'Contempt' in the Bible
He went in to [the bed of] Hagar, and she conceived; and when she realized that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress [regarding Sarai as insignificant because of her infertility].
“You shall not profane My holy name [using it to honor an idol, or treating it with irreverence or contempt or as a byword]; but I will be sanctified (set apart as holy) among the Israelites. I am the Lord, who sanctifies and declares you holy,
Why then do you kick at (despise) My sacrifice and My offering which I commanded in My dwelling place, and honor your sons more than Me, by fattening yourselves with the choicest part of every offering of My people Israel?’
This [very] day the ladies of Persia and Media who have heard of the queen’s refusal will speak [in the same way] to all the king’s officials, and there will be plenty of contempt and anger.
“He who is at ease has contempt for misfortune,But misfortune is ready [and anxiously waiting] for those whose feet slip.
“He pours contempt on princes and noblesAnd loosens the belt of the strong [disabling them].
“Why does your heart carry you away [allowing you to be controlled by emotion]?And why do your eyes flash [in anger or contempt],
Because I feared the great multitude,And the contempt of families terrified me,So that I kept silence and did not acknowledge my sin and did not go out of the door?
‘For he adds rebellion [in his unsubmissive, defiant attitude toward God] to his [unacknowledged] sin;He claps his hands among us [in open mockery and contempt of God],And he multiplies his words [of accusation] against God.’”
He who sits [enthroned] in the heavens laughs [at their rebellion];The [Sovereign] Lord scoffs at them [and in supreme contempt He mocks them].
Let the lying lips be mute,Which speak insolently and arrogantly against the [consistently] righteousWith pride and contempt.
He pours contempt on princesAnd makes them wander in a pathless wasteland.
Take reproach and contempt away from me,For I observe Your testimonies.
Be gracious to us, O Lord, be gracious and favorable toward us,For we are greatly filled with contempt.
Our soul is greatly filledWith the scoffing of those who are at ease,And with the contempt of the proud [who disregard God’s law].
Ah, sinful nation,A people loaded down with wickedness [with sin, with injustice, with wrongdoing],Offspring of evildoers,Sons who behave corruptly!They have abandoned (rejected) the Lord,They have despised the Holy One of Israel [provoking Him to anger],They have turned away from Him.
But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish [for with judgment comes the promise of salvation]. In earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He will make them honored [by the presence of the Messiah], by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.
But now the Lord speaks, saying, “Within three years, as the years of a hired man [who will not serve longer than the agreed time], the glory of Moab will be degraded along with all the great population, and the remnant [that survives] will be very small and of no account.”
The Lord of hosts has planned it, to defile the pride of all beauty,To bring into contempt and humiliation all the honored of the earth.
For in that day every man will reject and throw away his idols of silver and his idols of gold [in disgust], which your own hands have sinfully made for you.
Zion stretches out her hands,But there is no comforter for her.The Lord has commanded concerning JacobThat his neighbors should be his enemies;Jerusalem has become a filthy thing [an object of contempt] among them.
‘It is sharpened to make a slaughter,Polished to flash and glimmer like lightning!’Shall we then rejoice [when such a disaster approaches]? But it rejects and views with contempt the scepter of My son [Judah].
For thus says the Lord God, “Because you have clapped your hands and stamped your feet and rejoiced with all the contempt, and malice, and spite of your soul against the land of Israel,
And there will no longer be a briar or a painful thorn to prick the house of Israel from all those around them who treated them with contempt; then they will know [with clarity] that I am the Lord God.”
therefore thus says the Lord God, “Most certainly in the fire of My jealousy (love for that which is Mine) 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 uttermost contempt, so that they might empty it out [and possess it] as prey.”
Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake (resurrect), these to everlasting life, but some to disgrace and everlasting contempt (abhorrence).
“They stretch out beside every [pagan] altar on clothes taken in pledge [to secure a loan, disregarding God’s command],And in the house of their God [in contempt of Him] they frivolously drink the wine [which has been] taken from those who have been fined.
“I will throw filth on youAnd make you vile and treat you with contempt,And set you up as a spectacle.
“You will be filled with disgrace instead of honor.Now drink and expose your own nakedness!The cup [of wrath] in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you [O destroyer],And utter disgrace will be on your own glory.