Scoffing

Scoffing in the UPDV gathers a cluster of related postures: mockery aimed at people, derision aimed at God's word, and the settled disposition of the scoffer who refuses correction. Proverbs treats the scoffer as a moral type alongside the simple, the fool, and the wise; the historical books and prophets show what the type looks like in action; and the New Testament locates the same posture in those who mock the suffering Christ and in the mockers who arise "in the last days."

The Scoffer as a Type

Wisdom literature draws a sharp portrait. The Psalter opens by contrasting the blessed man with the company he refuses: "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked; and in the way of sinners, does not stand, and in the seat of scoffers, does not sit" (Ps 1:1). Proverbs names the figure outright: "The proud and haughty man, scoffer is his name; He works in the arrogance of pride" (Pr 21:24). The disposition is not occasional — it is appetite. "How long, you⁺ simple ones, will you⁺ love simplicity? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing, And fools hate knowledge?" (Pr 1:22).

Sirach reinforces the same diagnosis. The scoffer's hostility is presented as constitutional and incurable: "The wound of a scoffer, there are no healings for it, For his plant is of an evil plant" (Sir 3:28). "Mockery and reproach [come] from the proud, And vengeance, like a lion, lies in wait for them" (Sir 27:28).

Why Rebuke and Wisdom Cannot Reach Him

The scoffer's defining trait is closed ears. "A wise son [hears] his father's instruction; But a scoffer does not hear rebuke" (Pr 13:1). Wisdom is not withheld from him by accident; he is unfit for it: "A scoffer seeks wisdom, and it is not [found]; But knowledge is easy to him who has understanding" (Pr 14:6). The fool's contempt for instruction matches: "If an understanding man hears a wise word, He commends it, and adds to it; If a foolish man hears it, he mocks it, And he casts it behind his back" (Sir 21:15).

Because the scoffer cannot be reformed, he is to be removed: "Cast out the scoffer, and contention will go out; Yes, strife and ignominy will cease" (Pr 22:10). Sirach extends the warning to companionship: "He who touches pitch, it will stick to his hand; And he who joins with a scoffer will learn his way" (Sir 13:1); "Do not move away from before the scoffer To set him as an ambusher before you" (Sir 8:11). Wisdom herself keeps her distance: "She is far from scoffers; And liars will not remember her" (Sir 15:8).

Judgment Reserved for the Scoffer

The wisdom tradition is explicit that scoffing carries its own freight of consequence. "Judgments are prepared for scoffers, And stripes for the back of fools" (Pr 19:29). "If you are wise, you are wise for yourself; And if you scoff, you alone will bear it" (Pr 9:12). "The thought of foolishness is sin; And the scoffer is disgusting to man" (Pr 24:9). On a civic scale the damage is wider: "Scoffers set a city in a flame; But wise men turn away wrath" (Pr 29:8).

Yahweh meets the scoffer with the scoffer's own posture turned back. "Surely he scoffs at the scoffers; But he gives grace to the lowly" (Pr 3:34). Wisdom personified speaks the same way: "I also will laugh in [the day of] your⁺ calamity; I will mock when your⁺ fear comes" (Pr 1:26). Wine in the hand of a scoffer becomes a test: "Like a furnace which tries the work of the blacksmith, So is wine in the quarrelling of scorners" (Sir 31:26).

Scoffing at God Himself

Beyond personal contempt, scoffing is repeatedly aimed at Yahweh and his word. Job catches the voice of the wicked exactly: "And they say to God, Depart from us; For we do not desire knowledge of your ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit should we have, if we pray to him?" (Job 21:14-15). Psalm 73 records the same shrug: "And they say, How does God know? And is there knowledge in the Most High?" (Ps 73:11).

