Keluaran 9:16-17

9:16 But ¹  for this purpose I have caused you to stand: ²  to show you ³  my strength, and so that my name may be declared ⁴  in all the earth. 9:17 You are still exalting ⁵  yourself against my people by ⁶  not releasing them.

Keluaran 15:6

15:6 Your right hand, O Lord, was majestic ⁷  in power,

your right hand, O Lord, shattered the enemy.

Keluaran 18:11

18:11 Now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods, for in the thing in which they dealt proudly against them he has destroyed them.” ⁸ 

Yesaya 2:11-12

2:11 Proud men will be brought low,

arrogant men will be humiliated; ⁹ 

the Lord alone will be exalted ¹⁰ 

in that day.

2:12 Indeed, the Lord who commands armies has planned a day of judgment, ¹¹ 

for ¹²  all the high and mighty,

for all who are proud – they will be humiliated;

Yesaya 2:17

2:17 Proud men will be humiliated,

arrogant men will be brought low; ¹³ 

the Lord alone will be exalted ¹⁴ 

in that day.

Yesaya 10:12-19

10:12 But when ¹⁵  the sovereign master ¹⁶  finishes judging ¹⁷  Mount Zion and Jerusalem, then I ¹⁸  will punish the king of Assyria for what he has proudly planned and for the arrogant attitude he displays. ¹⁹  10:13 For he says:

“By my strong hand I have accomplished this,

by my strategy that I devised.

I invaded the territory of nations, ²⁰ 

and looted their storehouses.

Like a mighty conqueror, ²¹  I brought down rulers. ²² 

10:14 My hand discovered the wealth of the nations, as if it were in a nest,

as one gathers up abandoned eggs,

I gathered up the whole earth.

There was no wing flapping,

or open mouth chirping.” ²³ 

10:15 Does an ax exalt itself over the one who wields it,

or a saw magnify itself over the one who cuts with it? ²⁴ 

As if a scepter should brandish the one who raises it,

or a staff should lift up what is not made of wood!

10:16 For this reason ²⁵  the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, will make his healthy ones emaciated. ²⁶  His majestic glory will go up in smoke. ²⁷ 

10:17 The light of Israel ²⁸  will become a fire,

their Holy One ²⁹  will become a flame;

it will burn and consume the Assyrian king’s ³⁰  briers

and his thorns in one day.

10:18 The splendor of his forest and his orchard

will be completely destroyed, ³¹ 

as when a sick man’s life ebbs away. ³² 

10:19 There will be so few trees left in his forest,

a child will be able to count them. ³³ 

Yehezkiel 28:2

28:2 “Son of man, say to the prince ³⁴  of Tyre, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:

“‘Your heart is proud ³⁵  and you said, “I am a god; ³⁶ 

I sit in the seat of gods, in the heart of the seas” –

yet you are a man and not a god,

though you think you are godlike. ³⁷ 

Daniel 4:37

4:37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, for all his deeds are right and his ways are just. He is able to bring down those who live ³⁸  in pride.

Daniel 5:20-23

5:20 And when his mind ³⁹  became arrogant ⁴⁰  and his spirit filled with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne and his honor was removed from him. 5:21 He was driven from human society, his mind ⁴¹  was changed to that of an animal, he lived ⁴²  with the wild donkeys, he was fed grass like oxen, and his body became damp with the dew of the sky, until he came to understand that the most high God rules over human kingdoms, and he appoints over them whomever he wishes.

5:22 “But you, his son ⁴³  Belshazzar, have not humbled yourself, ⁴⁴  although you knew all this. 5:23 Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. You brought before you the vessels from his temple, and you and your nobles, together with your wives and concubines, drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone – gods ⁴⁵  that cannot see or hear or comprehend! But you have not glorified the God who has in his control ⁴⁶  your very breath and all your ways!

Obaja 1:3-4

1:3 Your presumptuous heart ⁴⁷  has deceived you –

you who reside in the safety of the rocky cliffs, ⁴⁸ 

whose home is high in the mountains. ⁴⁹ 

You think to yourself, ⁵⁰ 

‘No one can ⁵¹  bring me down to the ground!’ ⁵² 

1:4 Even if you were to soar high like an eagle, ⁵³ 

even if you ⁵⁴  were to make your nest among the stars,

I can bring you down even from there!” says the Lord.

