1 Kings 20:10-11

20:10 Ben Hadad sent another message to him, “May the gods judge me severely ¹  if there is enough dirt left in Samaria for my soldiers to scoop up in their hands.” ²  20:11 The king of Israel replied, “Tell him the one who puts on his battle gear should not boast like one who is taking it off.” ³ 

Proverbs 18:12

18:12 Before destruction the heart ⁴  of a person is proud,

but humility comes ⁵  before honor. ⁶ 

Ecclesiastes 9:11-12

Wisdom Cannot Protect against Seemingly Chance Events

9:11 Again, ⁷  I observed this on the earth: ⁸ 

the race is not always ⁹  won by the swiftest,

the battle is not always won by the strongest;

prosperity ¹⁰  does not always belong to those who are the wisest,

wealth does not always belong to those who are the most discerning,

nor does success ¹¹  always come to those with the most knowledge –

for time and chance may overcome ¹²  them all.

9:12 Surely, no one ¹³  knows his appointed time! ¹⁴ 

Like fish that are caught in a deadly ¹⁵  net, and like birds that are caught in a snare –

just like them, all people ¹⁶  are ensnared ¹⁷  at an unfortunate ¹⁸  time that falls upon them suddenly.

Jeremiah 9:23

9:23 ¹⁹ The Lord says,

“Wise people should not boast that they are wise.

Powerful people should not boast that they are powerful. ²⁰ 

Rich people should not boast that they are rich. ²¹ 

Ezekiel 28:2

28:2 “Son of man, say to the prince ²²  of Tyre, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:

“‘Your heart is proud ²³  and you said, “I am a god; ²⁴ 

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. ²⁵ 

Ezekiel 28:9-10

28:9 Will you still say, “I am a god,” before the one who kills you –

though you are a man and not a god –

when you are in the power of those who wound you?

28:10 You will die the death of the uncircumcised ²⁶  by the hand of foreigners;

for I have spoken, declares the sovereign Lord.’”

Ezekiel 39:17-20

39:17 “As for you, son of man, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Tell every kind of bird and every wild beast: ‘Assemble and come! Gather from all around to my slaughter ²⁷  which I am going to make for you, a great slaughter on the mountains of Israel! You will eat flesh and drink blood. 39:18 You will eat the flesh of warriors ²⁸  and drink the blood of the princes of the earth – the rams, lambs, goats, and bulls, all of them fattened animals of Bashan. 39:19 You will eat fat until you are full, and drink blood until you are drunk, ²⁹  at my slaughter ³⁰  which I have made for you. 39:20 You will fill up at my table with horses and charioteers, ³¹  with warriors and all the soldiers,’ declares the sovereign Lord.

[20:10]  ¹ tn Heb “So may the gods do to me, and so may they add.”

[20:10]  ² tn Heb “if the dirt of Samaria suffices for the handfuls of all the people who are at my feet.”

[20:11]  ³ sn The point of the saying is that someone who is still preparing for a battle should not boast as if he has already won the battle. A modern parallel would be, “Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched.”

[18:12]  ⁴ sn The term “heart” is a metonymy of subject, referring to the seat of the spiritual and intellectual capacities – the mind, the will, the motivations and intentions. Proud ambitions and intentions will lead to a fall.

[18:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “[is] before honor”; cf. CEV “humility leads to honor.”

[18:12]  ⁶ sn The way to honor is through humility (e.g., Prov 11:2; 15:33; 16:18). The humility and exaltation of Jesus provides the classic example (Phil 2:1-10).

[9:11]  ⁷ tn Heb “I returned and.” In the Hebrew idiom, “to return and do” means “to do again.”

[9:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “under the sun.”

[9:11]  ⁹ tn The term “always” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation (five times in this verse) for clarity.

[9:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “bread.”

[9:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “favor.”

[9:11]  ¹² tn Heb “happen to.”

[9:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “man.” The term is used here in a generic sense and translated “no one.”

