Genesis 19:14

19:14 Then Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law who were going to marry his daughters. ¹  He said, “Quick, get out of this place because the Lord is about to destroy ²  the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was ridiculing them. ³ 

Nehemiah 2:19

2:19 But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard all this, ⁴  they derided us and expressed contempt toward us. They said, “What is this you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”

Job 12:4

12:4 I am ⁵  a laughingstock ⁶  to my friends, ⁷ 

I, who called on God and whom he answered ⁸  –

a righteous and blameless ⁹  man

is a laughingstock!

Psalms 22:7

22:7 All who see me taunt ¹⁰  me;

they mock me ¹¹  and shake their heads. ¹² 

Psalms 123:3-4

123:3 Show us favor, O Lord, show us favor!

For we have had our fill of humiliation, and then some. ¹³ 

123:4 We have had our fill ¹⁴ 

of the taunts of the self-assured,

of the contempt of the proud.

Luke 16:14

More Warnings about the Pharisees

16:14 The Pharisees ¹⁵  (who loved money) heard all this and ridiculed ¹⁶  him.

Acts 17:32

17:32 Now when they heard about ¹⁷  the resurrection from the dead, some began to scoff, ¹⁸  but others said, “We will hear you again about this.”

[19:14]  ¹ 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.

[19:14]  ² tn The Hebrew active participle expresses an imminent action.

[19:14]  ³ 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.

[2:19]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew text does not include the words “all this,” but they have been added in the translation for clarity.

[12:4]  ⁵ 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.”

[12:4]  ⁶ 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.

[12:4]  ⁷ tn Heb “his friend.” A number of English versions (e.g., NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT) take this collectively, “to my friends.”

[12:4]  ⁸ 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.

[12:4]  ⁹ 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).

[22:7]  ¹⁰ tn Or “scoff at, deride, mock.”

[22:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “they separate with a lip.” Apparently this refers to their verbal taunting.

[22:7]  ¹² sn Shake their heads. Apparently this refers to a taunting gesture. See also Job 16:4; Ps 109:25; Lam 2:15.

[123:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “for greatly we are filled [with] humiliation.”

[123:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “greatly our soul is full to it.”

[16:14]  ¹⁵ sn See the note on Pharisees in 5:17.

[16:14]  ¹⁶ 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).

[17:32]  ¹⁷ tn The participle ἀκούσαντες (akousante") has been taken temporally.

[17:32]  ¹⁸ 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”).