Schadenfreude

I have posted on the German word, schadenfreude, before. However, it must have been on my other site, now lost. I cannot find it on this site.

A few years ago, I began to see this word in various places. I asked one of my pastors, fluent in German, what it meant. He said, "Sin." A fair and accurate answer, although not a definition.

schadenfreude - A malicious satisfaction in the misfortunes of others. From German words meaning "damage" and "joy".

One place states that there is no word in English that is the same. However, there is one: gloating.

gloat - to observe or think about something with triumphant and often malicious satisfaction, gratification, or delight

word origin: probably of Scandinavian origin; akin to Old Norse, glotta, to grin scornfully.

And as for it being sin:

Obadiah 12,13 (NASB 95)
12 “Do not gloat over your (Edom’s or Esau’s) brother’s day,
The day of his misfortune.
And do not rejoice over the sons of Judah
In the day of their destruction;
Yes, do not boast
In the day of their distress.
13 “Do not enter the gate of My people
In the day of their disaster.
Yes, you, do not gloat over their calamity
In the day of their disaster.
And do not loot their wealth
In the day of their disaster.

Proverbs 17:5 (NASB 95)
5 He who mocks the poor taunts his Maker;
He who rejoices at calamity will not go unpunished.

Ezekial 36:5. (NASB 95) “wholehearted joy with scorn of soul”

Context: Ezekiel 36:5 (NASB 95)
5 therefore thus says the Lord God, “Surely in the fire of My jealousy I have spoken against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, who appropriated My land for themselves as a possession with wholehearted joy and with scorn of soul, to drive it out for a prey.”


Job 31:29,30 (NASB 95)
29 “Have I rejoiced at the extinction of my enemy,
Or exulted when evil befell him?
30 “No, I have not allowed my mouth to sin
By asking for his life in a curse.

Proverbs 24:17-18 (NASB 95)
17 Do not rejoice when your enemy falls,
And do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles;
18 Or the Lord will see it and be displeased,
And turn His anger away from him.