Surah 6. Al-An'am, Ayah 10

Lit., "that which they were wont to deride enfolded those who scoffed at them" (i.e., at the apostles): the meaning being that a derisive rejection of spiritual truths inexorably rebounds on the scoffers and has not only a disastrous effect on their individual lives after death but also - if persisted in by the majority within a community - destroys the moral basis of their society and, thus, their earthly happiness and sometimes even their physical existence.

"The scoffers were mocked by the thing that they mocked" would express epigrammatically part of the sense, but not the whole. "Hemmed in" implies that the logic of events turned the tables, and as a man might be besieged and surrounded by an enemy in war, and would be forced to surrender, so these mockers will find that events would justify Truth, not them. The mockers of Jesus, - where were they when Titus detroyed Jerusalem? The mockers who drove out Muhammad from Mecca, - what was their plight when Muhammad came back in triumph and they sued for mercy, - and he gave it to them! According to the Latin proverb, Great is Truth, and must prevail.