Whom do you mock? Against whom do you make a wide mouth and stick out your tongue? Aren’t you children of disobedience and offspring of falsehood,
Parallel Translations
-
Whom do you mock? Against whom do you make a wide mouth and stick out your tongue? Aren’t you children of disobedience and offspring of falsehood,
-
Against whom do ye sport yourselves? against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood,
-
Against whom do ye sport yourselves? Against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? Are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood,
Cross-references (29)
Passages linked to Isaiah 57:4 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 2 Peter 2:13 receiving the wages of unrighteousness; people who count it pleasure to revel in the daytime, spots and defects, reveling in their deceit while they feast with you;
- Exodus 9:17 because you still exalt yourself against my people, that you won’t let them go.
- Psalms 35:21 Yes, they opened their mouth wide against me. They said, “Aha! Aha! Our eye has seen it!”
- Isaiah 1:4 Ah sinful nation, a people loaded with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken Yahweh. They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They are estranged and backward.
- Exodus 16:7-8 In the morning, you shall see Yahweh’s glory; because he hears your murmurings against Yahweh. Who are we, that you murmur against us?” Moses said, “Now Yahweh will give you meat to eat in the evening, and in the morning bread to satisfy you, because Yahweh hears your murmurings which you murmur against him. And who are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but against Yahweh.”
- Numbers 16:11 Therefore you and all your company have gathered together against Yahweh! What is Aaron that you complain against him?”
- Joshua 10:21 all the people returned to the camp to Joshua at Makkedah in peace. None moved his tongue against any of the children of Israel.
- Judges 16:25-27 When their hearts were merry, they said, “Call for Samson, that he may entertain us.” They called for Samson out of the prison; and he performed before them. They set him between the pillars; and Samson said to the boy who held him by the hand, “Allow me to feel the pillars on which the house rests, that I may lean on them.” Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were on the roof about three thousand men and women, who saw while Samson performed.
- Job 16:9-10 He has torn me in his wrath and persecuted me. He has gnashed on me with his teeth. My adversary sharpens his eyes on me. They have gaped on me with their mouth. They have struck me on the cheek reproachfully. They gather themselves together against me.
- Psalms 22:7 All those who see me mock me. They insult me with their lips. They shake their heads, saying,
- Psalms 22:13 They open their mouths wide against me, lions tearing prey and roaring.
- Psalms 22:17 I can count all of my bones. They look and stare at me.
- Psalms 69:12 Those who sit in the gate talk about me. I am the song of the drunkards.
- Isaiah 10:15 Should an ax brag against him who chops with it? Should a saw exalt itself above him who saws with it? As if a rod should lift those who lift it up, or as if a staff should lift up someone who is not wood.
- Isaiah 30:1 “Woe to the rebellious children”, says Yahweh, “who take counsel, but not from me; and who make an alliance, but not with my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin,
- Isaiah 30:9 For it is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not hear Yahweh’s law;
- Isaiah 37:23 Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel.
- Isaiah 37:29 Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance has come up into my ears, therefore I will put my hook in your nose and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came.
- Lamentations 2:15-16 All that pass by clap their hands at you. They hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, “Is this the city that men called ‘The perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth’?” All your enemies have opened their mouth wide against you. They hiss and gnash their teeth. They say, “We have swallowed her up. Certainly this is the day that we looked for. We have found it. We have seen it.”
- Ezekiel 2:4 The children are impudent and stiff-hearted. I am sending you to them, and you shall tell them, ‘This is what the Lord Yahweh says.’
- Hosea 10:9 “Israel, you have sinned from the days of Gibeah. There they remained. The battle against the children of iniquity doesn’t overtake them in Gibeah.
- Matthew 13:38 the field is the world; and the good seed, these are the children of the Kingdom; and the darnel weeds are the children of the evil one.
- Matthew 27:29 They braided a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and a reed in his right hand; and they kneeled down before him, and mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!”
- Matthew 27:39-44 Those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads, and saying, “You who destroy the temple, and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!” Likewise the chief priests also mocking, with the scribes, the Pharisees, and the elders, said, “He saved others, but he can’t save himself. If he is the King of Israel, let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God deliver him now, if he wants him; for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ” The robbers also who were crucified with him cast on him the same reproach.
- Luke 10:16 Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me. Whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.”
- Acts 9:4 He fell on the earth, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
- Ephesians 2:2-3 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience. We also all once lived among them in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
- Ephesians 5:6 Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things, the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience.
