Yesaya 2:9

2:9 Men bow down to them in homage,

they lie flat on the ground in worship. ¹ 

Don’t spare them! ² 

Yesaya 2:11

2:11 Proud men will be brought low,

arrogant men will be humiliated; ³ 

the Lord alone will be exalted ⁴ 

in that day.

Yesaya 2:17

2:17 Proud men will be humiliated,

arrogant men will be brought low; ⁵ 

the Lord alone will be exalted ⁶ 

in that day.

Yesaya 9:14-17

9:14 So the Lord cut off Israel’s head and tail,

both the shoots and stalk ⁷  in one day.

9:15 The leaders and the highly respected people ⁸  are the head,

the prophets who teach lies are the tail.

9:16 The leaders of this nation were misleading people,

and the people being led were destroyed. ⁹ 

9:17 So the sovereign master was not pleased ¹⁰  with their young men,

he took no pity ¹¹  on their orphans and widows;

for the whole nation was godless ¹²  and did wicked things, ¹³ 

every mouth was speaking disgraceful words. ¹⁴ 

Despite all this, his anger does not subside,

and his hand is ready to strike again. ¹⁵ 

Yesaya 24:2-4

24:2 Everyone will suffer – the priest as well as the people, ¹⁶ 

the master as well as the servant, ¹⁷ 

the elegant lady as well as the female attendant, ¹⁸ 

the seller as well as the buyer, ¹⁹ 

the borrower as well as the lender, ²⁰ 

the creditor as well as the debtor. ²¹ 

24:3 The earth will be completely devastated

and thoroughly ransacked.

For the Lord has decreed this judgment. ²² 

24:4 The earth ²³  dries up ²⁴  and withers,

the world shrivels up and withers;

the prominent people of the earth ²⁵  fade away.

Mazmur 62:9

62:9 Men are nothing but a mere breath;

human beings are unreliable. ²⁶ 

When they are weighed in the scales,

all of them together are lighter than air. ²⁷ 

Yeremia 5:4-5

5:4 I thought, “Surely it is only the ignorant poor who act this way. ²⁸ 

They act like fools because they do not know what the Lord demands. ²⁹ 

They do not know what their God requires of them. ³⁰ 

5:5 I will go to the leaders ³¹ 

and speak with them.

Surely they know what the Lord demands. ³² 

Surely they know what their God requires of them.” ³³ 

Yet all of them, too, have rejected his authority

and refuse to submit to him. ³⁴ 

Yeremia 5:9

5:9 I will surely punish them for doing such things!” says the Lord.

“I will surely bring retribution on such a nation as this!” ³⁵ 

Yakobus 1:9-11

1:9 Now the believer ³⁶  of humble means ³⁷  should take pride ³⁸  in his high position. ³⁹  1:10 But the rich person’s pride should be in his humiliation, because he will pass away like a wildflower in the meadow. ⁴⁰  1:11 For the sun rises with its heat and dries up the meadow; the petal of the flower falls off and its beauty is lost forever. ⁴¹  So also the rich person in the midst of his pursuits will wither away.

Wahyu 6:15-16

6:15 Then ⁴²  the kings of the earth, the ⁴³  very important people, the generals, ⁴⁴  the rich, the powerful, and everyone, slave ⁴⁵  and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 6:16 They ⁴⁶  said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, ⁴⁷ 

[2:9]  ¹ tn Heb “men bow down, men are low.” Since the verbs שָׁחָח (shakhakh) and שָׁפַל (shafal) are used later in this discourse to describe how God will humiliate proud men (see vv. 11, 17), some understand v. 9a as a prediction of judgment, “men will be brought down, men will be humiliated.” However, these prefixed verbal forms with vav (ו) consecutive appear to carry on the description that precedes and are better taken with the accusation. They draw attention to the fact that human beings actually bow down and worship before the lifeless products of their own hands.

[2:9]  ² tn Heb “don’t lift them up.” The idiom “lift up” (נָשָׂא with לְ, nasa’ with preposition lamed) can mean “spare, forgive” (see Gen 18:24, 26). Here the idiom plays on the preceding verbs. The idolaters are bowed low as they worship their false gods; the prophet asks God not to “lift them up.”

[2:11]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Or “elevated”; CEV “honored.”

[2:17]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Or “elevated”; NCV “praised”; CEV “honored.”

[9:14]  ⁷ sn The metaphor in this line is that of a reed being cut down.

[9:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “the elder and the one lifted up with respect to the face.” For another example of the Hebrew idiom, see 2 Kgs 5:1.

[9:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “and the ones being led were swallowed up.” Instead of taking מְבֻלָּעִים (mÿbulla’im) from בָּלַע (bala’, “to swallow”), HALOT 134 s.v. בלע proposes a rare homonymic root בלע (“confuse”) here.

[9:17]  ¹⁰ tn The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has לא יחמול (“he did not spare”) which is an obvious attempt to tighten the parallelism (note “he took no pity” in the next line). Instead of taking שָׂמַח (samakh) in one of its well attested senses (“rejoice over, be pleased with”), some propose, with support from Arabic, a rare homonymic root meaning “be merciful.”