Maleakhi 4:1

4:1 (3:19) ⁵⁵  “For indeed the day ⁵⁶  is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the arrogant evildoers will be chaff. The coming day will burn them up,” says the Lord who rules over all. “It ⁵⁷  will not leave even a root or branch.

Lukas 18:14

18:14 I tell you that this man went down to his home justified ⁵⁸  rather than the Pharisee. ⁵⁹  For everyone who exalts ⁶⁰  himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Kisah Para Rasul 12:22-23

12:22 But the crowd ⁶¹  began to shout, ⁶²  “The voice of a god, ⁶³  and not of a man!” 12:23 Immediately an angel of the Lord ⁶⁴  struck ⁶⁵  Herod ⁶⁶  down because he did not give the glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died. ⁶⁷ 

Yakobus 4:6

4:6 But he gives greater grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.” ⁶⁸ 

Yakobus 4:1

Passions and Pride

4:1 Where do the conflicts and where ⁶⁹  do the quarrels among you come from? Is it not from this, ⁷⁰  from your passions that battle inside you? ⁷¹ 

Pengkhotbah 5:5-6

5:5 It is better for you not to vow

than to vow and not pay it. ⁷² 

5:6 Do not let your mouth cause you ⁷³  to sin,

and do not tell the priest, ⁷⁴  “It was a mistake!” ⁷⁵ 

Why make God angry at you ⁷⁶ 

so that he would destroy the work of your hands?”

[9:16]  ¹ tn The first word is a very strong adversative, which, in general, can be translated “but, howbeit”; BDB 19 s.v. אוּלָם suggests for this passage “but in very deed.”

[9:16]  ² tn The form הֶעֱמַדְתִּיךָ (he’emadtikha) is the Hiphil perfect of עָמַד (’amad). It would normally mean “I caused you to stand.” But that seems to have one or two different connotations. S. R. Driver (Exodus, 73) says that it means “maintain you alive.” The causative of this verb means “continue,” according to him. The LXX has the same basic sense – “you were preserved.” But Paul bypasses the Greek and writes “he raised you up” to show God’s absolute sovereignty over Pharaoh. Both renderings show God’s sovereign control over Pharaoh.

[9:16]  ³ tn The Hiphil infinitive construct הַרְאֹתְךָ (har’otÿkha) is the purpose of God’s making Pharaoh come to power in the first place. To make Pharaoh see is to cause him to understand, to experience God’s power.

[9:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “in order to declare my name.” Since there is no expressed subject, this may be given a passive translation.

[9:17]  ⁵ tn מִסְתּוֹלֵל (mistolel) is a Hitpael participle, from a root that means “raise up, obstruct.” So in the Hitpael it means to “raise oneself up,” “elevate oneself,” or “be an obstructionist.” See W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:363; U. Cassuto, Exodus, 116.

[9:17]  ⁶ tn The infinitive construct with lamed here is epexegetical; it explains how Pharaoh has exalted himself – “by not releasing the people.”

[15:6]  ⁷ tn The form נֶאְדָּרִי (ne’dari) may be an archaic infinitive with the old ending i, used in place of the verb and meaning “awesome.” Gesenius says that the vowel ending may be an old case ending, especially when a preposition is inserted between the word and its genitive (GKC 253 §90.l), but he suggests a reconstruction of the form.

[18:11]  ⁸ tn The end of this sentence seems not to have been finished, or it is very elliptical. In the present translation the phrase “he has destroyed them” is supplied. Others take the last prepositional phrase to be the completion and supply only a verb: “[he was] above them.” U. Cassuto (Exodus, 216) takes the word “gods” to be the subject of the verb “act proudly,” giving the sense of “precisely (כִּי, ki) in respect of these things of which the gods of Egypt boasted – He is greater than they (עֲלֵיהֶם, ‘alehem).” He suggests rendering the clause, “excelling them in the very things to which they laid claim.”

[2:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “and the eyes of the pride of men will be brought low, and the arrogance of men will be brought down.” The repetition of the verbs שָׁפַל (shafal) and שָׁחָח (shakhakh) from v. 9 draws attention to the appropriate nature of the judgment. Those proud men who “bow low” before idols will be forced to “bow low” before God when he judges their sin.

