Job 11:3

11:3 Will your idle talk ¹  reduce people to silence, ² 

and will no one rebuke ³  you when you mock? ⁴ 

Job 16:10

16:10 People ⁵  have opened their mouths against me,

they have struck my cheek in scorn; ⁶ 

they unite ⁷  together against me.

Job 17:2

17:2 Surely mockery ⁸  is with me; ⁹ 

my eyes must dwell on their hostility. ¹⁰ 

Job 17:6

17:6 He has made me ¹¹  a byword ¹²  to people,

I am the one in whose face they spit. ¹³ 

Job 21:3

21:3 Bear with me ¹⁴  and I ¹⁵  will speak,

and after I have spoken ¹⁶  you may mock. ¹⁷ 

Job 30:1

Job’s Present Misery

30:1 “But now they mock me, those who are younger ¹⁸  than I,

whose fathers I disdained too much ¹⁹ 

to put with my sheep dogs. ²⁰ 

Psalms 22:7-8

22:7 All who see me taunt ²¹  me;

they mock me ²²  and shake their heads. ²³ 

22:8 They say, ²⁴ 

“Commit yourself ²⁵  to the Lord!

Let the Lord ²⁶  rescue him!

Let the Lord ²⁷  deliver him, for he delights in him.” ²⁸ 

Psalms 35:16

35:16 When I tripped, they taunted me relentlessly, ²⁹ 

and tried to bite me. ³⁰ 

Matthew 27:29

27:29 and after braiding ³¹  a crown of thorns, ³²  they put it on his head. They ³³  put a staff ³⁴  in his right hand, and kneeling down before him, they mocked him: ³⁵  “Hail, king of the Jews!” ³⁶ 

Hebrews 11:36

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

[11:3]  ¹ tn The word means “chatter, pratings, boastings” (see Isa 16:6; Jer 48:30).

[11:3]  ² tn The verb חָרַשׁ (kharash) in the Hiphil means “to silence” (41:4); here it functions in a causative sense, “reduce to silence.”

[11:3]  ³ tn The form מַכְלִם (makhlim, “humiliating, mocking”) is the Hiphil participle. The verb כָּלַם (kalam) has the meaning “cover with shame, insult” (Job 20:3).

[11:3]  ⁴ tn The construction shows the participle to be in the circumstantial clause: “will you mock – and [with] no one rebuking.”

[16:10]  ⁵ tn “People” is supplied; the Hebrew verb is third plural. The colon reads, “they have opened against me with [the preposition is instrumental] their mouth.” The gestures here follow the animal imagery; they reflect destructive opposition and attack (see Ps 22:13 among others).

[16:10]  ⁶ tn This is an “insult” or a “reproach.”

[16:10]  ⁷ tn The verb יִתְמַלָּאוּן (yitmalla’un) is taken from מָלֵא (male’), “to be full,” and in this stem, “to pile up; to press together.” The term has a military connotation, such as “to mobilize” (see D. W. Thomas, “ml'w in Jeremiah 4:5 : a military term,” JJS 3 [1952]: 47-52). Job sees himself surrounded by enemies who persecute him and mock him.

[17:2]  ⁸ tn The noun is the abstract noun, “mockery.” It indicates that he is the object of derision. But many commentators either change the word to “mockers” (Tur-Sinai, NEB), or argue that the form in the text is a form of the participle (Gordis).

[17:2]  ⁹ tn E. Dhorme (Job, 243) interprets the preposition to mean “aimed at me.”

[17:2]  ¹⁰ tn The meaning of הַמְּרוֹתָם (hammÿrotam) is unclear, and the versions offer no help. If the MT is correct, it would probably be connected to מָרָה (marah, “to be rebellious”) and the derived form something like “hostility; provocation.” But some commentators suggest it should be related to מָרֹרוֹת (marorot, “bitter things”). Others have changed both the noun and the verb to obtain something like “My eye is weary of their contentiousness” (Holscher), or mine eyes are wearied by your stream of peevish complaints” (G. R. Driver, “Problems in the Hebrew text of Job,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 78). There is no alternative suggestion that is compelling.

[17:6]  ¹¹ tn The verb is the third person, and so God is likely the subject. The LXX has “you have made me.” So most commentators clarify the verb in some such way. However, without an expressed subject it can also be taken as a passive.