The prophets address scoffing rulers directly. Isaiah charges Jerusalem's leadership: "Therefore hear the word of Yahweh, you⁺ scoffers, who rule this people who is in Jerusalem" (Is 28:14). Earlier in the same book the dare is preserved: "Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, and sin as it were with a cart rope; who say, Let him make speed, let him hurry his work, that we may see it; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it!" (Is 5:18-19). Jeremiah hears the same taunt directed at his own ministry: "Look, they say to me, Where is the word of Yahweh? Let it come now" (Jer 17:15). Isaiah characterizes such mockers as "children of transgression, a seed of falsehood" who "sport" themselves and "make a wide mouth, and put out the tongue" against Yahweh (Is 57:4).

The chronicler's verdict on the pre-exilic monarchy condenses the whole pattern: "they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until the wrath of Yahweh arose against his people, until there was no remedy" (2 Ch 36:16).

Mocking Yahweh's Servants

Scoffing falls hardest on those sent in Yahweh's name. Hezekiah's couriers calling Israel back to Passover are turned away: "So the posts passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, even to Zebulun: but they laughed them to scorn, and mocked them" (2 Ch 30:10). When Sanballat hears that the wall of Jerusalem is going up he reacts in the same idiom: "he was angry, and took great indignation, and mocked the Jews" (Ne 4:1). Elisha is taunted on the road to Beth-el — "Go up, you baldhead; go up, you baldhead" (2 Ki 2:23) — and "there came forth two she-bears out of the forest, and tore forty and two lads of them" (2 Ki 2:24).

The Psalter gives the scene a voice: "All those who see me laugh me to scorn: They shoot out the lip, they shake the head" (Ps 22:7). The same gesture turns up in Sirach as a stock image of treachery: "And then he will see you and be furious with you; And he will wag his head at you" (Sir 13:7). Hebrews catalogs the cost in the great roll of faith: "and others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, moreover of bonds and imprisonment" (Heb 11:36).

Scoffing at the Cross

The Passion narratives present scoffing as the hostile public posture toward the suffering Christ. The Psalm 22 imagery is enacted at the cross. "And those who passed by railed on him, wagging their heads, and saying, Ha! You who destroys the temple, and builds it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross. In like manner also the chief priests mocking [him] among themselves with the scribes said, He saved others; himself he can't save. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from the cross, that we may see and believe. And those who were crucified with him reproached him" (Mr 15:29-32). Luke notes the rulers' part: "And the people stood watching. And the rulers also scoffed at him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if this is the Christ of God, his chosen" (Lu 23:35).

Scoffing in the Last Days

The apostolic letters expect scoffing to intensify rather than fade. Peter forecasts it as a sign: "knowing this first, that in the last days mockers will come with mockery, walking after their own desires, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation" (2 Pe 3:3-4). Jude echoes the prediction word for word: "that they said to you⁺ in the last time there will be mockers, walking after their own ungodly desires" (Jud 18). Hebrews names the gravest form of contempt available to a covenant member: the one "who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and has counted the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified a common thing, and has done despite to the Spirit of grace" (Heb 10:29).

Mocking Within the Family

Scoffing is also a sin against neighbor and parent. "Whoever mocks the poor reproaches his Maker; [And] he who is glad at calamity will not be unpunished" (Pr 17:5). "The eye that mocks at his father, And despises to obey his mother, The ravens of the valley will pick it out, And the young eagles will eat it" (Pr 30:17). Sirach warns against contempt for the destitute and the suffering: "Do not mock at one who wears [only] a loincloth; And do not scorn at a bitter day. For the works of Yahweh are wonderful things; And his work has been hid from man" (Sir 11:4).

The earliest instance in the canon is domestic: "And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking" (Ge 21:9). The Maccabean chronicle records Nicanor in the same key: "But he mocked and despised them, and abused them: and he spoke proudly" (1 Ma 7:34).

Mockery as a Prophet's Weapon

A narrower strand of the material shows mockery used legitimately — by a prophet exposing a counterfeit. On Carmel, Elijah turns the tactic on the priests of Baal: "And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud; for he is a god: either he is musing, or he has gone aside, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he sleeps and must be awakened" (1 Ki 18:27). Here the derision serves the demonstration: the silence of Baal answers Elijah's taunt, and Yahweh answers by fire.