40 Bible Verses about Ridicule, Nature Of
Most Relevant Verses
He who is void of wisdom despises his neighbor, but a man of understanding holds his peace.
Wisdom calls you! She raises her voice in the streets and marketplaces. She calls in the streets, in the opening of the gates: in the city she utters her words. She says: How long, you simple (stupid) (foolish) ones, will you love simplicity (foolishness) (stupidity)? The scoffers delight in scoffing. Fools hate knowledge!
A scoffer seeks wisdom and does not find it. Knowledge is easy to him who discerns.
When you are wise you are wise for yourself. When you scoff you bear it alone.
Penalties are prepared for mockers, and beatings for the back of fools.
Throw out the scoffer and contention will go away, yes, strife and reproach will cease.
The eye that mocks his father, and rejects obedience to his mother, the ravens of the valley pick it out, and the young eagles eat it.
Now I tell you that everyone who is angry with his brother [without cause] shall be guilty before the court. Whoever speaks to his brother with words of contempt shall receive condemnation before the Sanhedrin [Supreme Court]. Curse your brother and you will be guilty enough to be destroyed by fire, with the burning trash, at the Valley of Hinnom, outside of Jerusalem (Greek: Gehenna).
Know this first, that in the last days, mockers will come with mockery, walking after their own lusts, Saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For, from the day that the fathers fell asleep [in death], all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
Gaal said: Who is Abimelech and who is Schechem that we should serve them? Who is he? The son of Gideon! And Zebul takes orders from him, but why should we serve him? Be loyal to your ancestor Hamor, the one who founded your clan! If I were leading this people I would get rid of Abimelech! I would tell him to: call out your army, come on out and fight!
The Philistine, preceded by the man carrying his shield came closer and closer to David. The Philistine got a good look at David and he despised him. David was only a young man with a healthy complexion and good looks. The Philistine asked David: Am I a dog that you come to attack me with sticks? So the Philistine called on his gods to curse David.read more.
Come here, the Philistine told David, and I will give your body to the birds.
The prophet Zedekiah went to Micaiah and slapped his face. He asked: Since when did Jehovah's spirit leave me and speak to you?
Elisha left Jericho to go to Bethel. On the way some boys came out of a town and taunted and made fun of him. They shouted: Get out of here, baldy! Elisha turned around and glared at them. He cursed them in the name of Jehovah. Then two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the boys to pieces.
And now, make an agreement with my master, the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able to put horsemen on them. How then can you put to shame the least of my master's servants? You put your hope in Egypt for chariots and horsemen: Have I now come to destroy this place without Jehovah? It was Jehovah who said to me: 'Go up against this land and make it waste.'
But Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, hearing of it, made sport of us. They laughed at us and said: What are you doing? Will you go against the king?
Now, Sanballat, hearing that we were building the wall, was very angry, and in his wrath made sport of the Jews. And in the hearing of his countrymen and the army of Samaria he said: What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they make themselves strong? Will they make offerings? Will they get the work done in a day? Will they make the stones that have been burned come again out of the dust? Now Tobiah the Ammonite was with him, and he said: Such is their building that if a fox climbs to the top of it, their stonewall will be broken down.
When that day comes, Jehovah will give you relief from your pain and suffering, from the hard slavery you were forced to do. You will mock the king of Babylon with this saying: How the tyrant has come to an end! How his attacks have come to an end!
this is the word Jehovah spoke against him: The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises and mocks you. The Daughter of Jerusalem tosses her head as you flee. Who is it you have insulted and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? It is against the Holy One of Israel!
Jehovah said: The destruction that will come on Edom will be so terrible that everyone who passes by will be shocked and terrified.
No one will live in Babylon because of Jehovah's anger. It will be completely abandoned. Everyone who passes by Babylon will be horrified and hiss at all its wounds.
Son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say: 'O mountains of Israel, hear the word of Jehovah. 'The Lord Jehovah says: Because the enemy has spoken against you, aha! And the everlasting heights have become our possession. Therefore prophesy and say: 'The Lord Jehovah says: For good reason they have made you desolate and crushed you from every side. That way you would become a possession of the rest of the nations and you have become a subject of conversation for the people.read more.
'Therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Jehovah. The Lord Jehovah says to the mountains and to the hills, to the ravines and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes and to the forsaken cities that have become a prey and derision to the rest of the nations that are round about, 'The Lord Jehovah says: 'Surely in the fire of my jealousy I have spoken against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, who appropriated my land for themselves as a possession with wholehearted joy and with scorn, to drive it out for a prey.'' Prophesy about Israel and tell the mountains and hills and the ravines and valleys: 'This is what the Lord Jehovah says: I am speaking in my anger and fury because you have been insulted by the nations. This is what the Lord Jehovah says: 'I raise my hand and swear that the nations that surround you will be insulted.
Will they all taunt him by directing clever sayings and riddles at him? They will say: How horrible it will be for the one who makes himself rich with what is not his own (by extortion) and makes himself wealthy on loans. How long will this go on?
