Isaiah 10:8-14

10:8 Indeed, ¹  he says:

“Are not my officials all kings?

10:9 Is not Calneh like Carchemish?

Hamath like Arpad?

Samaria like Damascus? ² 

10:10 I overpowered kingdoms ruled by idols, ³ 

whose carved images were more impressive than Jerusalem’s ⁴  or Samaria’s.

10:11 As I have done to Samaria and its idols,

so I will do to Jerusalem and its idols.” ⁵ 

10:12 But when ⁶  the sovereign master ⁷  finishes judging ⁸  Mount Zion and Jerusalem, then I ⁹  will punish the king of Assyria for what he has proudly planned and for the arrogant attitude he displays. ¹⁰  10:13 For he says:

“By my strong hand I have accomplished this,

by my strategy that I devised.

I invaded the territory of nations, ¹¹ 

and looted their storehouses.

Like a mighty conqueror, ¹²  I brought down rulers. ¹³ 

10:14 My hand discovered the wealth of the nations, as if it were in a nest,

as one gathers up abandoned eggs,

I gathered up the whole earth.

There was no wing flapping,

or open mouth chirping.” ¹⁴ 

Isaiah 37:11-15

37:11 Certainly you have heard how the kings of Assyria have annihilated all lands. ¹⁵  Do you really think you will be rescued? ¹⁶  37:12 Were the nations whom my predecessors ¹⁷  destroyed – the nations of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden in Telassar – rescued by their gods? ¹⁸  37:13 Where are the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the kings of Lair, ¹⁹  Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?’”

37:14 Hezekiah took the letter ²⁰  from the messengers and read it. ²¹  Then Hezekiah went up to the Lord’s temple and spread it out before the Lord. 37:15 Hezekiah prayed before the Lord:

Proverbs 16:18

16:18 Pride ²²  goes ²³  before destruction,

and a haughty spirit before a fall. ²⁴ 

Ezekiel 31:3-18

31:3 Consider Assyria, ²⁵  a cedar in Lebanon, ²⁶ 

with beautiful branches, like a forest giving shade,

and extremely tall;

its top reached into the clouds.

31:4 The water made it grow;

underground springs made it grow tall.

Rivers flowed all around the place it was planted,

while smaller channels watered all the trees of the field. ²⁷ 

31:5 Therefore it grew taller than all the trees of the field;

its boughs grew large and its branches grew long,

because of the plentiful water in its shoots. ²⁸ 

31:6 All the birds of the sky nested in its boughs;

under its branches all the beasts of the field gave birth,

in its shade all the great ²⁹  nations lived.

31:7 It was beautiful in its loftiness, in the length of its branches;

for its roots went down deep to plentiful waters.

31:8 The cedars in the garden of God could not eclipse it,

nor could the fir trees ³⁰  match its boughs;

the plane trees were as nothing compared to its branches;

no tree in the garden of God could rival its beauty.

31:9 I made it beautiful with its many branches;

all the trees of Eden, in the garden of God, envied it.

31:10 “‘Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Because it was tall in stature, and its top reached into the clouds, and it was proud of its height, 31:11 I gave it over to the leader of the nations. He has judged it thoroughly, ³¹  as its sinfulness deserves. I have thrown it out. 31:12 Foreigners from the most terrifying nations have cut it down and left it to lie there on the mountains. In all the valleys its branches have fallen, and its boughs lie broken in the ravines of the land. All the peoples of the land ³²  have departed ³³  from its shade and left it. 31:13 On its ruins all the birds of the sky will live, and all the wild animals ³⁴  will walk ³⁵  on its branches. 31:14 For this reason no watered trees will grow so tall; their tops will not reach into the clouds, nor will the well-watered ones grow that high. ³⁶  For all of them have been appointed to die in the lower parts of the earth; ³⁷  they will be among mere mortals, ³⁸  with those who descend to the pit.

