Isaiah 23:9

23:9 The Lord who commands armies planned it –

to dishonor the pride that comes from all her beauty, ¹ 

to humiliate all the dignitaries of the earth.

Proverbs 6:16-17

6:16 There are six things that the Lord hates,

even ²  seven ³  things that are an abomination to him: ⁴ 

6:17 haughty eyes, ⁵  a lying tongue, ⁶ 

and hands that shed innocent blood, ⁷ 

Proverbs 16:5

16:5 The Lord abhors ⁸  every arrogant person; ⁹ 

rest assured ¹⁰  that they will not go unpunished. ¹¹ 

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 ¹²  in pride.

Daniel 5:20-24

5:20 And when his mind ¹³  became arrogant ¹⁴  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 ¹⁵  was changed to that of an animal, he lived ¹⁶  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 ¹⁷  Belshazzar, have not humbled yourself, ¹⁸  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 ¹⁹  that cannot see or hear or comprehend! But you have not glorified the God who has in his control ²⁰  your very breath and all your ways! 5:24 Therefore the palm of a hand was sent from him, and this writing was inscribed.

Matthew 23:12

23:12 And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Luke 14:11

14:11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but ²¹  the one who humbles ²²  himself will be exalted.”

James 4:6

4:6 But he gives greater grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.” ²³ 

¹ tn Heb “the pride of all the beauty.”

² tn The conjunction has the explicative use here (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 71, §434).

³ sn This saying involves a numerical ladder, paralleling six things with seven things (e.g., also 30:15, 18, 21, 24, 29). The point of such a numerical arrangement is that the number does not exhaust the list (W. M. Roth, “The Numerical Sequence x / x +1 in the Old Testament,” VT 12 [1962]: 300-311; and his “Numerical Sayings in the Old Testament,” VT 13 [1965]: 86).

⁴ tn Heb “his soul.”

⁵ sn The expression “high/ lofty [רָמוֹת, ramot] eyes” refers to a proud look suggesting arrogant ambition (cf. NCV “a proud look”). The use of “eyes” is a metonymy of adjunct, the look in the eyes accompanying the attitude. This term “high” is used in Num 15:30 for the sin of the “high hand,” i.e., willful rebellion or defiant sin. The usage of “haughty eyes” may be illustrated by its use with the pompous Assyrian invader (Isa 10:12-14) and the proud king of the book of Daniel (11:12). God does not tolerate anyone who thinks so highly of himself and who has such ambition.

⁶ tn Heb “a tongue of deception.” The genitive noun functions attributively. The term “tongue” functions as a metonymy. The term is used of false prophets who deceive (Jer 14:14), and of a deceiver who betrays (Ps 109:2). The Lord hates deceptive speech because it is destructive (26:28).

⁷ sn The hands are the instruments of murder (metonymy of cause), and God hates bloodshed. Gen 9:6 prohibited shedding blood because people are the image of God. Even David being a man of blood (in war mostly) was not permitted to build the Temple (1 Chr 22:8). But shedding innocent blood was a greater crime – it usually went with positions of power, such as King Manasseh filling the streets with blood (2 Kgs 21:16), or princes doing it for gain (Ezek 22:27).

⁸ tn Heb “an abomination of the Lord.” The term יְהוָה (yÿhvah, “the Lord”) is a subjective genitive: “the Lord abhors.”

⁹ tn Heb “every proud of heart”; NIV “all the proud of heart.” “Heart” is the genitive of specification; the phrase is talking about people who have proud hearts, whose ideas are arrogant. These are people who set themselves presumptuously against God (e.g., 2 Chr 26:16; Ps 131:1; Prov 18:12).

¹⁰ tn Heb “hand to hand.” This idiom means “you can be assured” (e.g., Prov 11:21).

¹¹ tc The LXX has inserted two couplets here: “The beginning of a good way is to do justly, // and it is more acceptable with God than to do sacrifices; // he who seeks the Lord will find knowledge with righteousness, // and they who rightly seek him will find peace.” C. H. Toy reminds the reader that there were many proverbs in existence that sounded similar to those in the book of Proverbs; these lines are in the Greek OT as well as in Sirach (Proverbs [ICC], 321-22).

¹² tn Aram “walk.”

¹³ tn Aram “heart.”

¹⁴ 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.

¹⁵ tn Aram “heart.”

¹⁶ tn Aram “his dwelling.”

¹⁷ tn Or “descendant”; or “successor.”

¹⁸ tn Aram “your heart.”

¹⁹ tn Aram “which.”

²⁰ tn Aram “in whose hand [are].”

²¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context, which involves the reversal of expected roles.

²² sn The point of the statement the one who humbles himself will be exalted is humility and the reversal imagery used to underline it is common: Luke 1:52-53; 6:21; 10:15; 18:14.

²³ sn A quotation from Prov 3:34.