Exodus 9:17

9:17 You are still exalting ¹  yourself against my people by ²  not releasing them.

Proverbs 30:13

30:13 There is a generation whose eyes are so lofty, ³ 

and whose eyelids are lifted up disdainfully. ⁴ 

Isaiah 10:15

10:15 Does an ax exalt itself over the one who wields it,

or a saw magnify itself over the one who cuts with it? ⁵ 

As if a scepter should brandish the one who raises it,

or a staff should lift up what is not made of wood!

Isaiah 14:13-14

14:13 You said to yourself, ⁶ 

“I will climb up to the sky.

Above the stars of El ⁷ 

I will set up my throne.

I will rule on the mountain of assembly

on the remote slopes of Zaphon. ⁸ 

14:14 I will climb up to the tops ⁹  of the clouds;

I will make myself like the Most High!” ¹⁰ 

Ezekiel 28:2-9

28:2 “Son of man, say to the prince ¹¹  of Tyre, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:

“‘Your heart is proud ¹²  and you said, “I am a god; ¹³ 

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. ¹⁴ 

28:3 Look, you are wiser than Daniel; ¹⁵ 

no secret is hidden from you. ¹⁶ 

28:4 By your wisdom and understanding you have gained wealth for yourself;

you have amassed gold and silver in your treasuries.

28:5 By your great skill ¹⁷  in trade you have increased your wealth,

and your heart is proud because of your wealth.

28:6 “‘Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says:

Because you think you are godlike, ¹⁸ 

28:7 I am about to bring foreigners ¹⁹  against you, the most terrifying of nations.

They will draw their swords against the grandeur made by your wisdom, ²⁰ 

and they will defile your splendor.

28:8 They will bring you down to the pit, and you will die violently ²¹  in the heart of the seas.

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?

Daniel 5:20-23

5:20 And when his mind ²²  became arrogant ²³  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 ²⁴  was changed to that of an animal, he lived ²⁵  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 ²⁶  Belshazzar, have not humbled yourself, ²⁷  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 ²⁸  that cannot see or hear or comprehend! But you have not glorified the God who has in his control ²⁹  your very breath and all your ways!

Daniel 5:2

5:2 While under the influence ³⁰  of the wine, Belshazzar issued an order to bring in the gold and silver vessels – the ones that Nebuchadnezzar his father ³¹  had confiscated ³²  from the temple in Jerusalem ³³  – so that the king and his nobles, together with his wives and his concubines, could drink from them. ³⁴ 

Colossians 1:5

1:5 Your faith and love have arisen ³⁵  from the hope laid up ³⁶  for you in heaven, which you have heard about in the message of truth, the gospel ³⁷ 

Colossians 1:2

1:2 to the saints, the faithful ³⁸  brothers and sisters ³⁹  in Christ, at Colossae. Grace and peace to you ⁴⁰  from God our Father! ⁴¹ 

Colossians 2:4

2:4 I say this so that no one will deceive you through arguments ⁴²  that sound reasonable. ⁴³ 

[9:17]  ¹ tn מִסְתּוֹלֵל (mistolel) is a Hitpael participle, from a root that means “raise up, obstruct.” So in the Hitpael it means to “raise oneself up,” “elevate oneself,” or “be an obstructionist.” See W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Exodus,” EBC 2:363; U. Cassuto, Exodus, 116.

[9:17]  ² tn The infinitive construct with lamed here is epexegetical; it explains how Pharaoh has exalted himself – “by not releasing the people.”

[30:13]  ³ tn Heb “how high are its eyes!” This is a use of the interrogative pronoun in exclamatory sentences (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 25, §127).

[30:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “its eyelids are lifted up,” a gesture indicating arrogance and contempt or disdain for others. To make this clear, the present translation supplies the adverb “disdainfully” at the end of the verse.

[10:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “the one who pushes it back and forth”; KJV “him that shaketh it”; ASV “him that wieldeth it.”

[14:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “you, you said in your heart.”

[14:13]  ⁷ sn In Canaanite mythology the stars of El were astral deities under the authority of the high god El.

[14:13]  ⁸ sn Zaphon, the Canaanite version of Olympus, was the “mountain of assembly” where the gods met.

[14:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “the high places.” This word often refers to the high places where pagan worship was conducted, but here it probably refers to the “backs” or tops of the clouds. See HALOT 136 s.v. בָּמָה.

[14:14]  ¹⁰ sn Normally in the OT the title “Most High” belongs to the God of Israel, but in this context, where the mythological overtones are so strong, it probably refers to the Canaanite high god El.

[28:2]  ¹¹ tn Or “ruler” (NIV, NCV).

