2 Kings 25:6

25:6 They captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, ¹  where he ²  passed sentence on him.

2 Kings 25:2

25:2 The city remained under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year.

2 Kings 1:11

1:11 The king ³  sent another captain and his fifty soldiers to retrieve Elijah. He went up and told him, ⁴  “Prophet, this is what the king says, ‘Come down at once!’” ⁵ 

2 Kings 1:6

1:6 They replied, ⁶  “A man came up to meet us. He told us, “Go back to the king who sent you and tell him, ‘This is what the Lord says: “You must think there is no God in Israel! That explains why you are sending for an oracle from Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron. ⁷  Therefore you will not leave the bed you lie on, for you will certainly die.”’”

2 Kings 1:10

1:10 Elijah replied to the captain, ⁸  “If I am indeed a prophet, may fire come down from the sky and consume you and your fifty soldiers!” Fire then came down ⁹  from the sky and consumed him and his fifty soldiers.

Job 40:11-12

40:11 Scatter abroad ¹⁰  the abundance ¹¹  of your anger.

Look at every proud man ¹²  and bring him low;

40:12 Look at every proud man and abase him;

crush the wicked on the spot! ¹³ 

Proverbs 16:18

16:18 Pride ¹⁴  goes ¹⁵  before destruction,

and a haughty spirit before a fall. ¹⁶ 

Proverbs 29:23

29:23 A person’s pride ¹⁷  will bring him low, ¹⁸ 

but one who has a lowly spirit ¹⁹  will gain honor.

Isaiah 2:11-12

2:11 Proud men will be brought low,

arrogant men will be humiliated; ²⁰ 

the Lord alone will be exalted ²¹ 

in that day.

2:12 Indeed, the Lord who commands armies has planned a day of judgment, ²² 

for ²³  all the high and mighty,

for all who are proud – they will be humiliated;

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 ²⁴  in pride.

Luke 14:11

14:11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but ²⁵  the one who humbles ²⁶  himself will be exalted.”

[25:6]  ¹ sn Riblah was a strategic town on the Orontes River in Syria. It was at a crossing of the major roads between Egypt and Mesopotamia. Pharaoh Necho had earlier received Jehoahaz there and put him in chains (2 Kgs 23:33) prior to taking him captive to Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar had set up his base camp for conducting his campaigns against the Palestinian states there and was now sitting in judgment on prisoners brought to him.

[25:6]  ² tn The Hebrew text has the plural form of the verb, but the parallel passage in Jer 52:9 has the singular.

[1:11]  ³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:11]  ⁴ tc The MT reads, “he answered and said to him.” The verb “he answered” (וַיַּעַן, vayya’an) is probably a corruption of “he went up” (וַיַּעַל, vayya’al). See v. 9.

[1:11]  ⁵ sn In this second panel of the three-paneled narrative, the king and his captain are more arrogant than before. The captain uses a more official sounding introduction (“this is what the king says”) and the king adds “at once” to the command.

[1:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “said to him.”

[1:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “Is it because there is no God in Israel [that] you are sending to inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron?” The translation seeks to bring out the sarcastic tone of the rhetorical question. In v. 3 the messengers are addressed (in the phrase “you are on your way” the second person plural pronoun is used in Hebrew), but here the king is addressed (in the phrase “you are sending” the second person singular pronoun is used).

[1:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “answered and said to the officer of fifty.”

[1:10]  ⁹ tn Wordplay contributes to the irony here. The king tells Elijah to “come down” (Hebrew יָרַד, yarad), but Elijah calls fire down (יָרַד) on the arrogant king’s officer.

[40:11]  ¹⁰ tn The verb was used for scattering lightning (Job 37:11). God is challenging Job to unleash his power and judge wickedness in the world.

[40:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the overflowings.”

[40:11]  ¹² tn The word was just used in the positive sense of excellence or majesty; now the exalted nature of the person refers to self-exaltation, or pride.

[40:12]  ¹³ tn The expression translated “on the spot” is the prepositional phrase תַּחְתָּם (takhtam, “under them”). “Under them” means in their place. But it can also mean “where someone stands, on the spot” (see Exod 16:29; Jos 6:5; Judg 7:21, etc.).

[16:18]  ¹⁴ sn The two lines of this proverb are synonymous parallelism, and so there are parasynonyms. “Pride” is paired with “haughty spirit” (“spirit” being a genitive of specification); and “destruction” is matched with “a tottering, falling.”

[16:18]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “[is] before destruction.”

[16:18]  ¹⁶ sn Many proverbs have been written in a similar way to warn against the inevitable disintegration and downfall of pride. W. McKane records an Arabic proverb: “The nose is in the heavens, the seat is in the mire” (Proverbs [OTL], 490).

[29:23]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “pride of a man,” with “man” functioning as a possessive. There is no indication in the immediate context that this is restricted only to males.

[29:23]  ¹⁸ tn There is a wordplay here due to the repetition of the root שָׁפֵל (shafel). In the first line the verb תִּשְׁפִּילֶנּוּ (tishpilennu) is the Hiphil imperfect of the root, rendered “will bring him low.” In the second line the word is used in the description of the “lowly of spirit,” שְׁפַל־רוּחַ (shÿfal-ruakh). The contrast works well: The proud will be brought “low,” but the one who is “lowly” will be honored. In this instance the wordplay can be preserved in the translation.

[29:23]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “low in spirit”; KJV “humble in spirit.” This refers to an attitude of humility.

[2:11]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ tn Or “elevated”; CEV “honored.”

[2:12]  ²² tn Heb “indeed [or “for”] the Lord who commands armies [traditionally, the Lord of hosts] has a day.”

[2:12]  ²³ tn Or “against” (NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[4:37]  ²⁴ tn Aram “walk.”

[14:11]  ²⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context, which involves the reversal of expected roles.

[14:11]  ²⁶ 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.