[2:11]  ¹⁰ tn Or “elevated”; CEV “honored.”

[2:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “indeed [or “for”] the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts] has a day.”

[2:12]  ¹² tn Or “against” (NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[2:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “and the pride of men will be brought down, and the arrogance of men will be brought low.” As in v. 11, the repetition of the verbs שָׁפַל (shafal) and שָׁחָח (shakhakh) from v. 9 draws attention to the appropriate nature of the judgment. Those proud men who “bow low” before idols will be forced to “bow low” before God when he judges their sin.

[2:17]  ¹⁴ tn Or “elevated”; NCV “praised”; CEV “honored.”

[10:12]  ¹⁵ tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[10:12]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in vv. 16, 23, 24, 33 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[10:12]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “his work on/against.” Cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV “on”; NIV “against.”

[10:12]  ¹⁸ tn The Lord is speaking here, as in vv. 5-6a.

[10:12]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “I will visit [judgment] on the fruit of the greatness of the heart of the king of Assyria, and on the glory of the height of his eyes.” The proud Assyrian king is likened to a large, beautiful fruit tree.

[10:13]  ²⁰ tn Heb “removed the borders of nations”; cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV “boundaries.”

[10:13]  ²¹ tc The consonantal text (Kethib) has כְּאַבִּיר (kÿ’abir, “like a strong one”); the marginal reading (Qere) is כַּבִיר (kavir, “mighty one”).

[10:13]  ²² tn Heb “and I brought down, like a strong one, ones sitting [or “living”].” The participle יוֹשְׁבִים (yoshÿvim, “ones sitting”) could refer to the inhabitants of the nations, but the translation assumes that it refers to those who sit on thrones, i.e., rulers. See BDB 442 s.v. יָשַׁב and HALOT 444 s.v. ישׁב.

[10:14]  ²³ sn The Assyrians’ conquests were relatively unopposed, like robbing a bird’s nest of its eggs when the mother bird is absent.

[10:15]  ²⁴ tn Heb “the one who pushes it back and forth”; KJV “him that shaketh it”; ASV “him that wieldeth it.”

[10:16]  ²⁵ sn The irrational arrogance of the Assyrians (v. 15) will prompt the judgment about to be described.

[10:16]  ²⁶ tn Heb “will send leanness against his healthy ones”; NASB, NIV “will send a wasting disease.”

[10:16]  ²⁷ tc Heb “and in the place of his glory burning will burn, like the burning of fire.” The highly repetitive text (יֵקַד יְקֹד כִּיקוֹד אֵשׁ, yeqad yiqod kiqod ’esh) may be dittographic; if the second consonantal sequence יקד is omitted, the text would read “and in the place of his glory, it will burn like the burning of fire.”

[10:17]  ²⁸ tn In this context the “Light of Israel” is a divine title (note the parallel title “his holy one”). The title points to God’s royal splendor, which overshadows and, when transformed into fire, destroys the “majestic glory” of the king of Assyria (v. 16b).

[10:17]  ²⁹ sn See the note on the phrase “the Holy One of Israel” in 1:4.

[10:17]  ³⁰ tn Heb “his.” In vv. 17-19 the Assyrian king and his empire is compared to a great forest and orchard that are destroyed by fire (symbolic of the Lord).

[10:18]  ³¹ tn Heb “from breath to flesh it will destroy.” The expression “from breath to flesh” refers to the two basic components of a person, the immaterial (life’s breath) and the material (flesh). Here the phrase is used idiomatically to indicate totality.

[10:18]  ³² tn The precise meaning of this line is uncertain. מָסַס (masas), which is used elsewhere of substances dissolving or melting, may here mean “waste away” or “despair.” נָסַס (nasas), which appears only here, may mean “be sick” or “stagger, despair.” See BDB 651 s.v. I נָסַס and HALOT 703 s.v. I נסס. One might translate the line literally, “like the wasting away of one who is sick” (cf. NRSV “as when an invalid wastes away”).

[10:19]  ³³ tn Heb “and the rest of the trees of his forest will be counted, and a child will record them.”

[28:2]  ³⁴ tn Or “ruler” (NIV, NCV).

