Bible Dictionary
GAZING-STOCK
A gazing-stock is a person exposed publicly to be watched, mocked, and despised. Scripture uses the expression for humiliating punishment and for the suffering endured by faithful believers.
Definition
A gazing-stock is a person or thing exposed publicly to be watched, mocked, despised, or made a spectacle. The expression can describe humiliating punishment or public suffering.
Biblical Usage
Nahum uses the term for a person made vile and exposed to scorn. Hebrews applies it to believers who endured reproaches and afflictions, while the apostles are described as a spectacle to the world.
Historical Background
The expression reflects the ancient practice of exhibiting criminals and condemned gladiators in theaters. Such public exposure was a recognized form of shame and punishment.
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>gaz'-ing-stok: This obsolete word occurs twice:</p><p>(1) in Na 3:6, as the translation of ro'i, "a sight" or "spectacle" (from ra'ah, "to look," "see," also "to look down upon," "despise,"); "I will .... make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazing-stock," as one set up to be gazed at, mocked and despised--a form of punishment in olden times; compare "mocking stock" (2 Macc 7:7), and "laughing-stock" still in use. The Hebrew word occurs only here and in Ge 16:13; 1Sa 16:12; Job 7:8; 33:21, in which places it does not have the same bad meaning; for a similar threatening compare Isa 14:16; Jer 51:37.</p><p>(2) In Heb 10:33, it is the translation of theatrizo, "to bring upon the theater," "to be made a spectacle of," "made a gazing stock both by reproaches and afflictions"; compare 1Co 4:9, theatron ginomai, where Paul says the apostles were "made a spectacle unto the world," the King James Version margin "(Greek) theater." The reference in both instances is to the custom of exhibiting criminals, and especially gladiators, men doomed to death, in theaters. "In the morning men are exposed to lions and bears; at mid-day to their spectators; those that kill are exposed to one another; the victor is detained for another slaughter; the conclusion of the fight is death" (Seneca, Ep. vii, quoted by Dr. A. Clarke on 1Co 4:9). We are apt to forget what the first preachers and professors of Christianity had to endure.</p><p>W. L. Walker</p>