Isaiah 57:5

"Whom do you mock? Against whom do you make a wide mouth and stick out your tongue? Aren’t you children of disobedience and offspring of falsehood,"

Key Reflection

In Isaiah 57:5, the prophet addresses a nation that is mockingly defiant against God’s authority. The imagery of making a wide mouth and sticking out the tongue (נָחַשׁ nā·ḥash) evokes the serpent from the Garden of Eden, symbolizing deceit and rebellion. For the original audience, this verse would have resonated with their history of idolatry and disobedience, reminding them that their actions were not only disrespectful to God but also reflective of a long-standing pattern of false worship and disloyalty.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

Inflaming yourselves -Burning, that is, with lust. The whole language here is derived from adulterous intercourse. The sense is, that they were greatly addicted to idolatry, and that they used every means to increase and extend the practice of it. The Vulgate, however, renders this, ‘Who console yourselves.’ The Septuagint renders it, ‘Invoking (παρακαλοῦντεςparakalountes) idols.’ But the proper meaning of the Hebrew wordחמםchâmamis, “to become warm; to be inflamed, or to burn as with lust.” With idols -Margin, ‘Among the oaks.’ Hebrew,באליםbā'ēlı̂ym. Vulgate,In diis- ‘With the gods.’ Septuagint,ΕἴδωλαEidōla- ‘Idols.’ So the Chaldee and Syriac.

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