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Read the Bible

New King James Version

Psalms 2:4

He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The LORD shall hold them in derision.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Anthropomorphisms;   Derision;   Godlessness;   Heaven;   Jesus, the Christ;   Persecution;   Wicked (People);   Scofield Reference Index - Christ;   Faith;   Kingdom;   Sacrifice;   Thompson Chain Reference - Contempt;   Divine;   The Topic Concordance - Counsel;   Government;   Jesus Christ;   Nations;   Opposition;   Wrath;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Poetry of the Hebrews;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - God;   Heaven;   Prophecy, prophet;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Building;   Christ, Christology;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Judgments of God;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Gestures;   Heaven;   Laugh;   Scoffer;   Wrath, Wrath of God;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - English Versions;   Kingdom of God;   Messiah;   Person of Christ;   Prophecy, Prophets;   Psalms;   Sin;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Laughter;   Session;   Sin (2);   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Heaven;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Kingdom of christ of heaven;   Kingdom of god;   Kingdom of heaven;   Messiah;   Psalms the book of;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Laugh;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Accommodation;   Acrostic;   Asunder;   Bible, the;   Christ, Offices of;   Derision;   God, Names of;   Haggai;   Isaac;   Jesus Christ (Part 1 of 2);   King, Christ as;   Mercy;   Names, Proper;   Omnipresence;   Psalms, Book of;   Text of the Old Testament;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Eschatology;   Poetry;  

Devotionals:

- Daily Light on the Daily Path - Devotion for March 1;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
The one enthroned in heaven laughs;the Lord ridicules them.
Hebrew Names Version
He who sits in the heavens will laugh. The Lord will have them in derision.
King James Version
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.
English Standard Version
He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.
New Century Version
But the one who sits in heaven laughs; the Lord makes fun of them.
New English Translation
The one enthroned in heaven laughs in disgust; the Lord taunts them.
Amplified Bible
He who sits [enthroned] in the heavens laughs [at their rebellion]; The [Sovereign] Lord scoffs at them [and in supreme contempt He mocks them].
New American Standard Bible
He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them.
World English Bible
He who sits in the heavens will laugh. The Lord will have them in derision.
Geneva Bible (1587)
But he that dwelleth in the heauen, shall laugh: the Lord shall haue them in derision.
Legacy Standard Bible
He who sits in the heavens laughs,The Lord mocks them.
Berean Standard Bible
The One enthroned in the heavens laughs; the Lord taunts them.
Contemporary English Version
In heaven the Lord laughs as he sits on his throne, making fun of the nations.
Complete Jewish Bible
He who sits in heaven laughs; Adonai looks at them in derision.
Darby Translation
He that dwelleth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision.
Easy-to-Read Version
But the one who rules in heaven laughs at them. The Lord makes fun of them.
George Lamsa Translation
He that dwells in heaven shall laugh, and the LORD shall mock at them.
Good News Translation
From his throne in heaven the Lord laughs and mocks their feeble plans.
Lexham English Bible
He who sits enthroned in the heavens laughs. The Lord derides them.
Literal Translation
He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall mock at them.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Neuerthelesse, he that dwelleth in heauen, shall laugh the to scorne: yee euen the LORDE himselff shall haue them in derision.
American Standard Version
He that sitteth in the heavens will laugh: The Lord will have them in derision.
Bible in Basic English
Then he whose seat is in the heavens will be laughing: the Lord will make sport of them.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
He that sitteth in heaven laugheth, the Lord hath them in derision.
King James Version (1611)
Hee that sitteth in the heauens shal laugh: the Lord shall haue them in derision.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
He that dwelleth in heauen wyll laugh them to scorne: the Lorde wyll haue them in derision.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
He that dwells in the heavens shall laugh them to scorn, and the Lord shall mock them.
English Revised Version
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
He that dwellith in heuenes schal scorne hem; and the Lord schal bimowe hem.
Update Bible Version
He that sits in the heavens will laugh: The Lord will have them in derision.
Webster's Bible Translation
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.
New Living Translation
But the one who rules in heaven laughs. The Lord scoffs at them.
New Life Bible
He Who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord makes fun of them.
New Revised Standard
He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord has them in derision.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
He that sitteth in the heavens, will laugh, - My Lord, will mock at them:
Douay-Rheims Bible
He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh at them: and the Lord shall deride them.
Revised Standard Version
He who sits in the heavens laughs; the LORD has them in derision.
Young's Literal Translation
He who is sitting in the heavens doth laugh, The Lord doth mock at them.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them.

