19:14 Then Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law who were going to marry his daughters. 4 He said, “Quick, get out of this place because the Lord is about to destroy 5 the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was ridiculing them. 6
12:4 I am 8 a laughingstock 9 to my friends, 10
I, who called on God and whom he answered 11 –
a righteous and blameless 12 man
is a laughingstock!
16:14 The Pharisees 16 (who loved money) heard all this and ridiculed 17 him.
22:63 Now 18 the men who were holding Jesus 19 under guard began to mock him and beat him. 22:64 They 20 blindfolded him and asked him repeatedly, 21 “Prophesy! Who hit you?” 22
17:32 Now when they heard about 27 the resurrection from the dead, some began to scoff, 28 but others said, “We will hear you again about this.”
1 tn Heb “his words.”
2 tn All three verbal forms (“mocked,” “despised,” and “ridiculed”) are active participles in the Hebrew text, indicating continual or repeated action. They made a habit of rejecting God’s prophetic messengers.
3 tn Heb “until the anger of the
4 sn The language has to be interpreted in the light of the context and the social customs. The men are called “sons-in-law” (literally “the takers of his daughters”), but the daughters had not yet had sex with a man. It is better to translate the phrase “who were going to marry his daughters.” Since formal marriage contracts were binding, the husbands-to-be could already be called sons-in-law.
5 tn The Hebrew active participle expresses an imminent action.
6 tn Heb “and he was like one taunting in the eyes of his sons-in-law.” These men mistakenly thought Lot was ridiculing them and their lifestyle. Their response illustrates how morally insensitive they had become.
7 tn The Hebrew text does not include the words “all this,” but they have been added in the translation for clarity.
8 tn Some are troubled by the disharmony with “I am” and “to his friend.” Even though the difficulty is not insurmountable, some have emended the text. Some simply changed the verb to “he is,” which was not very compelling. C. D. Isbell argued that אֶהְיֶה (’ehyeh, “I am”) is an orthographic variant of יִהְיֶה (yihyeh, “he will”) – “a person who does not know these things would be a laughingstock” (JANESCU 37 [1978]: 227-36). G. R. Driver suggests the meaning of the MT is something like “(One that is) a mockery to his friend I am to be.”
9 tn The word simply means “laughter”; but it can also mean the object of laughter (see Jer 20:7). The LXX jumps from one “laughter” to the next, eliminating everything in between, presumably due to haplography.
10 tn Heb “his friend.” A number of English versions (e.g., NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT) take this collectively, “to my friends.”
11 tn Heb “one calling to God and he answered him.” H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 92) contends that because Job has been saying that God is not answering him, these words must be part of the derisive words of his friends.
12 tn The two words, צַדִּיק תָּמִים (tsadiq tamim), could be understood as a hendiadys (= “blamelessly just”) following W. G. E. Watson (Classical Hebrew Poetry, 327).
13 tn This imperfect verb has been translated as an ingressive imperfect.
14 tn The participle εἰδότες (eidotes) has been translated as a causal adverbial participle.
15 tn Or “had died.”
16 sn See the note on Pharisees in 5:17.
17 tn A figurative extension of the literal meaning “to turn one’s nose up at someone”; here “ridicule, sneer at, show contempt for” (L&N 33.409).
18 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.
19 tn Grk “him”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
20 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
21 tn The verb ἐπηρώτων (ephrwtwn) has been translated as an iterative imperfect. The participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant in English and has not been translated here.
22 tn Grk “Who is the one who hit you?”
23 tn A figurative extension of the literal meaning “to turn one’s nose up at someone”; here “ridicule, sneer at, show contempt for” (L&N 33.409).
24 sn The irony in the statement Let him save himself is that salvation did come, but later, not while on the cross.
25 tn This is a first class condition in the Greek text.
26 tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”
27 tn The participle ἀκούσαντες (akousante") has been taken temporally.
28 tn L&N 33.408 has “some scoffed (at him) Ac 17:32” for ἐχλεύαζον (ecleuazon) here; the imperfect verb has been translated as an ingressive imperfect (“began to scoff”).