to make a fool of someone: to treat a person as a dupe, whether by open ridicule or by lies and broken promises
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyStrong
This verb names an insult to a person, not just a false statement. The one on the receiving end is not merely misinformed or laughed at in passing: they are handled as someone who can be played with, and they come out of it looking foolish. That single idea is why English versions swing so widely, saying "mock" in one verse and "deceive" or "cheat" in the next.
The same Hebrew word covers what look in English like different offenses:
Laban keeps changing Jacob's wages, and Jacob tells his wives that their father has made a fool of him (Genesis 31:7).
Samson gives Delilah three false answers in a row, and she tells him he has made a fool of her (Judges 16:10, 16:13, 16:15).
Elijah taunts the prophets of Baal at midday, telling them to shout louder because their god may be asleep (1 Kings 18:27).
The word also works in the other direction, describing the person who has been taken in. In Isaiah 44:20 the man who bows to an idol has a heart that has been made a fool of, which is where English gets "a deluded heart." Nobody is standing over him laughing; he has simply been fooled, and the word still fits.
Because the constant is the insult rather than the method, this verb sits between two neighbors and can behave like either one: the verb for open jeering laughter (לָעַג) and the verb for breaking faith with someone who trusted you (בָּגַד).
Nuances
1ato make a fool of someone by lies or by promises that are not kept: to cheat, to string along
Gen 31:7Exo 8:29(25)Jdg 16:10Jdg 16:13Jdg 16:15Job 13:9 (2×)*Jer 9:5(4)
1bto mock someone out loud: to taunt and jeer at them
TranslatabilityDirect
1Ki 18:27
1cto be made a fool of: to be taken in, so that a person's own thinking is deluded
the scorn is expressed openly through laughter, hooting, or contemptuous gesturesPsa 2:42Ki 19:21Psa 22:7
names contempt heaped on the vulnerable, on a parent, or on God himselfPro 17:5Pro 30:17
בָּגַדto break faith with someone who trusted you, naming the betrayal itself, where this word names the humiliation the betrayed person is left holding.
The wrong is done by stringing a person along: one false answer after another, or a promise renewed and then broken again.Jdg 16:10Jdg 16:13Jdg 16:15Exo 8:29
Also covers open ridicule to a person's face, taunting out loud with nothing hidden and no loyalty to break, which is why some versions render it "mock."1Ki 18:27
Keeps the victim's foolish position in view rather than the offender's disloyalty, and can even describe the person who has been taken in.Isa 44:20Gen 31:7
Both
Both name a wrong done by not keeping your word rather than by open force: the other person accepted what was said and was let down by it.Jer 9:2Gen 31:7
Both can take God himself as the one wronged, not only a fellow human being.1Sa 14:33Job 13:9
Names the broken bond itself, so it is the word for unfaithfulness inside a marriage, where a spouse is let down by the person who pledged loyalty.Jer 3:8Mal 2:14Exo 21:8
Carries the formal charge against Israel for turning from the LORD, treating the nation as a partner who broke faith with the God it belonged to.Hos 5:7Hos 6:7Mal 2:11Jer 3:20
Fits a betrayal that involves no trickery at all: loyalty simply fails at the moment it was needed, and the injured party is abandoned rather than fooled.Job 6:15Lam 1:2Jer 12:6
Hardens into a standing label for a whole class of people, the treacherous, set against the upright and the faithful as a settled type of character.Pro 11:3Pro 11:6Psa 25:3Isa 24:16
נָכַלto act craftily against someone, with the weight on the scheming, where this word keeps the focus on the victim being made to look foolish.
