So is the man that deceiveth his neighbour, and saith, Am not I in sport?

So is the man that deceiveth his neighbor, And saith, Am not I in sport?

So is the man that hurteth his friend deceitfully: and when he is taken, saith: I did it in jest.

So hath a man deceived his neighbour, And hath said, 'Am not I playing?'

So is the man that deceives his neighbor, and said, Am not I in sport?

So is the man who gets the better of his neighbour by deceit, and says, Am I not doing so in sport?

so also is the man who harms his friend by deceitfulness. And when he has been apprehended, he says, "I did it jokingly."

Am not I in sport? - How many hearts have been made sad, and how many reputations have been slain, by this kind of sport! "I designed no harm by what I said;" "It was only in jest," etc. Sportive as such persons may think their conduct to be, it is as ruinous as that of the mad man who shoots arrows, throws firebrands, and projects in all directions instruments of death, so that some are wounded, some burnt, and some slain.

So [is] the man [that] deceiveth (i) his neighbour, and saith, Am not I in sport?
(i) Who disguises himself to be that which he is not.

So is the man that deceiveth his neighbour,.... By telling him a lie; or by reporting false things concerning him; or by cheating him in trade and commerce; or by taking his goods privately from him; and, when caught in either of these,
and saith, Am not I in sport? do not be angry, I designed no hurt; it is all in jest, a mere joke: but, had he not been apprehended, it would have been in earnest, as he was. This is only an excuse, and as absurd an one as if a man should set fire to his neighbour's house and barns, or throw arrows at him, or strike him with any instrument of death, as the sword, &c. and then say he was only in jest, or pretend madness.