This is the joyous city that dwelled in security. She said in her heart, 'I am! There is no one else!' She has become an object of desolation, a place for wild animals to lie down in. Every one who passes by her will hiss, and wag his hand.
Therefore Jehovah says: Behold, against this family I plan bad things, from which you will not remove the burden. You will not be able to show pride for it is an evil time. In that day they will taunt you and speak mournfully with sorrow and much grief: 'We are utterly ruined! He exchanged the portion of my people and removed it from me. He divided our fields and gave them to the apostate.'
You will become a thing of revulsion. All the nations where Jehovah will send you will make an example of you and laugh at you.
But if you turn from my ways, you or your children, and do not keep my orders and my laws which I have put before you, but go and make yourselves servants to other gods and give them worship: I will have Israel cut off from the land I gave them. I will abandon this house even though I have made it holy for myself. I will put you out of my sight. Israel will be a public example, and a word of shame among all peoples. This house will become a mass of broken walls. Everyone who goes by will be overcome with wonder at it and make whistling sounds. They will say: Why has Jehovah done this to this land and to this house?read more.
The answer will be: 'Because they turned away from Jehovah their God. The one who took their fathers out of the land of Egypt. They took for themselves other gods and gave them worship and became their servants: that is why Jehovah has sent this evil on them.'
On the other hand, if you and your descendants turn away from me and abandon my commandments and laws that I gave you, and follow and serve other gods and worship them, I will uproot Israel from the land I gave them. I will reject this Temple that I declared holy for my name. I will make it an example and an object of ridicule for all the people of the world. Everyone passing by this impressive Temple will be appalled. They will ask: Why did Jehovah do these things to this land and to this Temple?read more.
They will answer their own question: 'They abandoned Jehovah the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt. They adopted other gods, worshiped, and served them. That is why he brought this disaster on them.'
I will also make this city a desolation and an object of hissing. Everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its disasters.
I will make them a horrifying sight to all the kingdoms of the earth. They will be a disgrace and an example. They will become something ridiculed and cursed wherever I scatter them.
I will turn you into a wasteland and an object of ridicule among the nations around you and in the presence of everyone who passes by you. The nations that are around you will ridicule you and laugh at you. When I punish you because of my anger, fury, and fierce revenge, you will become something ridiculed and something horrible. I, Jehovah, have spoken.
The Lord Jehovah says this: 'You will drink your sister's cup, which is deep and wide. You will be laughed at and held in derision; it contains much.
Tell it: 'This is what the Lord Jehovah says: Jerusalem, you are the city that murders people who live in you. Your time has come. You dishonor yourself with disgusting idols. You are guilty because of the blood you have shed (people you have killed). You are unclean (dishonored) because of the disgusting idols you have made. You have brought an end to your days, and you have come to the end of your years. That is why I will make you a disgrace to the nations and a joke in every land. Those near and those far away will mock you. Your name will be dishonored, and you will be filled with confusion.
They do not turn upward [to God]. They are like a loose bow. Their princes will fall by the sword because of the insolence of their tongue. This will be their derision in the land of Egypt.
The statutes of Omri and the works of the house of Ahab are observed. You walk in their counsels. I will make you desolation! The inhabitants will be hissed. You will bear the reproach of my people.
In the middle of the day, Elijah made sport of them, saying: Give louder cries, for he is a god; he may be deep in thought. He may have gone away for some purpose. Perhaps he is on a journey. By chance he is sleeping and must be woke up.
The craftsman encourages the goldsmith. He who smooths with the hammer spurs on him who strikes the anvil. He says of the welding: It is good. He nails down the idol so it will not topple.
The blacksmith takes a tool and works with it in the coals. He shapes an idol with hammers; he forges it with the might of his arm. He gets hungry and loses his strength. He drinks no water and grows faint. The carpenter measures with a line and makes an outline with a red chalk marker. He roughs it out with chisels and marks it with a compass. He shapes it in the form of man in all his glory, that it may dwell in a shrine. He cut down cedars, or cypress or oak. He let it grow among the trees of the forest, or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow.read more.
It is man's fuel for burning so he takes some to warm himself. He kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships it. Yes he makes an idol and bows down to it. Half of the wood they burn in the fire. Over this half they roast meat that they can eat until they are full. They also warm themselves and say: We are warm. We can see the fire! But the rest of the wood they make into gods, carved statues. They bow to them and worship them. They pray to them and say: Rescue us, because you are our gods.
Bel bows down and Nebo stoops low. Their idols are borne by beasts of burden. The images that are carried about are burdensome. They are a burden for the weary. They stoop and bow down together. They are unable to rescue the burden and they go off into captivity.
The people's customs are erroneous and empty. It is wood cut from the forest. It is the work of the hands of a craftsman with a cutting tool. They decorate it with silver and with gold. They fasten it with nails and with hammers so that it will not tip over. They are like scarecrows in cucumber fields. They cannot speak. They must be carried, for they cannot walk! Do not fear them! For they can do no harm and they can do no good.