Genesis 17:3

17:3 Abram bowed down with his face to the ground, ¹  and God said to him, ² 

Leviticus 9:24

9:24 Then fire went out from the presence of the Lord ³  and consumed the burnt offering and the fat parts on the altar, and all the people saw it, so they shouted loudly and fell down with their faces to the ground. ⁴ 

Leviticus 9:1

Inauguration of Tabernacle Worship

9:1 On the eighth day ⁵  Moses summoned ⁶  Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel,

Leviticus 21:16

Rules for the Priesthood

21:16 The Lord spoke to Moses:

Leviticus 21:1

Rules for the Priests

21:1 The Lord said to Moses: “Say to the priests, the sons of Aaron – say to them, ‘For a dead person ⁷  no priest ⁸  is to defile himself among his people, ⁹ 

Ezekiel 1:26

1:26 Above the platform over their heads was something like a sapphire shaped like a throne. High above on the throne was a form that appeared to be a man.

Ezekiel 1:28

1:28 like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds after the rain. ¹⁰  This was the appearance of the surrounding brilliant light; it looked like the glory of the Lord. When I saw ¹¹  it, I threw myself face down, and I heard a voice speaking.

Daniel 10:9

10:9 I listened to his voice, ¹²  and as I did so ¹³  I fell into a trance-like sleep with my face to the ground.

Matthew 17:6

17:6 When the disciples heard this, they were overwhelmed with fear and threw themselves down with their faces to the ground. ¹⁴ 

[17:3]  ¹ tn Heb “And Abram fell on his face.” This expression probably means that Abram sank to his knees and put his forehead to the ground, although it is possible that he completely prostrated himself. In either case the posture indicates humility and reverence.

[17:3]  ² tn Heb “God spoke to him, saying.” This is redundant in contemporary English and has been simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[9:24]  ³ tn Heb “from to the faces of the Lord.” The rendering here is based on the use of “my faces” and “your faces” referring to the very “presence” of the Lord in Exod 33:14-15.

[9:24]  ⁴ tn Heb “fell on their faces.” Many English versions and commentaries render here “shouted for joy” (e.g., NIV; cf. NCV, NLT) or “shouted joyfully,” but the fact the people “fell on their faces” immediately afterward suggests that they were frightened as, for example, in Exod 19:16b; 20:18-21.

[9:1]  ⁵ sn This eighth day is the one after the seven days of ordination referred to in Lev 8:33-35.

[9:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “called to”; CEV, NLT “called together.”

[21:1]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul, person, life”) can sometimes refer to a “dead person” (cf. Lev 19:28 above and the literature cited there).

[21:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “no one,” but “priest” has been used in the translation to clarify that these restrictions are limited to the priests, not to the Israelites in general (note the introductory formula, “say to the priests, the sons of Aaron”).

[21:1]  ⁹ tc The MT has “in his peoples,” but Smr, LXX, Syriac, Targum, and Tg. Ps.-J. have “in his people,” referring to the Israelites as a whole.

[1:28]  ¹⁰ sn Reference to the glowing substance and the brilliant light and storm phenomena in vv. 27-28a echoes in reverse order the occurrence of these phenomena in v. 4.

[1:28]  ¹¹ tn The vision closes with the repetition of the verb “I saw” from the beginning of the vision in 1:4.

[10:9]  ¹² tc Heb “I heard the sound of his words.” These words are absent in the LXX and the Syriac.

[10:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “as I listened to the sound of his words.”

[17:6]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “they fell down on their faces.” BDAG 815 s.v. πίπτω 1.b.α.ב. has “fall down, throw oneself to the ground as a sign of devotion, before high-ranking persons or divine beings.”