Deuteronomy 28:37

28:37 You will become an occasion of horror, a proverb, and an object of ridicule to all the peoples to whom the Lord will drive you.

Deuteronomy 28:1

The Covenant Blessings

28:1 “If you indeed ¹  obey the Lord your God and are careful to observe all his commandments I am giving ²  you today, the Lord your God will elevate you above all the nations of the earth.

Deuteronomy 9:7-8

The History of Israel’s Stubbornness

9:7 Remember – don’t ever forget ³  – how you provoked the Lord your God in the desert; from the time you left the land of Egypt until you came to this place you were constantly rebelling against him. ⁴  9:8 At Horeb you provoked him and he was angry enough with you to destroy you.

Psalms 44:13-14

44:13 You made us ⁵  an object of disdain to our neighbors;

those who live on our borders taunt and insult us. ⁶ 

44:14 You made us ⁷  an object of ridicule ⁸  among the nations;

foreigners treat us with contempt. ⁹ 

Psalms 79:10

79:10 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”

Before our very eyes may the shed blood of your servants

be avenged among the nations! ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 18:16

18:16 So their land will become an object of horror. ¹¹ 

People will forever hiss out their scorn over it.

All who pass that way will be filled with horror

and will shake their heads in derision. ¹² 

Jeremiah 24:9

24:9 I will bring such disaster on them that all the kingdoms of the earth will be horrified. I will make them an object of reproach, a proverbial example of disaster. I will make them an object of ridicule, an example to be used in curses. ¹³  That is how they will be remembered wherever I banish them. ¹⁴ 

Jeremiah 33:24

33:24 “You have surely noticed what these people are saying, haven’t you? They are saying, ¹⁵  ‘The Lord has rejected the two families of Israel and Judah ¹⁶  that he chose.’ So they have little regard that my people will ever again be a nation. ¹⁷ 

Lamentations 2:15

ס (Samek)

2:15 All who passed by on the road

clapped their hands to mock you. ¹⁸ 

They sneered and shook their heads

at Daughter Jerusalem.

“Ha! Is this the city they called ¹⁹ 

‘The perfection of beauty, ²⁰ 

the source of joy of the whole earth!’?” ²¹ 

Daniel 9:16

9:16 O Lord, according to all your justice, ²²  please turn your raging anger ²³  away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain. For due to our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors, Jerusalem and your people are mocked by all our neighbors.

[28:1]  ¹ tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “indeed.”

[28:1]  ² tn Heb “commanding”; NAB “which I enjoin on you today” (likewise in v. 15).

[9:7]  ³ tn By juxtaposing the positive זְכֹר (zekhor, “remember”) with the negative אַל־תִּשְׁכַּח (’al-tishÿkakh, “do not forget”), Moses makes a most emphatic plea.

[9:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “the Lord” (likewise in the following verse with both “him” and “he”). See note on “he” in 9:3.

[44:13]  ⁵ tn The prefixed verbal form is a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive).

[44:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “an [object of] taunting and [of] mockery to those around us.”

[44:14]  ⁷ tn The prefixed verbal form is a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive).

[44:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “a proverb,” or “[the subject of] a mocking song.”

[44:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “a shaking of the head among the peoples.” Shaking the head was a derisive gesture (see Jer 18:16; Lam 2:15).

[79:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “may it be known among the nations, to our eyes, the vengeance of the shed blood of your servants.”

[18:16]  ¹¹ tn There may be a deliberate double meaning involved here. The word translated here “an object of horror” refers both to destruction (cf. 2:15; 4:17) and the horror or dismay that accompanies it (cf. 5:30; 8:21). The fact that there is no conjunction or preposition in front of the noun “hissing” that follows this suggests that the reaction is in view here, not the cause.

[18:16]  ¹² tn Heb “an object of lasting hissing. All who pass that way will be appalled and shake their head.”

[24:9]  ¹³ tn Or “an object of reproach in peoples’ proverbs…an object of ridicule in people’s curses.” The alternate translation treats the two pairs which are introduced without vavs (ו) but are joined by vavs as examples of hendiadys. This is very possible here but the chain does not contain this pairing in 25:18; 29:18.

[24:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “I will make them for a terror for disaster to all the kingdoms of the earth, for a reproach and for a proverb, for a taunt and a curse in all the places which I banish them there.” The complex Hebrew sentence has been broken down into equivalent shorter sentences to conform more with contemporary English style.

[33:24]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Have you not seen what this people have said, saying.” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer. The sentence has been broken in two to better conform with contemporary English style.

[33:24]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “The two families which the Lord chose, he has rejected them.” This is an example of an object prepositioned before the verb and resumed by a redundant pronoun to throw emphasis of focus on it (called casus pendens in the grammars; cf. GKC 458 §143.d). Some commentators identify the “two families” as those of David and Levi mentioned in the previous verses, and some identify them as the families of the Israelites and of David mentioned in the next verse. However, the next clause in this verse and the emphasis on the restoration and regathering of Israel and Judah in this section (cf. 33:7, 14) show that the reference is to Israel and Judah (see also 30:3, 4; 31:27, 31 and 3:18).

[33:24]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and my people [i.e., Israel and Judah] they disdain [or look down on] from being again a nation before them.” The phrase “before them” refers to their estimation, their mental view (cf. BDB s.v. פָּנֶה II.4.a[g]). Hence it means they look with disdain on the people being a nation again (cf. BDB s.v. עוֹד 1.a[b] for the usage of עוֹד [’od] here).

[2:15]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “clap their hands at you.” Clapping hands at someone was an expression of malicious glee, derision and mockery (Num 24:10; Job 27:23; Lam 2:15).

[2:15]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “of which they said.”

[2:15]  ²⁰ tn Heb “perfection of beauty.” The noun יֹפִי (yofi, “beauty”) functions as a genitive of respect in relation to the preceding construct noun: Jerusalem was perfect in respect to its physical beauty.

[2:15]  ²¹ tn Heb “the joy of all the earth.” This is similar to statements found in Pss 48:2 and 50:2.

[9:16]  ²² tn Or “righteousness.”

[9:16]  ²³ tn Heb “your anger and your rage.” The synonyms are joined here to emphasize the degree of God’s anger. This is best expressed in English by making one of the terms adjectival (cf. NLT “your furious anger”; CEV “terribly angry”).