μυκτηρίζω

From the study of Galatians 6:7

Range of meaning

From myktēr, "nose, nostril". The literal picture is turning up or wrinkling the nose. In use it means to sneer at, treat with contempt, or look down on someone as a fool. In context it can carry the idea of thinking you can outwit or cheat someone without consequence. BDAG gives "turn up the nose at, treat with contempt" and, for this verse, God "does not allow himself to be mocked", that is, he cannot be fooled.

Against the English

"Mocked" (KJV, ESV, BSB, WEB) is a fair rendering. To modern ears, though, "mock" mostly means "make fun of" or "tell jokes about". So readers often take the line as a ban on ridiculing God. NLT, "cannot mock the justice of God", catches that the harvest is in view, but it adds a word Paul did not write.

How it drifted

English "mock" once also meant "to deceive, to make a fool of" (as in "mockery" meaning a sham). That sense has faded, leaving mainly "ridicule". The Latin Vulgate's irridetur ("is laughed at") also leans toward the ridicule sense.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Greek Old Testament (the Septuagint) uses it for contempt toward wisdom and discipline. In Proverbs 1:30, people "sneered at my reproofs", and the next verse (1:31) says "they shall eat the fruit of their own way". That is the same logic as Paul's: treat God's warning with contempt, and you eat what you planted. See also Prov 15:5 (a fool sneers at his father's discipline), Prov 12:8, 2 Kgs 19:21 (Zion tosses her head at Sennacherib), Ps 80:6 (LXX 79:7) and 1 Macc 7:34. In the New Testament the strengthened form ekmyktērizō describes Pharisees scoffing at Jesus (Luke 16:14) and rulers sneering at the cross (Luke 23:35).