2 Kings 8:13

8:13 Hazael said, “How could your servant, who is as insignificant as a dog, accomplish this great military victory?” ¹  Elisha answered, “The Lord has revealed to me that you will be the king of Syria.” ² 

Job 40:4-5

40:4 “Indeed, I am completely unworthy ³  – how could I reply to you?

I put ⁴  my hand over my mouth to silence myself. ⁵ 

40:5 I have spoken once, but I cannot answer;

twice, but I will say no more.” ⁶ 

Psalms 30:6

30:6 In my self-confidence I said,

“I will never be upended.” ⁷ 

Proverbs 16:18

16:18 Pride ⁸  goes ⁹  before destruction,

and a haughty spirit before a fall. ¹⁰ 

Proverbs 18:24

18:24 A person who has friends ¹¹  may be harmed by them, ¹² 

but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Proverbs 29:23

29:23 A person’s pride ¹³  will bring him low, ¹⁴ 

but one who has a lowly spirit ¹⁵  will gain honor.

Jeremiah 10:23

10:23 Lord, we know that people do not control their own destiny. ¹⁶ 

It is not in their power to determine what will happen to them. ¹⁷ 

Jeremiah 17:9

17:9 The human mind is more deceitful than anything else.

It is incurably bad. ¹⁸  Who can understand it?

[8:13]  ¹ tn Heb “Indeed, what is your servant, a dog, that he could do this great thing?” With his reference to a dog, Hazael is not denying that he is a “dog” and protesting that he would never commit such a dastardly “dog-like” deed. Rather, as Elisha’s response indicates, Hazael is suggesting that he, like a dog, is too insignificant to ever be in a position to lead such conquests.

[8:13]  ² tn Heb “The Lord has shown me you [as] king over Syria.”

[40:4]  ³ tn The word קַלֹּתִי (qalloti) means “to be light; to be of small account; to be unimportant.” From this comes the meaning “contemptible,” which in the causative stem would mean “to treat with contempt; to curse.” Dhorme tries to make the sentence a conditional clause and suggests this meaning: “If I have been thoughtless.” There is really no “if” in Job’s mind.

[40:4]  ⁴ tn The perfect verb here should be classified as an instantaneous perfect; the action is simultaneous with the words.

[40:4]  ⁵ tn The words “to silence myself” are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[40:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “I will not add.”

[30:6]  ⁷ sn In my self-confidence I said… Here the psalmist begins to fill in the background of the crisis referred to in the earlier verses. He had been arrogant and self-confident, so the Lord withdrew his protection and allowed trouble to invade his life (vv. 8-11).

[16:18]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Heb “[is] before destruction.”

[16:18]  ¹⁰ 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).

[18:24]  ¹¹ tc The construction is “a man of friends” (cf. NASB) meaning a man who has friends (a genitive of the thing possessed). C. H. Toy, however, suggests reading יֵשׁ (yesh) instead of אִישׁ (’ish), along with some of the Greek mss, the Syriac, and Tg. Prov 18:24. It would then say “there are friends” who are unreliable (Proverbs [ICC], 366); cf. NLT. However, the MT should be retained here.

[18:24]  ¹² tn The text simply has לְהִתְרֹעֵעַ (lÿhitro’ea’), which means “for being crushed” or “to be shattered” (but not “to show oneself friendly” as in the KJV). What can be made of the sentence is that “a man who has [many] friends [may have them] for being crushed” – the infinitive giving the result (i.e., “with the result that he may be crushed by them”).

[29:23]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “low in spirit”; KJV “humble in spirit.” This refers to an attitude of humility.

[10:23]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Not to the man his way.” For the nuance of “fate, destiny, or the way things turn out” for the Hebrew word “way” see Hag 1:5, Isa 40:27 and probably Ps 49:13 (cf. KBL 218 s.v. דֶּרֶךְ 5). For the idea of “control” or “hold in one’s power” for the preposition “to” see Ps 3:8 (cf. BDB 513 s.v. לְ 5.b[a]).

[10:23]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Not to a man the walking and the establishing his step.”

[17:9]  ¹⁸ tn Or “incurably deceitful”; Heb “It is incurable.” For the word “deceitful” compare the usage of the verb in Gen 27:36 and a related noun in 2 Kgs 10:19. For the adjective “incurable” compare the usage in Jer 15:18. It is most commonly used with reference to wounds or of pain. In Jer 17:16 it is used metaphorically for a “woeful day” (i.e., day of irreparable devastation).