[9:17]  ¹¹ tn The translation understands the prefixed verbs יִשְׂמַח (yismakh) and יְרַחֵם (yÿrakhem) as preterites without vav (ו) consecutive. (See v. 11 and the note on “he stirred up.”)

[9:17]  ¹² tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “profaned”; NIV “ungodly.”

[9:17]  ¹³ tn מֵרַע (mera’) is a Hiphil participle from רָעַע (ra’a’, “be evil”). The intransitive Hiphil has an exhibitive force here, indicating that they exhibited outwardly the evidence of an inward condition by committing evil deeds.

[9:17]  ¹⁴ tn Or “foolishness” (NASB), here in a moral-ethical sense.

[9:17]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “in all this his anger is not turned, and still his hand is outstretched.”

[9:17]  sn See the note at 9:12.

[24:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and it will be like the people, like the priest.”

[24:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “like the servant, like his master.”

[24:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “like the female servant, like her mistress.”

[24:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “like the buyer, like the seller.”

[24:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “like the lender, like the borrower.”

[24:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “like the creditor, just as the one to whom he lends.”

[24:3]  ²² tn Heb “for the Lord has spoken this word.”

[24:4]  ²³ tn Some prefer to read “land” here, but the word pair אֶרֶץ/תֵּבֵל (erets/tevel [see the corresponding term in the parallel line]) elsewhere clearly designates the earth/world (see 1 Sam 2:8; 1 Chr 16:30; Job 37;12; Pss 19:4; 24:1; 33:8; 89:11; 90:2; 96:13; 98:9; Prov 8:26, 31; Isa 14:16-17; 34:1; Jer 10:12; 51:15; Lam 4:12). According to L. Stadelmann, תבל designates “the habitable part of the world” (The Hebrew Conception of the World [AnBib], 130).

[24:4]  ²⁴ tn Or “mourns” (BDB 5 s.v. אָבַל). HALOT 6-7 lists the homonyms I אבל (“mourn”) and II אבל (“dry up”). They propose the second here on the basis of parallelism.

[24:4]  ²⁵ tn Heb “the height of the people of the earth.” The translation assumes an emendation of the singular form מְרוֹם (mÿrom, “height of”) to the plural construct מְרֹמֵי (mÿrome, “high ones of”; note the plural verb at the beginning of the line), and understands the latter as referring to the prominent people of human society.

[62:9]  ²⁶ tn Heb “only a breath [are] the sons of mankind, a lie [are] the sons of man.” The phrases “sons of mankind” and “sons of man” also appear together in Ps 49:2. Because of the parallel line there, where “rich and poor” are mentioned, a number of interpreters and translators treat these expressions as polar opposites, בְּנֵי אָדָם (bÿney ’adam) referring to the lower classes and בְּנֵי אִישׁ (bÿney ’ish) to higher classes. But usage does not support such a view. The rare phrase בְּנֵי אִישׁ (“sons of man”) appears to refer to human beings in general in its other uses (see Pss 4:2; Lam 3:33). It is better to understand the phrases as synonymous expressions.

[62:9]  ²⁷ tn The noun הֶבֶל (hevel), translated “a breath” earlier in the verse, appears again here.

[5:4]  ²⁸ tn Heb “Surely they are poor.” The translation is intended to make clear the explicit contrasts and qualifications drawn in this verse and the next.

[5:4]  ²⁹ tn Heb “the way of the Lord.”

[5:4]  ³⁰ tn Heb “the judgment [or ordinance] of their God.”

[5:5]  ³¹ tn Or “people in power”; Heb “the great ones.”

[5:5]  ³² tn Heb “the way of the Lord.”

[5:5]  ³³ tn Heb “the judgment [or ordinance] of their God.”

[5:5]  ³⁴ tn Heb “have broken the yoke and torn off the yoke ropes.” Compare Jer 2:20 and the note there.

[5:9]  ³⁵ tn Heb “Should I not punish them…? Should I not bring retribution…?” The rhetorical questions have the force of strong declarations.

[1:9]  ³⁶ tn Grk “brother.” Here the term “brother” means “fellow believer” or “fellow Christian” (cf. TEV, NLT “Christians”; CEV “God’s people”). The term broadly connotes familial relationships within the family of God (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 2.a).

[1:9]  ³⁷ tn Grk “the lowly brother,” but “lowly/humble” is clarified in context by the contrast with “wealthy” in v. 10.

[1:9]  ³⁸ tn Grk “let him boast.”

[1:9]  ³⁹ tn Grk “his height,” “his exaltation.”

[1:10]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “a flower of grass.”

[1:11]  ⁴¹ tn Or “perishes,” “is destroyed.”

[6:15]  ⁴² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[6:15]  ⁴³ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated; nor is it translated before each of the following categories, since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

[6:15]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “chiliarchs.” A chiliarch was normally a military officer commanding a thousand soldiers, but here probably used of higher-ranking commanders like generals (see L&N 55.15; cf. Rev 6:15).

[6:15]  ⁴⁵ tn See the note on the word “servants” in 1:1.

[6:16]  ⁴⁶ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation. Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[6:16]  ⁴⁷ tn It is difficult to say where this quotation ends. The translation ends it after “withstand it” at the end of v. 17, but it is possible that it should end here, after “Lamb” at the end of v. 16. If it ends after “Lamb,” v. 17 is a parenthetical explanation by the author.