[9:12]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “time.” BDB 773 s.v. עֵת 2.d suggests that עֵת (’et, “time”) refers to an “uncertain time.” On the other hand, HALOT 901 s.v. עֵת 6 nuances it as “destined time,” that is, “no one knows his destined time [i.e., hour of destiny].” It is used in parallelism with זְמָן (zÿman, “appointed time; appointed hour”) in 3:1 (HALOT 273 s.v. זְמָן; BDB 273 s.v. זְמָן). Eccl 3:9-15 teaches God’s sovereignty over the appointed time-table of human events. Similarly, Qoheleth here notes that no one knows what God has appointed in any situation or time. This highlights the limitations of human wisdom and human ability, as 9:11 stresses.

[9:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “bad, evil.” The moral connotation hardly fits here. The adjective would seem to indicate that the net is the instrument whereby the fish come to ruin.

[9:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the sons of man.”

[9:12]  ¹⁷ tn The Masoretes pointed the consonantal form יוקשׁים (“are ensnared”) as יוּקָשִׁים (yuqashim, Pual participle mpl from ַָיקֹשׁ, yaqosh, “to be ensnared”). This is an unusual form for a Pual participle: (1) The characteristic doubling of the middle consonant was omitted due to the lengthening of the preceding short vowel from יֻקָּשִׁים to יוּקָשִׁים (GKC 74 §20.n and 143 §52.s), and (2) The characteristic prefix מְ (mem) is absent, as in a few other Pual participles, e.g., Exod 3:2; Judg 13:8; 2 Kgs 2:10; Isa 30:24; 54:11 (GKC 143 §52.s). On the other hand, the consonant form יוקשים might actually be an example of the old Qal passive participle which dropped out of Hebrew at an early stage, and was frequently mistaken by the Masoretes as a Pual form (e.g., Jer 13:10; 23:32) (GKC 143 §52.s). Similarly, the Masoretes pointed אכל as אֻכָּל (’ukkal, Pual perfect 3rd person masculine singular “he was eaten”); however, it probably should be pointed אֻכַל (’ukhal, old Qal passive perfect 3rd person masculine singular “he was eaten”) because אָכַל (’akhal) only occurs in the Qal (see IBHS 373-74 §22.6a).

[9:12]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “evil.” The term רָעָה (ra’ah, “evil; unfortunate”) is repeated in v. 12 in the two parts of the comparison: “fish are caught in an evil (רָעָה) net” and “men are ensnared at an unfortunate (רָעָה) time.”

[9:23]  ¹⁹ sn It is not always clear why verses were placed in their present position in the editorial process of collecting Jeremiah’s sermons and the words the Lord spoke to him (see Jer 36:4, 32 for reference to two of these collections). Here it is probable that vv. 23-26 were added as a further answer to the question raised in v. 12.

[9:23]  ²⁰ tn Or “Strong people should not brag that they are strong.”

[9:23]  ²¹ tn Heb “…in their wisdom…in their power…in their riches.”

[28:2]  ²² tn Or “ruler” (NIV, NCV).

[28:2]  ²³ tn Heb “lifted up.”

[28:2]  ²⁴ tn Or “I am divine.”

[28:2]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and you made your heart (mind) like the heart (mind) of gods.”

[28:10]  ²⁶ sn The Phoenicians practiced circumcision, so the language here must be figurative, indicating that they would be treated in a disgraceful manner. Uncircumcised peoples were viewed as inferior, unclean, and perhaps even sub-human. See 31:18 and 32:17-32, as well as the discussion in D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:99.

[39:17]  ²⁷ tn Or “sacrifice” (so also in the rest of this verse).

[39:18]  ²⁸ sn See Rev 19:17-18.

[39:19]  ²⁹ sn Eating the fat and drinking blood were God’s exclusive rights in Israelite sacrifices (Lev 3:17).

[39:19]  ³⁰ tn Or “sacrifice” (so also in the rest of this verse).

[39:20]  ³¹ tn Heb “chariots.”