Proverbs - 1:26



26 I also will laugh at your disaster. I will mock when calamity overtakes you;

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Proverbs 1:26.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
I also will laugh in the day of your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
I also will laugh in your destruction, and will mock when that shall come to you which you feared.
I also in your calamity do laugh, I deride when your fear cometh,
I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear comes;
So in the day of your trouble I will be laughing; I will make sport of your fear;
I also, in your calamity, will laugh, I will mock when your dread cometh;
Similarly, I will ridicule you at your demise, and I will mock you, when that which you feared shall overcome you.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

Compare the marginal reference. The scorn and derision with which men look on pride and malice, baffled and put to shame, has something that answers to it in the Divine Judgment. It is, however, significant that in the fuller revelation of the mind and will of the Father in the person of the Son no such language meets us. Sadness, sternness, severity, there may be, but, from first to last, no word of mere derision.

I also will (t) laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
(t) This is spoken according to our capacity signifying that the wicked, who mock and jest at God's word, will have the just reward of their mocking.

I also will laugh at your calamity,.... By way of retaliation, measuring measure for measure; even as they scorned him, and delighted in their scorning, now he in his turn will "laugh" at them and their distress; which act is ascribed to the Lord by an anthropopathy; see Psalm 2:4; signifying that he should not at all pity them, show no compassion to them, and have no mercy upon them; but rather express a pleasure and delight in displaying the glory of his justice in their destruction: the plain sense is, that no favour would be shown them, Isaiah 27:11. The word translated "calamity" signifies a "vapour" (f), or cloud; denoting it would be a very dark dispensation with the Jews, as it was when "wrath came upon them to the uttermost", 1-Thessalonians 2:16; even on their nation, city, and temple; as in their last destruction by the Romans, which is here intended;
I will mock when your fear cometh; which is the same thing in different words; for by "fear" is meant the dreadful calamity on which brought dread, terror, and consternation with it, and of which they had fearful apprehensions beforehand: wherefore this is mentioned among the signs of Jerusalem's destruction, "men's hearts failing them for fear", Luke 21:26.
(f) "significat vaporem", Vatablus, Mercerus, Amama.

In their extreme distress He will not only refuse help, but aggravate it by derision.

Your fear - The misery you do or should fear.

*More commentary available at chapter level.


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