaces a *nun*, as if it were written "tannin" (sea monster), just as "ketz hayamin" means the end of days (*yamim*). The reference is to the habitat of sea monsters in the depths of the sea, and "dikitano" is related to "dochei yam" (the pounding waves of the sea): an uninhabited place populated only by sea creatures, akin to the phrase "jackals and ostriches" (*tannim u-venot ya'anah*), which dwell in desolate places.
The Radak explains: even when You crushed us in the place of jackals, we did not forget Your Name. In his view, "jackals" is a metaphor for the nations, who are compared to jackals and ostriches because they dwell in the wilderness. It implies that this refers not to a sea monster, but to a jackal, whose defining trait is its cruelty, as in the verse, "Even the jackals draw out the breast, they nurse their young" - implying that even the cruel jackal suckles its young. The meaning is: You have crushed us in a place of cruel people, for the nations ruling over us are cruel nations; "and covered us with the shadow of death" - we are blanketed in the darkness and gloom of exile.
הֲלֹא אֱלֹהִים יַחֲקׇר זֹאת כִּי הוּא יֹדֵעַ תַּעֲלֻמוֹת לֵב׃ - Shall God not search this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart.
The Malbim explains "and covered us with the shadow of death": they put us to unnatural deaths, torturing and afflicting us with harsh torments so that we would abandon Your faith. Yet despite all this - did we forget the name of our God? In the Malbim's view, the word "im" (if) here does not carry over to the next clause: "Have we forgotten the name of our God" - period. Whereas "and spread out our hands to a strange god" means: even though we spread out our hands to a strange god. That is, even when we were forced to do so in practice - such as when they compelled us to attend church under dire threat of the Inquisition and the like - this was only in outward deed, but in our hearts we remained completely faithful to the unity of Hashem and belief in Him. Therefore, "Shall God not search this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart": He alone knows what is hidden in a person's heart, and He will know that this was never the intention of the heart, but merely a forced external facade compelled by the non-Jews.
כִּי עָלֶיךָ הֹרַגְנוּ כׇל הַיּוֹם נֶחְשַׁבְנוּ כְּצֹאן טִבְחָה׃ - For Your sake we are killed all the day; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
And not only is this known to the Knower of secrets, but reality itself proves that we never intended to worship idols. The Malbim explains: those Anusim (forced converts) who converted under duress in times of religious persecution - investigations were later carried out into their conduct, and it was discovered that in cellars and all kinds of secret hideouts they were still observing their faith, and then they were executed. Their martyrdom is proof that their outward worship of the idol was not out of genuine belief at all; their only intention was to save themselves from the gentiles, while in their hearts they served Hashem, blessed be He.
"We are considered as sheep for the slaughter" - as we explained, when they slaughtered us they felt no pangs of conscience whatsoever, like a person slaughtering sheep to eat, who feels no moral conflict about it. And the Radak explains: like sheep raised for the slaughter, which are not raised to graze and live, but solely to be slaughtered. And it was for the sake of the oneness of the Creator's Name, blessed be He, that they killed us, refusing to spare us.
עוּרָה לָמָּה תִישַׁן אֲדֹנָי הָקִיצָה אַל תִּזְנַח לָנֶצַח׃ - Awake, why do You sleep, my Lord? Rouse Yourself, do not cast us off forever.
There is an inherent difficulty here: how can one say to the Holy One, blessed be He, "Awake, why do You sleep"? Can sleep apply to Him? The Radak explains: when You do not turn to us and do not look upon our troubles, it is as though You are asleep and do not see. Scripture speaks metaphorically, just as it mentions "the hand of Hashem" and "the eyes of Hashem" - does He have physical hands or eyes? Rather, when Hashem wages war, Scripture speaks of the hand of Hashem, and when He looks upon our afflictions, it speaks of the eyes of Hashem. So too here: when Hashem does not deliver us, the metaphor used is that of a sleeper who does not know what you are enduring. "Rouse Yourself, do not cast us off forever" - do not abandon us permanently, but look now upon our distress and deliver us.