31:15 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: On the day it ³⁹  went down to Sheol I caused observers to lament. ⁴⁰  I covered it with the deep and held back its rivers; its plentiful water was restrained. I clothed Lebanon in black for it, and all the trees of the field wilted because of it. 31:16 I made the nations shake at the sound of its fall, when I threw it down to Sheol, along with those who descend to the pit. ⁴¹  Then all the trees of Eden, the choicest and the best of Lebanon, all that were well-watered, were comforted in the earth below. 31:17 Those who lived in its shade, its allies ⁴²  among the nations, also went down with it to Sheol, to those killed by the sword. 31:18 Which of the trees of Eden was like you in majesty and loftiness? You will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the lower parts of the earth; you will lie among the uncircumcised, with those killed by the sword! This is what will happen to Pharaoh and all his hordes, declares the sovereign Lord.’”

Daniel 4:30

4:30 The king uttered these words: “Is this not the great Babylon that I have built for a royal residence ⁴³  by my own mighty strength ⁴⁴  and for my majestic honor?”

Acts 12:22-23

12:22 But the crowd ⁴⁵  began to shout, ⁴⁶  “The voice of a god, ⁴⁷  and not of a man!” 12:23 Immediately an angel of the Lord ⁴⁸  struck ⁴⁹  Herod ⁵⁰  down because he did not give the glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died. ⁵¹ 

Jude 1:16

1:16 These people are grumblers and ⁵²  fault-finders who go ⁵³  wherever their desires lead them, ⁵⁴  and they give bombastic speeches, ⁵⁵  enchanting folks ⁵⁶  for their own gain. ⁵⁷ 

[10:8]  ¹ tn Or “For” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV).

[10:9]  ² sn Calneh … Carchemish … Hamath … Arpad … Samaria … Damascus. The city states listed here were conquered by the Assyrians between 740-717 b.c. The point of the rhetorical questions is that no one can stand before Assyria’s might. On the geographical, rather than chronological arrangement of the cities, see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:264, n. 4.

[10:10]  ³ tn Heb “Just as my hand found the kingdoms of the idol[s].” The comparison is expanded in v. 11a (note “as”) and completed in v. 11b (note “so”).

[10:10]  ⁴ map For the location of Jerusalem see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[10:11]  ⁵ tn The statement is constructed as a rhetorical question in the Hebrew text: “Is it not [true that] just as I have done to Samaria and its idols, so I will do to Jerusalem and its idols?”

[10:12]  ⁶ tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

[10:12]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here and in vv. 16, 23, 24, 33 is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[10:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “his work on/against.” Cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV “on”; NIV “against.”

[10:12]  ⁹ tn The Lord is speaking here, as in vv. 5-6a.

[10:12]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “I will visit [judgment] on the fruit of the greatness of the heart of the king of Assyria, and on the glory of the height of his eyes.” The proud Assyrian king is likened to a large, beautiful fruit tree.

[10:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “removed the borders of nations”; cf. NAB, NIV, NRSV “boundaries.”

[10:13]  ¹² tc The consonantal text (Kethib) has כְּאַבִּיר (kÿ’abir, “like a strong one”); the marginal reading (Qere) is כַּבִיר (kavir, “mighty one”).

[10:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “and I brought down, like a strong one, ones sitting [or “living”].” The participle יוֹשְׁבִים (yoshÿvim, “ones sitting”) could refer to the inhabitants of the nations, but the translation assumes that it refers to those who sit on thrones, i.e., rulers. See BDB 442 s.v. יָשַׁב and HALOT 444 s.v. ישׁב.

[10:14]  ¹⁴ sn The Assyrians’ conquests were relatively unopposed, like robbing a bird’s nest of its eggs when the mother bird is absent.

[37:11]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, annihilating them.”

[37:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and will you be rescued?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “No, of course not!”

[37:12]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “fathers” (so KJV, NAB, NASB); NIV “forefathers”; NCV “ancestors.”

[37:12]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Did the gods of the nations whom my fathers destroyed rescue them – Gozan and Haran, and Rezeph and the sons of Eden who are in Telassar?”

[37:13]  ¹⁹ sn Lair was a city located in northeastern Babylon. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 235.

[37:14]  ²⁰ tc The Hebrew text has the plural, “letters.” The final mem (ם) may be dittographic (note the initial mem on the form that immediately follows). Some Greek and Aramaic witnesses have the singular. If so, one still has to deal with the yod that is part of the plural ending. J. N. Oswalt refers to various commentators who have suggested ways to understand the plural form (Isaiah [NICOT], 1:652).