Covers open taunting to someone's face, with no deception at all: Elijah jeers at the prophets of Baal in broad daylight, telling them to shout louder because their god may be asleep.1Ki 18:27
Keeps the victim's humiliation in view, so it is regularly what the fooled person says about the way they were handled: Jacob protests that Laban has made a fool of him by changing his wages, and Delilah complains three times that Samson has made a fool of her.Gen 31:7Jdg 16:15
Can describe the state of the person who has been taken in, with nobody standing over them: the man who bows to an idol has a heart that has been fooled, which is where English gets "a deluded heart."Isa 44:20
Both
Both name wronging someone by underhanded dealing rather than by open force, so the harm arrives through trust rather than through a fight.Gen 31:7Psa 105:25
Both are used of breaking faith in an arrangement, promising one thing and delivering another: Pharaoh keeps agreeing to release Israel and then does not, and the worshipper vows a sound animal but brings a damaged one.Exo 8:29Mal 1:14
Both are strong enough to describe a whole people or a household head acting against those who depend on them, so the wrong is treated as a public offense and not a private slight.Jer 9:5Num 25:18
Names the scheming itself, the plan laid against a person, even where the victim is never lied to: Joseph's brothers see him coming and plot together to kill him.Gen 37:18
The aim of the craft can be destruction or forced labor rather than making anyone look foolish: Midian's scheme at Peor brings a plague on Israel, and Egypt deals craftily with the Hebrews to keep them enslaved.Num 25:18Psa 105:25
Can become a standing label for the person who behaves this way, the swindler himself: the man who has a sound animal in his flock and sacrifices a damaged one is cursed as a cheat.Mal 1:14
תָּעַעthe nearest Hebrew parallel: its range likewise runs from mockery to deceit, and it is tied to leading someone off course, while this word centers on leaving a person looking foolish.
Names the act of stringing a person along: one false answer after another, or a promise renewed and then quietly broken. Laban keeps changing the wage he agreed to, Pharaoh keeps agreeing to release Israel and then refuses, and Samson answers Delilah falsely three times running.Gen 31:7Exo 8:29Jdg 16:13
Is most often the wronged person's own protest, spoken by the one who was fooled and knows it: Jacob complaining to his wives about their father, Delilah complaining to Samson.Jdg 16:10Jdg 16:15Gen 31:7
Can turn around and describe the person who has been taken in, so that what is fooled is the man's own thinking: the idol worshipper is said to have a heart that has been made a fool of, which is where English gets "a deluded heart."Isa 44:20
Can take God himself as the one being fooled, not merely someone who speaks for him: Job asks his friends whether they will handle God the same way a man can be handled.Job 13:9
Both
Both cover making a fool of someone by lies, which is why English versions render each of them "deceive" in places.Jdg 16:10Gen 27:12
Both also reach open ridicule, so each is rendered "mock" elsewhere: this is the reason the two are the closest parallel in Hebrew, since each one spans lying to a person and jeering at them.1Ki 18:272Ch 36:16
Neither is the ordinary word for telling a lie: both point at how a person is treated rather than at whether a statement is true. In Judges the lying is named by a separate word standing next to this verb, and in Genesis Jacob's worry is about how he will be seen.Jdg 16:13Gen 27:12
Can label the kind of person rather than the deed, naming someone as a fraud in another person's eyes: Jacob's fear is not that a lie will be caught out but that his father will see him as an imposter and curse him for it.Gen 27:12
Describes a whole nation's settled contempt for messengers who were sent, standing beside jeering at them and despising what God said through them, so the insult travels back to the one who sent them rather than leaving a private victim looking foolish.2Ch 36:16
תָּעָהto go astray, or to lead someone astray, describing the wrong path a person ends up on, where this word describes the fooling that put them there.