- Colossians 3:6 For these things’ sake the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (11 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Isa 57:4 Against whom do ye sport yourselves? against…
Isa 57:4 Against whom do ye sport yourselves? against whom make ye a wide mouth, [and] draw out the tongue? [are] ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood,
Ver. 4. Against whom do ye sport yourselves?] You that are the wits, the merry Greeks of the times, that, instead of "trembling at God’s word," and humbling before him, hold it a goodly thing to gibe and jeer at it, to mock and scoff at those that preach it. {2Ch 36:16 Isa 5:18-19; Isa 22:13; Isa 28:14; Isa 28:22} These were their game stocks, and the matter of their mad mirth. Neither is it any otherwise to this day; for the world ever was, and will be still, beside itself in point of salvation. {a} Not the sinful Sodomites only, but Lot’s sons-in-law, who should have learned better, laughed him to scorn for his good counsel. {Gen 19:14} Ridetur cum suo Iehova. Lot is counted but a lob, and bid to keep his breath to cool his broth. Erasmus is blamed for his dry scoffs at Capito and other reformers; but Parsons, the Jesuit, is able to put Rabshakeh, Thersites, and Lucian himself to school for railing, deriding, and scurrilous language.
Read full note →
Against whom make yea wide mouth, and draw out the tongue?] By such base gestures did they show their contempt of the prophets, as they thought; but indeed, and as it was construed, of God himself. See Exo 16:8 Num 16:11 Luk 10:16 1Th 4:8. Look how unskilful hunters, shooting at wild beasts, do sometimes kill a man; so profane persons, shooting at God’s ministers, hit him. If we be served in like sort as those of old were - if we be for "signs and for wonders in Israel," as Isaiah and his fellows were {Isa 8:18} - if in mockage they imitate our language, as they did good Jeremiah’s, crying at him, "The burden of the Lord, the burden of the Lord" {Jer 23:38} - if they blow their noses at us, as they did at our Saviour, {εμυκτηριζον, Luk 16:14} taunt and reproach us, as they did Paul, {Act 17:32} set us upon a stage {b} to be laughed and hooted at, as they did those worthies of whom the world was not worthy {Heb 10:33 1Co 4:9} - let us not strange or startle at the matter, as if some new thing had befallen us; but "rejoice, and be exceeding glad; for so persecuted they the prophets that were before us" {Mat 5:12 1Pe 4:14} {See Trapp on "1Pe 4:14"}
{a} Mundus antiquum obtinet ridendo verbum Dei.
{b} Yεατριζομενοι, in theatrum producti pro spectaculo.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Against whom do ye sport yourselves? consider whom it…
Against whom do ye sport yourselves? consider whom it is that you mock and scoff when you deride God’s prophets, as they did, Isa 28:14,22, and know that it is not so much men that you abuse as God, whose cause they plead, and in whose name they speak.
Make a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue: these are the known and common gestures of mockers, of which see Job 16:10; Psa 22:7; 35:21.
Read full note →
Are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood? either an adulterous brood, as was said before; or a generation of liars, whose practices grossly contradict your principles and professions, who deal deceitfully and perfidiously both with God and with men.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Against whom do ye sport yourselves?.... Is it against…
Against whom do ye sport yourselves?.... Is it against the ministers of the Gospel, the prophets of the Lord, the true and faithful witnesses, over whose dead bodies you triumph? know that it is not so much against them, as against the Lord himself, whose ministers, prophets, and witnesses they are; see Th1 4:8, "against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue?" gestures used by way of scorn and derision; see Psa 22:7. So the Papists open their mouths, and draw out their tongues, in gibes and jeers, reproaches and calumnies, against the true Christians, calling and despising them as heretics and schismatics; which abuse and ill usage of them will be resented another day. The Targum is,
"before whom do ye open your mouth, and multiply to speak things?''
Read full note →
as antichrist is said to have a mouth open, speaking great things and blasphemy against God, his name, his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven, Rev 13:5,
are ye not children of transgression; given up to all manner of sin and wickedness; or children of the wicked one, as the Targum, either of Satan, or of the man of sin; or, as the Septuagint and Arabic versions render it, "children of perdition"; of the same character, complexion, and religion, as the son of perdition is: "a seed of falsehood"; or a lie, given to lying; to believe a lie, and to speak lies in hypocrisy; professing a false religion; embracing false doctrines; a spurious breed, and not the sons of the true church of Christ.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Against whom - Consider whom it is that you…
Against whom - Consider whom it is that you mock and scoff, when you deride God's prophets. A seed - A generation of liars, whose practices contradict your professions, who deal deceitfully both with God and men.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Against whom do ye sport yourselves? - The word…
Against whom do ye sport yourselves? - The word here rendered ‘sport’ (ענג ‛ānag) means properly “to live delicately and tenderly”; then “to rejoice, to take pleasure or delight.” Here, however, it is evidently used in the sense of to sport oneself over anyone, that is, to deride; and the idea is, probably, that they made a sport or mockery of God, and of the institutions of religion. The prophet asks, with deep indignation and emotion, against whom they did this. Were they aware of the majesty and glory of that Being whom they thus derided?
