1 Kings 8:27

8:27 “God does not really live on the earth! ¹  Look, if the sky and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this temple I have built!

Job 25:5-6

25:5 If even the moon is not bright,

and the stars are not pure as far as he is concerned, ² 

25:6 how much less a mortal man, who is but a maggot ³  –

a son of man, who is only a worm!”

Matthew 25:24

25:24 Then the one who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Sir, I knew that you were a hard man, harvesting where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed,

¹ tn Heb “Indeed, can God really live on the earth?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course not,” the force of which the translation above seeks to reflect.

² tn Heb “not pure in his eyes.”

³ tn The text just has “maggot” and in the second half “worm.” Something has to be added to make it a bit clearer. The terms “maggot” and “worm” describe man in his lowest and most ignominious shape.