Names the fooling itself, done by lies or by promises that are not kept: an agreed wage changed again and again, a ruler who keeps saying he will let the people go and then does not.Gen 31:7Exo 8:29Jer 9:5
Keeps the victim's dignity in view: the person is not simply misinformed but left looking like a dupe, which is why English versions can say "made a fool of me."Jdg 16:10Jdg 16:13Jdg 16:15
Reaches all the way to open taunting, jeering at someone to their face with no deceit involved at all.1Ki 18:27
Both
Both describe one person deliberately working on another so that the other ends up wrong, which is why English versions can render either one "deceive" or "mislead."Jdg 16:10Jer 23:32
Both can be used of a person whose own thinking has been taken in, the mind or heart that has been led into a false judgment.Isa 44:20Job 15:31
Names plain physical wandering, with no wrongdoing on anyone's part: a woman lost in open country, a man roaming a field looking for his brothers, a stray ox, thirsty travelers circling in the desert with no road.Gen 21:14Gen 37:15Exo 23:4Psa 107:4
Stretches to the loss of steady footing, the lurching of a man too drunk to walk a straight line and the reeling of a heart in panic.Isa 28:7Isa 21:4
Names the wrong road a person or a whole people is now walking, drifted from God like sheep with no shepherd, whether or not anyone fooled them into it.Isa 53:6Psa 119:176Psa 95:10
Is the prophets' word for holding leaders, false prophets and idols accountable for the course a nation ends up on, where the charge is the direction the people are taken, not the trick that got them there.Isa 9:16Jer 23:13Hos 4:12Mic 3:5
Can describe being sent off on a journey away from home with nothing dishonest about it, as when Abraham says God set him wandering from his father's house.Gen 20:13
talal in the other biblical languages
ἐμπαίζωGreek“to mock”the Greek verb for mocking someone and making sport of them openly; it covers the taunting side of this word but not the cheating and lying side.
it covers making a fool of someone by not keeping your word, stringing a person along over and over: Laban keeps changing the wages he agreed to pay Jacob, and Pharaoh agrees to release the people and then refuses.Gen 31:7Exo 8:29
it covers a straight-faced lie told to someone who trusts you, with no jeering anywhere in sight: Samson answers Delilah's question falsely three times running, and she says he has made a fool of her.Jdg 16:10Jdg 16:13Jdg 16:15
it can describe dealing falsely as a settled habit of a whole community, where neighbors wear each other down with lies until nobody can be trusted.Jer 9:5
it can be turned on the fooled person's own thinking, describing a heart that has been taken in, so that a man cannot see that the idol he bows to is a block of wood.Isa 44:20
Both
both name open taunting of someone who cannot answer back, and this is where the two words genuinely meet: Elijah tells the prophets of Baal to shout louder because their god may be asleep, and the rulers at the cross call out that the man who saved others cannot save himself.1Ki 18:27Mrk 15:31
both can describe a person made a fool of by being outwitted rather than jeered at: Herod finds that the wise men have slipped away instead of reporting back to him, and Jacob finds his wages changed behind his back.Mat 2:16Gen 31:7
in both, the injury is to the person rather than to the truth: the victim is not left misinformed but left looking like someone who can be played with, which is why English versions of either word reach for "made a fool of" as readily as "mocked."Jdg 16:15Mrk 15:20
the contempt is acted out on the victim's body, not only spoken: soldiers dress Jesus in a fake royal robe, kneel in fake homage, strike him, and then strip the costume off again, so the mockery is a staged performance.Mat 27:29Mat 27:31Mrk 15:20
it is the word for what a crowd does to a man on public display, with rulers, soldiers, and bystanders each taking a turn while he can do nothing about it.Mat 27:41Mrk 15:31Luk 23:36
it can name the ridicule that greets a plain failure, where nobody has been wronged and nobody has been lied to: the laughter a man invites if he starts building a tower and runs out of money partway up.Luk 14:29
it is the word Jesus himself uses in advance of his death, so it carries the settled expectation that he will be handed over to be treated this way, and then the Gospel writers use it again when the guards do it.Mrk 10:34Luk 18:32Luk 22:63
ἀπατάωGreek“to trick”the Greek verb for leading someone into a false belief; it covers the deceiving side of this word, without the note of humiliation.