[28:2]  ¹² tn Heb “lifted up.”

[28:2]  ¹³ tn Or “I am divine.”

[28:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and you made your heart (mind) like the heart (mind) of gods.”

[28:3]  ¹⁵ sn Or perhaps “Danel” (so TEV), referring to a ruler known from Canaanite legend. See the note on “Daniel” in 14:14. A reference to Danel (preserved in legend at Ugarit, near the northern end of the Phoenician coast) makes more sense here when addressing Tyre than in 14:14.

[28:3]  ¹⁶ sn The tone here is sarcastic, reflecting the ruler’s view of himself.

[28:5]  ¹⁷ tn Or “wisdom.”

[28:6]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “because of your making your heart like the heart of gods.”

[28:7]  ¹⁹ sn This is probably a reference to the Babylonians.

[28:7]  ²⁰ tn Heb “they will draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom.”

[28:8]  ²¹ tn Heb “you will die the death of the slain.”

[5:20]  ²² tn Aram “heart.”

[5:20]  ²³ 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.

[5:21]  ²⁴ tn Aram “heart.”

[5:21]  ²⁵ tn Aram “his dwelling.”

[5:22]  ²⁶ tn Or “descendant”; or “successor.”

[5:22]  ²⁷ tn Aram “your heart.”

[5:23]  ²⁸ tn Aram “which.”

[5:23]  ²⁹ tn Aram “in whose hand [are].”

[5:2]  ³⁰ tn Or perhaps, “when he had tasted” (cf. NASB) in the sense of officially initiating the commencement of the banquet. The translation above seems preferable, however, given the clear evidence of inebriation in the context (cf. also CEV “he got drunk and ordered”).

[5:2]  ³¹ tn Or “ancestor”; or “predecessor” (also in vv. 11, 13, 18). The Aramaic word translated “father” can on occasion denote these other relationships.

[5:2]  ³² tn Or “taken.”

[5:2]  ³³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[5:2]  ³⁴ sn Making use of sacred temple vessels for an occasion of reveling and drunkenness such as this would have been a religious affront of shocking proportions to the Jewish captives.

[1:5]  ³⁵ tn Col 1:3-8 form one long sentence in the Greek text and have been divided at the end of v. 4 and v. 6 and within v. 6 for clarity, in keeping with the tendency in contemporary English toward shorter sentences. Thus the phrase “Your faith and love have arisen from the hope” is literally “because of the hope.” The perfect tense “have arisen” was chosen in the English to reflect the fact that the recipients of the letter had acquired this hope at conversion in the past, but that it still remains and motivates them to trust in Christ and to love one another.

[1:5]  ³⁶ tn BDAG 113 s.v. ἀπόκειμαι 2 renders ἀποκειμένην (apokeimenhn) with the expression “reserved” in this verse.

[1:5]  ³⁷ tn The term “the gospel” (τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, tou euangeliou) is in apposition to “the word of truth” (τῷ λόγῳ τῆς ἀληθείας, tw logw th" alhqeia") as indicated in the translation.

[1:2]  ³⁸ tn Grk “and faithful.” The construction in Greek (as well as Paul’s style) suggests that the saints are identical to the faithful; hence, the καί (kai) is best left untranslated (cf. Eph 1:1). See ExSyn 281-82.

[1:2]  ³⁹ tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” or “fellow Christians” as here (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited).

[1:2]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “Grace to you and peace.”

[1:2]  ⁴¹ tc Most witnesses, including some important ones (א A C F G I [P] 075 Ï it bo), read “and the Lord Jesus Christ” at the end of this verse, no doubt to conform the wording to the typical Pauline salutation. However, excellent and early witnesses (B D K L Ψ 33 81 1175 1505 1739 1881 al sa) lack this phrase. Since the omission is inexplicable as arising from the longer reading (otherwise, these mss would surely have deleted the phrase in the rest of the corpus Paulinum), it is surely authentic.

[2:4]  ⁴² tn BDAG 812 s.v. πιθανολογία states, “persuasive speech, art of persuasion (so Pla., Theaet. 162e) in an unfavorable sense in its only occurrence in our lit. ἐν πιθανολογίᾳ by specious arguments Col 2:4 (cp. PLips 40 III, 7 διὰ πιθανολογίας).”

[2:4]  ⁴³ sn Paul’s point is that even though the arguments seem to make sense (sound reasonable), they are in the end false. Paul is not here arguing against the study of philosophy or serious thinking per se, but is arguing against the uncritical adoption of a philosophy that is at odds with a proper view of Christ and the ethics of the Christian life.