Isaiah 57:4

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?

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? - make a mock (Isaiah 66:5).

Against whom do ye sport yourselves? consider whom it is that you mock and scoff when you deride God’ s prophets, as they did, ,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 35:21. 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.

Isaiah 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. 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. Not the sinful Sodomites only, but Lot’ s sons-in-law, who should have learned better, laughed him to scorn for his good counsel. 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. 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 Exodus 16:8 Numbers 16:11 Luke 10:16 1 Thessalonians 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 - 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" - if they blow their noses at us, as they did at our Saviour, taunt and reproach us, as they did Paul, set us upon a stage to be laughed and hooted at, as they did those worthies of whom the world was not worthy - 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" Mundus antiquum obtinet ridendo verbum Dei. Yεατριζομενοι, in theatrum producti pro spectaculo.

(4) Against whom do ye sport yourselves?—The question, as in Isaiah 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.

4. On the contemptuous attitude of the Samaritans towards the Jews, see Nehemiah 4:1-4, and comp. ch. Isaiah 66:5. sport yourselves] Lit. “take your delight” (ch. Isaiah 55:2, Isaiah 58:14, Isaiah 66:11); only here used of malevolent satisfaction. make a wide mouth] Psalms 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. Isaiah 1:29, Isaiah 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 Exodus 15:11 or Daniel 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. Hosea 4:13. under every green (i.e. evergreen) tree] Cf. Deuteronomy 12:2; Jeremiah 2:20; Jeremiah 3:6; Ezekiel 6:13; 1 Kings 14:23; 2 Kings 17:10 &c. slaying the children (Ezekiel 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. Jeremiah 7:31; Jeremiah 19:5; Ezekiel 20:25; Ezekiel 23:39; 2 Kings 3:27; 2 Kings 16:3; 2 Kings 21:6; Micah 6:7; Leviticus 18:21; Deuteronomy 12:31, &c., and 2 Kings 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.

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

3, 4. Draw near… ye sons of the sorceress — The Hebrew here is very emphatic: You, you.