[28:2]  ³⁵ tn Heb “lifted up.”

[28:2]  sn See Prov 16:5.

[28:2]  ³⁶ tn Or “I am divine.”

[28:2]  ³⁷ tn Heb “and you made your heart (mind) like the heart (mind) of gods.”

[4:37]  ³⁸ tn Aram “walk.”

[5:20]  ³⁹ tn Aram “heart.”

[5:20]  ⁴⁰ sn The point of describing Nebuchadnezzar as arrogant is that he had usurped divine prerogatives, and because of his immense arrogance God had dealt decisively with him.

[5:21]  ⁴¹ tn Aram “heart.”

[5:21]  ⁴² tn Aram “his dwelling.”

[5:22]  ⁴³ tn Or “descendant”; or “successor.”

[5:22]  ⁴⁴ tn Aram “your heart.”

[5:23]  ⁴⁵ tn Aram “which.”

[5:23]  ⁴⁶ tn Aram “in whose hand [are].”

[1:3]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “the presumption of your heart”; NAB, NIV “the pride of your heart”; NASB “arrogance of your heart.”

[1:3]  ⁴⁸ tn Heb “in the concealed places of the rock”; KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “in the clefts of the rock”; NCV “the hollow places of the cliff”; CEV “a mountain fortress.”

[1:3]  sn The word rock in Hebrew (סֶלַע, sela’) is a wordplay on Sela, the name of a prominent Edomite city. Its impregnability was a cause for arrogance on the part of its ancient inhabitants.

[1:3]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “on high (is) his dwelling”; NASB “in the loftiness of your dwelling place”; NRSV “whose dwelling (abode NAB) is in the heights.”

[1:3]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “the one who says in his heart.”

[1:3]  ⁵¹ tn The Hebrew imperfect verb used here is best understood in a modal sense (“Who can bring me down?”) rather than in the sense of a simple future (“Who will bring me down?”). So also in v. 4 (“I can bring you down”). The question is not so much whether this will happen at some time in the future, but whether it even lies in the realm of possible events. In their hubris the Edomites were boasting that no one had the capability of breaching their impregnable defenses. However, their pride caused them to fail to consider the vast capabilities of Yahweh as warrior.

[1:3]  ⁵² tn Heb “Who can bring me down?” This rhetorical question implies a negative answer: “No one!”

[1:4]  ⁵³ sn The eagle was often used in the ancient Near East as a symbol of strength and swiftness.

[1:4]  ⁵⁴ tc The present translation follows the reading תָּשִׂים (tasim; active) rather than שִׁים (sim; passive) of the MT (“and your nest be set among the stars,” NAB). Cf. LXX, Syriac, Vg.

[4:1]  ⁵⁵ sn Beginning with 4:1, the verse numbers through 4:6 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 4:1 ET = 3:19 HT, 4:2 ET = 3:20 HT, etc., through 4:6 ET = 3:24 HT. Thus the book of Malachi in the Hebrew Bible has only three chapters, with 24 verses in ch. 3.

[4:1]  ⁵⁶ sn This day is the well-known “day of the Lord” so pervasive in OT eschatological texts (see Joel 2:30-31; Amos 5:18; Obad 15). For the believer it is a day of grace and salvation; for the sinner, a day of judgment and destruction.

[4:1]  ⁵⁷ tn Heb “so that it” (so NASB, NRSV). For stylistic reasons a new sentence was begun here in the translation.

[18:14]  ⁵⁸ sn The prayer that was heard and honored was the one given with humility; in a surprising reversal it was the tax collector who went down to his home justified.

[18:14]  ⁵⁹ tn Grk “the other”; the referent (the Pharisee, v. 10) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:14]  ⁶⁰ sn Everyone who exalts himself. See Luke 14:11. Jesus often called for humility and condemned those who sought honor.

[12:22]  ⁶¹ tn The translation “crowd” is given by BDAG 223 s.v. δῆμος; the word often means a gathering of citizens to conduct public business. Here it is simply the group of people gathered to hear the king’s speech.

[12:22]  ⁶² tn The imperfect verb ἐπεφώνει (epefwnei) is taken ingressively in the sequence of events. Presumably the king had started his speech when the crowd began shouting.

[12:22]  ⁶³ sn The voice of a god. Contrast the response of Paul and Barnabas in Acts 14:13-15.