Against whom make yea wide mouth? - That is, in derision or contempt Psa 35:21 : ‘Yea, they opened their mouth wide against me.’
Read full note →
And draw out the tongue? - Lowth, ‘Loll the tongue;’ or, as we would say, ‘run out the tongue.’ Perhaps it was done with a rapid motion, as in mockery of the true prophets when they delivered the message of God (compare 2Ch 36:16). Contempt was sometimes shown also by protruding the lips Psa 22:7 : ‘They shoot out the lip;’ and also by gaping upon a person Psa 22:13; ‘They gaped upon me with their mouths.’
Are ye not children of transgression? - That is, in view of the fact that you make a sport of sacred things, and deride the laws and the prophets of God.
A seed of false-hood - A generation that is unfaithful to God and to his cause.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Tongue, in contempt. Saints, and particularly Jesus Christ, have…
Tongue, in contempt. Saints, and particularly Jesus Christ, have been exposed to ridicule.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain sport yourselves--make a mock (Isa 66:5). Are ye aware…
sport yourselves--make a mock (Isa 66:5). Are ye aware of the glory of Him whom you mock, by mocking His servants ("the righteous," Isa 57:1)? (Ch2 36:16).
make . . . wide month-- (Psa 22:7, Psa 22:13; Psa 35:21; Lam 2:16).
Read full note →
children of transgression, &c.--not merely children of transgressors, and a seed of false parents, but of transgression and falsehood itself, utterly unfaithful to God.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 4. On the contemptuous attitude of the Samaritans towards…
4. On the contemptuous attitude of the Samaritans towards the Jews, see Neh_4:1-4, and comp. ch. Isa_66:5.
sport yourselves] Lit. “take your delight” (ch. Isa_55:2, Isa_58:14, Isa_66:11); only here used of malevolent satisfaction.
Read full note →
make a wide mouth] Psa_35:21.
are ye not &c.] Are you not yourselves the proper objects of derision and abhorrence?
5 ff. Description of the varied idolatries to which they were devoted.
Inflaming yourselves with idols] Rather, as R.V., Ye that inflame yourselves among the oaks (or “terebinths,” the same word in ch. Isa_1:29, Isa_61:3). The A.V. follows the chief ancient Versions in taking the last word to be the plural of that for “god”; but it is never used expressly of an idol or false god (not even in Exo_15:11 or Dan_11:36). The reference is, if not to the actual primitive tree-worship (traces of which are still found in Palestine), at least to that modification of it in which the sacred tree became a place of sacrifice and the scene of the licentious rites indicated by the expression “inflame yourselves.” Comp. Hos_4:13.
under every green (i.e. evergreen) tree] Cf. Deu_12:2; Jer_2:20; Jer_3:6; Eze_6:13; 1Ki_14:23; 2Ki_17:10 &c.
slaying the children (Eze_16:21)] i.e. sacrificing them either to Jehovah or some false deity (Baal or Molech). On the subject of human sacrifice in Israel consult the notes in Davidson’s Ezekiel (Camb. Bible for Schools, &c.), pp. 107 f., 143. Cf. Jer_7:31; Jer_19:5; Eze_20:25; Eze_23:39; 2Ki_3:27; 2Ki_16:3; 2Ki_21:6; Mic_6:7; Lev_18:21; Deu_12:31, &c., and 2Ki_17:31.
in the valleys (or wadis, dry watercourses) under the clifts of the rocks] Probably weird and desolate places were chosen by preference for these revolting rites, although this is the only passage where such a thing is suggested.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (4) Against whom do ye sport yourselves?—The question, as…
(4) Against whom do ye sport yourselves?—The question, as in Isa_37:23, is one of indignant scorn, the implied answer being that the mockers were deriding the servants of Jehovah. (Comp. Wisdom 2), and, in so doing, mocking Jehovah himself. The “wide mouth,” and the “drawn-out tongue,” are the natural symbols of derision.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Against whom do ye sport yourselves? The idolatrous Israelites…
Against whom do ye sport yourselves? The idolatrous Israelites here addressed, no doubt, made a mock of the few righteous who were still living among them, and vexed their souls, as his fellow-towns-men did the soul of "just Lot". (2Pe_2:7) They "made wide the mouth" at them, and "drew out the tongue" in derision. (comp. Psa_22:7 Psa_35:21) The prophet asks, "Against whom do ye do this? Is it not rather against God, whose servants these men are, than against them?" Are ye not children of transgression? rather, are ye not, yourselves, children of apostasy? and therefore more truly objects of scorn than they? A seed of falsehood. Idols were viewed by Isaiah as "lies". (Isa_45:20; cf. Rom_1:25 Rev_22:15) Idolaters were therefore "a seed of falsehood men who put their trust in a lie.