Contextual Overview

1 Acts 4:23-31">[xr] Why do the nations rage, And the people plot a vain thing? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, 3 "Let us break Their bonds in pieces And cast away Their cords from us." 4 He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The LORD shall hold them in derision. 5 Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, And distress them in His deep displeasure: 6 "Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

He that: Psalms 11:4, Psalms 68:33, Psalms 115:3, Isaiah 40:22, Isaiah 57:15, Isaiah 66:1

shall laugh: Psalms 37:13, Psalms 53:5, Psalms 59:8, 2 Kings 19:21, Proverbs 1:26

Reciprocal: Genesis 11:7 - confound Esther 6:4 - to speak Psalms 103:19 - prepared Psalms 123:1 - O thou Isaiah 7:7 - General Jeremiah 48:26 - and he also Matthew 21:41 - He will Luke 19:15 - having Acts 5:23 - The prison Romans 15:12 - and he

Cross-References

Genesis 1:1
Genesis 2:4-9; Job 38:4-11; John 1:1-5">[xr] In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:4
And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.
Genesis 1:28
Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
Genesis 1:31
Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Genesis 2:1
Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished.
Genesis 2:2
And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.
Genesis 5:1
1 Chronicles 1:1-4; Luke 3:36-38">[xr] This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.
Genesis 10:1
1 Chronicles 1:5-27">[xr] Now this is the genealogy of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And sons were born to them after the flood.
Genesis 11:10
1 Chronicles 1:17-27; Luke 3:34-36">[xr] This is the genealogy of Shem: Shem was one hundred years old, and begot Arphaxad two years after the flood.
Genesis 25:12
1 Chronicles 1:29-31">[xr] Now this is the genealogy of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's maidservant, bore to Abraham.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh,.... At the rage and tumult of the Heathen; at the vain imaginations of the people; at the opposition of the kings of the earth; at the mad counsel of the rulers, against him and his Messiah; and at their proposal to one another to throw off the yoke and government of them both. This is a periphrasis of God, "who dwells in the heavens", and sits there enthroned; though he is not included and comprehended in them, but is everywhere; and his being there is mentioned in opposition to the kings of the earth, and the people in it; and to show the vast distance there is between them, and how they are as nothing to him, Isaiah 40:1 Job 4:18; and how vain and fruitless their attempts must be against him and his Messiah: and his sitting there still and quiet, serene and undisturbed, is opposed to the running to and fro, and the tumultuous and riotous assembling of the Heathen. Laughing is ascribed unto him, according to the language of men, as the Jewish writers speak d, by an anthropopathy; in the same sense as he is said to repent and grieve, Genesis 6:6; and expresses his security from all their attempts, Job 5:22; and the contempt he has them in, and the certain punishment of them, and the aggravation of it; who will not only then laugh at them himself, but expose them to the laughter and scorn of others, Proverbs 1:26;

the Lord shall have them in derision; which is a repetition of the same thing in other words; and is made partly to show the certainty of their disappointment and ruin, and partly to explain who is meant by him that sits in the heavens. The Targum calls him, "the Word of the Lord"; and Alshech interprets it of the Shechinah.

d Kimchi, Aben Ezra, & R. Sol. Ben Melech in loc.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He that sitteth in the heavens - God, represented as having his home, his seat, his throne in heaven, and thence administering the affairs of the world. This verse commences the second strophe or stanza of the psalm; and this strophe Psalms 2:4-6 corresponds with the first Psalms 2:1-3 in its structure. The former describes the feelings and purposes of those who would cast off the government of God; this describes the feelings and purposes of God in the same order, for in each case the psalmist describes what is done, and then what is said: the nations rage tumultuously Psalms 2:1-2, and then say Psalms 2:3, “Let us break their bands.” God sits calmly in the heavens, smiling on their vain attempts Psalms 2:4, and then solemnly declares Psalms 2:5-6 that, in spite of all their opposition, he “has set his King upon his holy hill of Zion.” There is much sublimity in this description. While men rage and are tumultuous in opposing his plans, he sits calm and undisturbed in his own heaven. Compare the notes at the similar place in Isaiah 18:4.

Shall laugh - Will smile at their vain attempts; will not be disturbed or agitated by their efforts; will go calmly on in the execution of his purposes. Compare as above Isaiah 18:4. See also Proverbs 1:26; Psalms 37:13; Psalms 59:8. This is, of course, to be regarded as spoken after the manner of men, and it means that God will go steadily forward in the accomplishment of his purposes. There is included also the idea that he will look with contempt on their vain and futile efforts.

The Lord shall have them in derision - The same idea is expressed here in a varied form, as is the custom in parallelism in Hebrew poetry. The Hebrew word לעג lâ‛ag, means properly to stammer; then to speak in a barbarous or foreign tongue; then to mock or deride, by imitating the stammering voice of anyone. Gesenius, Lexicon Here it is spoken of God, and, of course, is not to be understood literally, anymore than when eyes, and hands, and feet are spoken of as pertaining to him. The meaning is, that there is a result in the case, in the Divine Mind, as if he mocked or derided the vain attempts of men; that is, he goes calmly forward in the execution of his own purposes, and he looks upon and regards their efforts as vain, as we do the efforts of others when we mock or deride them. The truth taught in this verse is, that God will carry forward his own plans in spite of all the attempts of men to thwart them. This general truth may lie stated in two forms:

(1) He sits undisturbed and unmoved in heaven while men rage against him, and while they combine to cast off his authority.

(2) He carries forward his own plans in spite of them. This he does:

(a) directly, accomplishing his schemes without regard to their attempts; and

(b) by making their purposes tributary to his own, so making them the instruments in carrying out his own plans. Compare Acts 4:28.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Psalms 2:4. He that sitteth in the heavens — Whose kingdom ruleth over all, and is above all might and power, human and diabolical. Shall laugh. Words spoken after the manner of men; shall utterly contemn their puny efforts; shall beat down their pride, assuage their malice, and confound their devices.


 
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