[12:23]  ⁶⁴ tn Or “the angel of the Lord.” See the note on the word “Lord” in 5:19.

[12:23]  ⁶⁵ sn On being struck…down by an angel, see Acts 23:3; 1 Sam 25:28; 2 Sam 12:15; 2 Kgs 19:35; 2 Chr 13:20; 2 Macc 9:5.

[12:23]  ⁶⁶ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Herod) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:23]  ⁶⁷ sn He was eaten by worms and died. Josephus, Ant. 19.8.2 (19.343-352), states that Herod Agrippa I died at Caesarea in a.d. 44. The account by Josephus, while not identical to Luke’s account, is similar in many respects: On the second day of a festival, Herod Agrippa appeared in the theater with a robe made of silver. When it sparkled in the sun, the people cried out flatteries and declared him to be a god. The king, carried away by the flattery, saw an owl (an omen of death) sitting on a nearby rope, and immediately was struck with severe stomach pains. He was carried off to his house and died five days later. The two accounts can be reconciled without difficulty, since while Luke states that Herod was immediately struck down by an angel, his death could have come several days later. The mention of worms with death adds a humiliating note to the scene. The formerly powerful ruler had been thoroughly reduced to nothing (cf. Jdt 16:17; 2 Macc 9:9; cf. also Josephus, Ant. 17.6.5 [17.168-170], which details the sickness which led to Herod the Great’s death).

[4:6]  ⁶⁸ sn A quotation from Prov 3:34.

[4:1]  ⁶⁹ tn The word “where” is repeated in Greek for emphasis.

[4:1]  ⁷⁰ tn Grk “from here.”

[4:1]  ⁷¹ tn Grk “in your members [i.e., parts of the body].”

[5:5]  ⁷² tn The word “it” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[5:6]  ⁷³ tn Heb “your flesh.” The term בָּשָׂר (basar, “flesh”) is a synecdoche of part (i.e., flesh) for the whole (i.e., whole person), e.g., Gen 2:21; 6:12; Ps 56:4[5]; 65:2[3]; 145:21; Isa 40:5, 6; see HALOT 164 s.v. בָּשָׂר; E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 642.

[5:6]  ⁷⁴ tc The MT reads הַמַּלְאָךְ (hammal’akh, “messenger”), while the LXX reads τοῦ θεοῦ (tou qeou, “God”) which reflects an alternate textual tradition of הָאֱלֹהִים (ha’elohim, “God”). The textual problem was caused by orthographic confusion between similarly spelled words. The LXX might have been trying to make sense of a difficult expression. The MT is preferred as the original. All the major translations follow the MT except for Moffatt (“God”).

[5:6]  tn Heb “the messenger.” The term מַלְאָךְ (mal’akh, “messenger”) refers to a temple priest (e.g., Mal 2:7; cf. HALOT 585 s.v. מַלְאָךְ 2.b; BDB 521 s.v. מַלְאָךְ 1.c). The priests recorded what Israelite worshipers vowed (Lev 27:14-15). When an Israelite delayed in fulfilling a vow, a priest would remind him to pay what he had vowed. Although the traditional rabbinic view is that Qoheleth refers to an angelic superintendent over the temple, Rashi suggested that it is a temple-official. Translations reflect both views: “his representative” (NAB), “the temple messenger” (NIV), “the messenger” (RSV, NRSV, NASB, MLB, NJPS), “the angel” (KJV, ASV, Douay) and “the angel of God” (NEB).

[5:6]  ⁷⁵ tn The Hebrew noun שְׁגָגָה (shÿgagah) denotes “error; mistake” and refers to a sin of inadvertence or unintentional sin (e.g., Lev 4:2, 22, 27; 5:18; 22:14; Num 15:24-29; 35:11, 15; Josh 20:3, 9; Eccl 5:5; 10:5); see HALOT 1412 s.v. שְׁגָגָה; BDB 993 s.v. שְׁגָגָה. In this case, it refers to a rash vow thoughtlessly made, which the foolish worshiper claims was a mistake (e.g., Prov 20:25).

[5:6]  ⁷⁶ tn Heb “at your voice.” This is an example of metonymy (i.e., your voice) of association (i.e., you).