Proverbs 1:26
in Proverbs 1in turn I will mock your calamity; I will sneer when terror strikes you,
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
I also will laugh in the day of your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
KJV
I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
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This verse in Proverbs 1
Commentary
16 notes on this verseWhen your fear comes as calamity. Saying to one another, If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation (John XI).
This site's exposition
How long, O simple ones, will you love your simple ways
on Proverbs 1:22-27
Wisdom names three kinds of refusal, “simple ones,” “scoffers” and “fools,” the book's vocabulary for resistance to instruction, from the untaught to the contemptuous. Her answer, “I will mock your calamity,” is the harvest of a chosen path, spoken by the one who warned against it.
This site's exposition
I will mock your calamity
The mocking answers the scoffers of verse 22 with their own scorn. Psalm 2:4 gives the same mocking to the Lord in heaven. Albert Barnes observes that when the Son speaks of judgment, the tone is sadness and severity.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
The mind fluctuates between hope and despair. It must be feared lest hope slays you; and when you hope for too much from mercy, you fall into judgment. Again, it must be feared lest despair slays you; and when you think that you cannot now be forgiven for grave sins you have committed, you do no penance and you encounter the judge, wisdom, which says, "And I will laugh at your doom."What, then, has the Lord to do with those endangered by these diseases? To those who are endangered by hope, he says this: "Delay not to be converted to the Lord; and put it not off from day to day; for suddenly his wrath will come, and in the time of vengeance he will destroy you." To those who are endangered by despair, what does he say? "On whatever day the wicked man is converted, I shall forget all his iniquities." Therefore, because of those who are endangered by despair, he has proposed the harbor of forgiveness; because of those who are endangered by hope and deluded by delays, he has made the day of death uncertain. You do not know when the last day may come. Are you ungrateful because you have today, in which you may be corrected?
What room is there for just complaint when each suffers according to his deeds? There is this exception which I can easily prove, namely, we never suffer in proportion to our deeds, and God deals with us much more leniently than we deal with him. …
The Medieval Church3 voices
A commentator
Gregory the Dialogist40 Homilies on the Gospels, Homily 12 · Written before 604.
proposed
For this is why the Lord says through Solomon: "I called, and you refused; I stretched out my hand, and there was no one who paid attention; you despised all my counsel, and neglected my reproofs. I also will laugh at your destruction, and will mock when what you feared comes upon you. When sudden calamity rushes in, and destruction presses on like a storm, when tribulation and anguish come upon you, then they will call upon me, and I will not hear; they will rise early, and they will not find me." Behold, they cry out to be opened to, and, compelled by the pain of their rejection, they double the title of Lord, saying: "Lord, Lord, open to us." They offer prayers, but they are not known, because the Lord then abandons as if unknown those whom He now does not recognize as His own through the merit of their life.
But I will laugh at your calamity, etc. It is said likewise in the psalm about the same: He who dwells in the heavens laughs at them, and the Lord scoffs at them. Not because the Lord laughs with his mouth, or scoffs with his …
A commentator
BonaventureCollationes de Septem Donis, Collation 7 · Written in the 13th century.
proposed
Against those who speak against the counsels of God, it is said in Proverbs: 'I have called and you refused; you have despised all my counsel and neglected my reproofs; therefore I will laugh at your destruction.' A dog, when it lies in the straw …
8 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening6 voices
Fear seizes them, and they apprehend that bad will be worse. When public judgments are abroad the sinners in Zion are afraid, fearfulness surprises the hypocrites. Death is the king of terrors to them ( Job xv.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
1 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel; 2 To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding; 3 To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — verbatim-scripture
6 ), and therefore she goes on to tell them what will be in the end hereof. (1.) The crime is recited and it is highly provoking. See what it is for which judgment will be given against impenitent sinners in the great day, and you will say they deserve it, and the Lord is righteous in it.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-citation-number+unbalanced-parens
In vain - The fowler who spreads, his net in the sight of the bird looseth his labour. But these, are more foolish than the silly birds, and though they are not ignorant of the mischief which these evil courses will bring upon themselves, yet they will not take warning. Their own blood - The destruction which they design to others, fall upon themselves.
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 Psa 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, Isa 27:
The righteous will laugh at them ( Ps. lii. 6 ), for God himself will. It intimates that they shall be for ever shut out of God's compassions; they have so long sinned against mercy that they have now quite sinned it away.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
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.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
Others think that wisdom, as the divine attribute specially employed in acts of counsel and admonition, is here personified, and represents God. In either case the address is a most solemn and divine admonition, whose matter and spirit are eminently evangelical and impressive (see on Pr 8:1).
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| גַּם־ | gam- | also | H1571 → | 769 times |
| אֲ֭נִי | ʾani | I | H589 → | 874 times |
| בְּאֵידְכֶ֣ם | beeidekhem | at calamity your | H343 → | 24 times |
| אֶשְׂחָ֑ק | ʾeschak | I will laugh | H7832 → | 36 times |
| אֶ֝לְעַ֗ג | ʾelag | I will mock | H3932 → | 18 times |
| בְּבֹ֣א | bevo' | when comes | H935 → | 2568 times |
| פַחְדְּכֶֽם׃ | fachdekhem | dread your | H6343 → | 49 times |
גַּם־also
gam-H1571 →769 times
אֲ֭נִיI
ʾaniH589 →874 times
בְּאֵידְכֶ֣םat calamity your
beeidekhemH343 →24 times
אֶשְׂחָ֑קI will laugh
ʾeschakH7832 →36 times
אֶ֝לְעַ֗גI will mock
ʾelagH3932 →18 times
בְּבֹ֣אwhen comes
bevo'H935 →2568 times
פַחְדְּכֶֽם׃dread your
fachdekhemH6343 →49 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 2:4The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord taunts them.
it leads to
- Psalms 37:13
but the Lord laughs, seeing that their day is coming.
- Psalms 59:8
But You, O LORD, laugh at them; You scoff at all the nations.
- Isaiah 40:22
He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth; its dwellers are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
- Psalms 11:4
The LORD is in His holy temple; the LORD is on His heavenly throne. His eyes are watching closely; they examine the sons of men.
- Psalms 37:13
Through
Proverbs 10:24What the wicked man dreads will overtake him, but the desire of the righteous will be granted.
it leads to
- Psalms 145:19
He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him; He hears their cry and saves them.
- Isaiah 66:4
So I will choose their punishment and I will bring terror upon them, because I called and no one answered, I spoke and no one listened. But they did evil in My sight and…
- Psalms 145:19
Through
Psalms 37:13but the Lord laughs, seeing that their day is coming.
it leads to
- Psalms 2:4
The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord taunts them.
- Psalms 2:4
Through
Luke 14:24For I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will taste my banquet.’”
it leads to
- Matthew 21:43
Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.
- Matthew 21:43
Where this verse is studied
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About Proverbs
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 33:3-4; Bede, Commentary on Proverbs; Bonaventure, Collationes de Septem Donis, Collation 7; Gregory the Dialogist, 40 Homilies on the Gospels, Homily 12; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Salvian the Presbyter, THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD 3:9.