The Malbim notes a subtle distinction between ora ("awaken") and hakitza ("rouse fully"): rousing is greater than mere awakening. In awakening, a person stirs slightly, half-asleep and half-awake, still visibly groggy; only afterward does he awaken completely and become fully alert.
לָמָּה פָנֶיךָ תַסְתִּיר תִּשְׁכַּח עׇנְיֵנוּ וְלַחֲצֵנוּ׃ - Why do You hide Your face, forgetting our affliction and our oppression?
The Malbim explains: You act as though You do not see and hide Your face, or You entirely forget the torture inflicted upon us and the oppression we suffer. And all this, as mentioned, is by way of metaphor, for "the Torah speaks in the language of human beings," as the Radak notes.
כִּי שָׁחָה לֶעָפָר נַפְשֵׁנוּ דָּבְקָה לָאָרֶץ בִּטְנֵנוּ׃ - For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our belly clings to the earth.
The Malbim makes a distinction: "For our soul is bowed down to the dust" refers to the exile of the soul - the Jewish people living among the nations are in a state of emotional and spiritual crisis, their spirit crushed and humbled. And "our belly clings to the earth" refers to the exile of the body, to physical reality: we cling to the ground, at the absolute lowest state possible. What is the lowest posture a person can be in? When his belly clings to the earth.
קוּמָה עֶזְרָתָה לָּנוּ וּפְדֵנוּ לְמַעַן חַסְדֶּךָ׃ - Arise, be a help to us, and redeem us for the sake of Your kindness.
The Radak notes grammatically that the reading here is not mile'el (accented on the penultimate syllable), because the cantillation mark is on the letter kuf, and although there is a meteg under the mem, the primary accent remains on the kuf, and therefore it is read "Kumah ezratah lanu." There may be other opinions that differ from his view. The meaning of "ezratah lanu" is as though the letter lamed were omitted, as if it were written "kumah le'ezratah lanu" - arise to be our help, to come to our aid.
The Malbim continues along the very same line he explained previously: "For our soul is bowed down to the dust" - we are humiliated spiritually, and "our belly cleaves to the earth" - we are humiliated physically as well. Therefore, "Arise, be a help to us" refers to the salvation of the soul, while "and redeem us for the sake of Your kindness" refers to redemption from the exile of the body.
Even though in truth we possess no merits, we ask "for the sake of Your kindness": in accordance with the abundance of Your mercy and kindness toward us. Rashi explains - we do not come by virtue of our deeds, but rather act for the sake of Your kindness, and redeem us on account of Your abundant lovingkindness. This is precisely how one ought to pray, as the Gemara teaches, even when one does possess merits: a person should never rely on his own merit, but should instead petition through the merit of his ancestors. For whoever relies on his own merit has his request made dependent on the merit of others, whereas whoever relies on the merit of others has it granted through his own merit, as the Gemara demonstrates with various examples. Therefore, we pray, "and redeem us for the sake of Your kindness," and not because we are worthy - for whenever someone claims to be deserving, Heaven begins to scrutinize him to determine whether he is truly righteous and worthy.
The chapter opens with the demonstration that we never attributed our salvations to ourselves, but rather continually gloried in God and gave thanks to His Name. From that point onward, David depicts the step-by-step decline: the cessation of salvations, defeats before weak adversaries, plunder, dispersal among the nations like sheep for slaughter, being sold for no wealth and without high price until the Master has no pity on us at all, becoming a disgrace to our neighbors and a mockery and derision to those around us, and ultimately becoming a byword among the nations and a shaking of the head among the peoples - where we are never ignored, but always singled out for ill. Yet standing opposite this is the unwavering faithfulness of Israel: "All this has come upon us, yet we have not forgotten You"; even the forced converts who stretched forth their hands to an alien god under coercion - their hearts remained whole in faith, and their being slain for the sanctification of God's Name is the proof of this. The chapter concludes with prayer: "Awake," "Rouse Yourself," "Arise, be a help to us, and redeem us for the sake of Your kindness" - not by the merit of our deeds, but for the sake of the abundant lovingkindness of the Holy One, Blessed is He.