Insult of good men is insult of God.
Read full note →
"The righteous dies, and is at rest; but ye, what will ye make at last of your derision of the righteous, and of the follies and idolatries wherein ye trust? Nothing." Matthew Henry says, "Mocking the messengers of the Lord was Jerusalem"s measure-filling sin; for what was done to them God took as done to himself. When they were reproved for their sins, and threatened with the judgments of God, they ridiculed the Word of God with the rudest and most indecent gestures and expressions of disdain. They sported themselves and made themselves merry with that which should have made them serious, and under which they should have humbled themselves. They made wry mouths at the prophets, and drew out the tongue, contrary to all the laws of good breeding; nor did they treat God"s servants with the common civility with which they would have treated a gentleman"s servant that had been sent to them on an errand." Illustrations may be found in the treatment of Isaiah; (see Isa_28:7-15) of Jeremiah; and, above all, by the insults offered to the Lord Jesus by the men of Jerusalem. The "wide mouth" and the "drawn-out tongue," are the natural symbols of derision. (Psa_35:21) We may note some of the conditions under which the messengers of God are likely to be insulted and misunderstood.
I WHEN THEY DO NOT COME IN THE REGULAR AND RECOGNIZED ORDER. God has his order of ministrants in every age, and his ordinary messages to men may be expected to come through them: patriarchs in one age, priests in another, prophets in yet another, clergy in still another. And all due honour should be put on the Divine order for the particular time. But God has always held the right of sending messengers outside the order, as he sends comets into our solar system, and there is as real a law for the sending of seemingly erratic messengers as of the seemingly erratic comets. But there is always the disposition in those who belong to the order, and the attaches of the order, to reject the outside man. Compare our Lord"s disciples saying to the Master," We found one teaching in thy Name, and we forbade him, because he followeth not with us." The questions concerning any apparent messenger from God, which we ought to ask, are these Will his work bear the test of God"s revealed Word? And does God seal his work with his Divine benediction? To reject any man"s work which can stand this dual test is to insult God, whose messenger he certainly is.
II WHEN THERE ARE ODDITIES IN THE MAN HIMSELF OR IN THE MANNER OF DELIVERING HIS MESSAGE. Just as we have established the notion that there must be an "order" through whom Divine messages alone can come, so we have convinced ourselves that there are particular styles and methods in which alone Divine messages do come. So if a message is not to pattern, we think we are right in rejecting it. The personal peculiarities of a messenger may touch the humorous faculty, and so close men"s minds and hearts against the reception of the message. But this is to insult the messenger, and in him the God who chose him and sent him with the message. We have not to ask what a man is; but we have to ask Is he of God? If he is, we must hear him.
III WHEN THE MESSENGER MAKES SEVERE DEMANDS. Illustrate from Jonah at Nineveh. No doubt there were many who scorned him on this ground. Also see the demand of Savonarola which led to the great burning in the market-place of Florence. Many of the wilder spirits of Florence did jeer at him. Men in every age have preferred the prophets who prophesied smooth and soft things; and they have always been disposed to reject the prophets who had to do the nobler and more necessary work of prophesying rough things and hard things. Exactly what our over-civilized generation needs is some prophet of God, who will tell us strongly, plainly, sternly, what God would have us do. But of this we may be quite sure, even in this enlightened nineteenth century, such a prophet and teacher would have a hard time of it.
IV WHEN THE MESSAGE GOES AGAINST THE FASHION OF THE AGE. For there are fashions in thinking and religion, as well as in manners and dress. And none of us like to be out of the thinking or religious fashion. But Fashions may become slavery to us, and degrade us as slavery always does. Let a man of God come and show us the evils into which fashions mental and religious have brought us, and we hate the man; we cry out against him, we are all alarm, because we have deluded ourselves with the notion that fashion is synonymous with truth. Urge that we are bound to test every public witness, and decide for ourselves whether he is of God. If he is, then to neglect his message is to sin against God, and to insult him is to insult God. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 57:4 mock . . . sticking out your tongues:…
57:4 mock . . . sticking out your tongues: The wicked oppressed the righteous by their insults (57:1-2; see also 28:9, 14).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.