it also covers open jeering with no deception at all, as when Elijah taunts the prophets of Baal at midday and tells them to shout louder because their god may be asleep.1Ki 18:27
the humiliation the victim is left holding is part of the word, which is why English versions often say "made a fool of me" rather than "deceived me": Jacob says this of Laban's repeated changes to his wages, and Samson's three false answers leave Delilah saying it of him.Gen 31:7Jdg 16:10Jdg 16:15
it covers stringing a person along by a promise that is not kept, not only by a false statement: Moses warns Pharaoh not to do it again after Pharaoh agrees to release the people and then refuses.Exo 8:29Jer 9:5
Both
both name leading a person into a false picture of things by misrepresenting them, and the Greek verb is the natural counterpart wherever the deceiving side of the Hebrew word is in view: false answers given to a trusting partner, and empty words used on a congregation.Jdg 16:13Eph 5:6
both can put the damage inside the person rather than in an outward transaction, describing a heart or a mind that has gone wrong about what it trusts: the man who bows to an idol has a heart that has been fooled, and the man who mistakes his own talk for real religion has led his heart astray.Isa 44:20Jas 1:26
what the word names is the false belief itself: someone ends up believing or doing the wrong thing, and nothing in the word suggests the victim is left looking foolish.Eph 5:61Ti 2:14
the deceiver and the deceived can be the same person: someone talks piously while failing to control his speech and so leads his own heart into a false view of his religion.Jas 1:26
παραλογίζομαιGreek“to deceive”Greek for talking someone into a false conclusion so that they misjudge, close to the way this word describes stringing a person along.
It covers open taunting, where no false conclusion is being sold at all: Elijah jeers at the prophets of Baal to shout louder because their god may be asleep.1Ki 18:27
It covers being strung along over time by promises that are never kept, as when Laban keeps changing Jacob's wages and when Pharaoh keeps putting off his agreement to let the people go.Gen 31:7Exo 8:29
It keeps the humiliation of the victim in view, so the complaint is that the person has been made to look a fool, not merely that they were told something untrue.Jdg 16:10Jdg 16:15
Both
In both, the damage is done with words that are meant to be believed and will not hold up: a false answer, a promise that is not kept, an argument that sounds convincing.Jdg 16:13Col 2:4
Both are used of misleading people who had reason to trust the speaker, which is why English versions reach for "deceive" in each: neighbors who will not tell one another the truth, and teachers whose case against the gospel sounds well made.Jer 9:5Col 2:4
The fooling is done by argument: a person is talked into a wrong conclusion by words that sound reasonable, which is the danger Paul names when he warns about persuasive speech.Col 2:4
The word can be turned back on the person doing it: the hearer who never acts on what he has heard is talking himself into a false verdict about his own standing, with nobody else working on him.Jas 1:22
What scholars say about talal
Every occurrence in the corpus is causative or passive causative, and the forms are traced either to a root התל or to תלל; the choice is one of derivation and does not change the sense, since both routes yield the same verb with the same range. The standard lexicons agree on that range rather than splitting it into homonyms: BDB glosses the verb "mock, deceive," HALOT "to make fun of, to deceive," and DCH keeps ridicule and deception together under a single verb. The noun הֲתֻלִים "mockery" in Job 17:2 belongs to the same group. What is discussed verse by verse is which shade a given text takes, above all Job 13:9, where the rendering turns on whether Job charges his friends with deceiving God or with jeering at him, and Judges 16:10, 13 and 15, where Delilah's complaint has been read both as ridicule and as being strung along with lies.
Sources
HALOT, s.v. התלlexicon
BDB, s.v. תָּלַל II (הָתַל)lexicon
DCH, s.v. התלlexicon
David J. A. Clines, Job 1-20, Word Biblical Commentary 17 (1989), on 13:9commentary
Barry G. Webb, The Book of Judges, New International Commentary on the Old Testament (2012), on Judges 16commentary