Genesis 21:9

21:9 But Sarah noticed ¹  the son of Hagar the Egyptian – the son whom Hagar had borne to Abraham – mocking. ² 

Genesis 21:2

21:2 So Sarah became pregnant ³  and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the appointed time that God had told him.

Genesis 36:16

36:16 chief Korah, ⁴  chief Gatam, chief Amalek. These were the chiefs descended from Eliphaz in the land of Edom; these were the sons ⁵  of Adah.

Job 30:1

Job’s Present Misery

30:1 “But now they mock me, those who are younger ⁶  than I,

whose fathers I disdained too much ⁷ 

to put with my sheep dogs. ⁸ 

Job 30:8-9

30:8 Sons of senseless and nameless people, ⁹ 

they were driven out of the land with whips. ¹⁰ 

Job’s Indignities

30:9 “And now I have become their taunt song;

I have become a byword ¹¹  among them.

Psalms 35:15

35:15 But when I stumbled, they rejoiced and gathered together;

they gathered together to ambush me. ¹² 

They tore at me without stopping to rest. ¹³ 

Isaiah 57:3-4

57:3 But approach, you sons of omen readers,

you offspring of adulteresses and prostitutes! ¹⁴ 

57:4 At whom are you laughing?

At whom are you opening your mouth

and sticking out your tongue?

You are the children of rebels,

the offspring of liars, ¹⁵ 

Galatians 4:29

4:29 But just as at that time the one born by natural descent ¹⁶  persecuted the one born according to the Spirit, ¹⁷  so it is now.

Hebrews 11:36

11:36 And others experienced mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.

[21:9]  ¹ tn Heb “saw.”

[21:9]  ² tn The Piel participle used here is from the same root as the name “Isaac.” In the Piel stem the verb means “to jest; to make sport of; to play with,” not simply “to laugh,” which is the meaning of the verb in the Qal stem. What exactly Ishmael was doing is not clear. Interpreters have generally concluded that the boy was either (1) mocking Isaac (cf. NASB, NIV, NLT) or (2) merely playing with Isaac as if on equal footing (cf. NAB, NRSV). In either case Sarah saw it as a threat. The same participial form was used in Gen 19:14 to describe how some in Lot’s family viewed his attempt to warn them of impending doom. It also appears later in Gen 39:14, 17, where Potiphar accuses Joseph of mocking them.

[21:2]  ³ tn Or “she conceived.”

[36:16]  ⁴ tc The Samaritan Pentateuch omits the name “Korah” (see v. 11 and 1 Chr 1:36).

[36:16]  ⁵ tn Or “grandsons” (NIV); “descendants” (NEB).

[30:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “smaller than I for days.”

[30:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “who I disdained their fathers to set…,” meaning “whose fathers I disdained to set.” The relative clause modifies the young fellows who mock; it explains that Job did not think highly enough of them to put them with the dogs. The next verse will explain why.

[30:1]  ⁸ sn Job is mocked by young fellows who come from low extraction. They mocked their elders and their betters. The scorn is strong here – dogs were despised as scavengers.

[30:8]  ⁹ tn The “sons of the senseless” (נָבָל, naval) means they were mentally and morally base and defective; and “sons of no-name” means without honor and respect, worthless (because not named).

[30:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “they were whipped from the land” (cf. ESV) or “they were cast out from the land” (HALOT 697 s.v. נכא). J. E. Hartley (Job [NICOT], 397) follows Gordis suggests that the meaning is “brought lower than the ground.”

[30:9]  ¹¹ tn The idea is that Job has become proverbial, people think of misfortune and sin when they think of him. The statement uses the ordinary word for “word” (מִלָּה, millah), but in this context it means more: “proverb; byword.”

[35:15]  ¹² tn Heb “they gathered together against me, stricken [ones], and I did not know.” The Hebrew form נֵכִים (nekhim, “stricken ones” ?) is problematic. Some suggest an emendation to נָכְרִים[כְ] (kÿnokhÿrim, “foreigners”) or “like foreigners,” which would fit with what follows, “[like] foreigners that I do not recognize.” Perhaps the form should be read as a Qal active participle, נֹכִים (nokhim, “ones who strike”) from the verbal root נָכָה (nakhah, “to strike”). The Qal of this verb is unattested in biblical Hebrew, but the peal (basic) stem appears in Old Aramaic (J. Fitzmyer, The Aramaic Inscriptions of Sefire [BibOr], 114; DNWSI 1:730.) In this case one might translate, “attackers gathered together against me though I was not aware of it” (cf. NASB “smiters”; NEB, NRSV “ruffians”; NIV “attackers”).

[35:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “they tore and did not keep quiet.” By using the verb “tear,” the psalmist likens his enemies to a wild animal (see Hos 13:8). In v. 17 he compares them to hungry young lions.

[57:3]  ¹⁴ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “offspring of an adulterer [masculine] and [one who] has committed adultery.” Perhaps the text has suffered from transposition of vav (ו) and tav (ת) and מְנָאֵף וַתִּזְנֶה (mÿna’ef vattizneh) should be emended to מְנָאֶפֶת וְזֹנָה (mÿna’efet vÿzonah, “an adulteress and a prostitute”). Both singular nouns would be understood in a collective sense. Most modern English versions render both forms as nouns.

[57:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Are you not children of rebellion, offspring of a lie?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “Of course you are!”

[4:29]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “according to the flesh”; see the note on the phrase “by natural descent” in 4:23.

[4:29]  ¹⁷ tn Or “the one born by the Spirit’s [power].”