[17:6]  ¹² tn The word “byword” is related to the word translated “proverb” in the Bible (מָשָׁל, mashal). Job’s case is so well known that he is synonymous with afflictions and with abuse by people.

[17:6]  ¹³ tn The word תֹפֶת (tofet) is a hapax legomenon. The expression is “and a spitting in/to the face I have become,” i.e., “I have become one in whose face people spit.” Various suggestions have been made, including a link to Tophet, but they are weak. The verse as it exists in the MT is fine, and fits the context well.

[21:3]  ¹⁴ tn The verb נָשָׂא (nasa’) means “to lift up; to raise up”; but in this context it means “to endure; to tolerate” (see Job 7:21).

[21:3]  ¹⁵ tn The conjunction and the independent personal pronoun draw emphatic attention to the subject of the verb: “and I on my part will speak.”

[21:3]  ¹⁶ tn The adverbial clauses are constructed of the preposition “after” and the Piel infinitive construct with the subjective genitive suffix: “my speaking,” or “I speak.”

[21:3]  ¹⁷ tn The verb is the imperfect of לָעַג (la’ag). The Hiphil has the same basic sense as the Qal, “to mock; to deride.” The imperfect here would be modal, expressing permission. The verb is in the singular, suggesting that Job is addressing Zophar; however, most of the versions put it into the plural. Note the singular in 16:3 between the plural in 16:1 and 16:4.

[30:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “smaller than I for days.”

[30:1]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ 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.

[22:7]  ²¹ tn Or “scoff at, deride, mock.”

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

[22:7]  ²³ sn Shake their heads. Apparently this refers to a taunting gesture. See also Job 16:4; Ps 109:25; Lam 2:15.

[22:8]  ²⁴ tn The words “they say” are supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons. The psalmist here quotes the sarcastic taunts of his enemies.

[22:8]  ²⁵ tn Heb “roll [yourself].” The Hebrew verb גלל here has the sense of “commit” (see Prov 16:3). The imperatival form in the Hebrew text indicates the enemies here address the psalmist. Since they refer to him in the third person in the rest of the verse, some prefer to emend the verb to a perfect, “he commits himself to the Lord.”

[22:8]  ²⁶ tn Heb “Let him”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[22:8]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Let him”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[22:8]  ²⁸ tn That is, “for he [the Lord] delights in him [the psalmist].” For other cases where the expression “delight in” refers to God’s delight in a person, see Num 14:8; 1 Kgs 10:9; Pss 18:19; 40:8.

[35:16]  ²⁹ tc The MT reads “as profane [ones] of mockers of food,” which is nonsensical. The present translation assumes (1) an emendation of בְּחַנְפֵי (bÿkhanfey, “as profane men”) to בְּחַנְפִי (bekhanfiy, “when I tripped”; preposition + Qal infinitive construct from II חָנַף [“limp”] + first common singular pronominal suffix) and (2) an emendation of לַעֲגֵי מָעוֹג (la’agey ma’og, “mockers of food”) to עָגוּ[ם]לַעְגָּ (la’gam ’agu, “[with] taunting they taunted”; masculine plural noun with enclitic mem + Qal perfect third common plural from לַּעַג [la’ag, “taunt”]).

[35:16]  ³⁰ tn Heb “gnashing at me with their teeth.” The infinitive absolute adds a complementary action – they gnashed with their teeth as they taunted.

[27:29]  ³¹ tn Or “weaving.”

[27:29]  ³² sn The crown may have been made from palm spines or some other thorny plant common in Israel. In placing the crown of thorns on his head, the soldiers were unwittingly symbolizing God’s curse on humanity (cf. Gen 3:18) being placed on Jesus. Their purpose would have been to mock Jesus’ claim to be a king; the crown of thorns would have represented the “radiant corona” portrayed on the heads of rulers on coins and other artifacts in the 1st century.

[27:29]  ³³ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[27:29]  ³⁴ tn Or “a reed.” The Greek term can mean either “staff” or “reed.” See BDAG 502 s.v. κάλαμος 2.

[27:29]  ³⁵ tn Grk “they mocked him, saying.” The participle λέγοντες (legontes) is redundant and has not been translated.

[27:29]  ³⁶ tn Or “Long live the King of the Jews!”