[37:14]  ²¹ tn In the parallel text in 2 Kgs 19:14 the verb has the plural suffix, “them,” but this probably reflects a later harmonization to the preceding textual corruption (of “letter” to “letters”).

[16:18]  ²² 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]  ²³ tn Heb “[is] before destruction.”

[16:18]  ²⁴ 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).

[31:3]  ²⁵ sn Either Egypt, or the Lord compares Egypt to Assyria, which is described in vv. 3-17 through the metaphor of a majestic tree. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:185. Like Egypt, Assyria had been a great world power, but in time God brought the Assyrians down. Egypt should learn from history the lesson that no nation, no matter how powerful, can withstand the judgment of God. Rather than following the text here, some prefer to emend the proper name Assyria to a similar sounding common noun meaning “boxwood” (see Ezek 27:6), which would make a fitting parallel to “cedar of Lebanon” in the following line. In this case vv. 3-18 in their entirety refer to Egypt, not Assyria. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:121-27.

[31:3]  ²⁶ sn Lebanon was know for its cedar trees (Judg 9:15; 1 Kgs 4:33; 5:6; 2 Kgs 14:9; Ezra 3:7; Pss 29:5; 92:12; 104:16).

[31:4]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Waters made it grow; the deep made it grow tall. It (the deep) was flowing with its rivers around the place it (the tree) was planted, it (the deep) sent out its channels to all the trees of the field.”

[31:5]  ²⁸ tn Heb “when it sends forth.” Repointing the consonants of the Masoretic text would render the proposed reading “shoots” (cf. NRSV).

[31:6]  ²⁹ tn Or “many.”

[31:8]  ³⁰ tn Or “cypress trees” (cf. NASB, NLT); NIV “pine trees.”

[31:11]  ³¹ tn Heb “acting he has acted with regard to it.” The infinitive absolute precedes the main verb to emphasize the certainty and decisiveness of the action depicted.

[31:12]  ³² tn Or “earth” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[31:12]  ³³ tn Heb “gone down.”

[31:13]  ³⁴ tn Heb “the beasts of the field,” referring to wild as opposed to domesticated animals.

[31:13]  ³⁵ tn Heb “be.”

[31:14]  ³⁶ tn Heb “and they will not stand to them in their height, all the drinkers of water.”

[31:14]  ³⁷ tn Heb “for death, to the lower earth.”

[31:14]  ³⁸ tn Heb “the sons of men.”

[31:15]  ³⁹ tn Or “he.”

[31:15]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “I caused lamentation.” D. I. Block (Ezekiel [NICOT], 2:194-95) proposes an alternative root which would give the meaning “I gated back the waters,” i.e., shut off the water supply.

[31:16]  ⁴¹ sn For the expression “going down to the pit,” see Ezek 26:20; 32:18, 24, 29.

[31:17]  ⁴² tn Heb “its arm.”

[4:30]  ⁴³ tn Aram “house.”

[4:30]  ⁴⁴ tn Aram “by the might of my strength.”

[12:22]  ⁴⁵ tn The translation “crowd” is given by BDAG 223 s.v. δῆμος; the word often means a gathering of citizens to conduct public business. Here it is simply the group of people gathered to hear the king’s speech.

[12:22]  ⁴⁶ tn The imperfect verb ἐπεφώνει (epefwnei) is taken ingressively in the sequence of events. Presumably the king had started his speech when the crowd began shouting.

[12:22]  ⁴⁷ sn The voice of a god. Contrast the response of Paul and Barnabas in Acts 14:13-15.

[12:23]  ⁴⁸ tn Or “the angel of the Lord.” See the note on the word “Lord” in 5:19.

[12:23]  ⁴⁹ sn On being struck…down by an angel, see Acts 23:3; 1 Sam 25:28; 2 Sam 12:15; 2 Kgs 19:35; 2 Chr 13:20; 2 Macc 9:5.

[12:23]  ⁵⁰ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Herod) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:23]  ⁵¹ sn He was eaten by worms and died. Josephus, Ant. 19.8.2 (19.343-352), states that Herod Agrippa I died at Caesarea in a.d. 44. The account by Josephus, while not identical to Luke’s account, is similar in many respects: On the second day of a festival, Herod Agrippa appeared in the theater with a robe made of silver. When it sparkled in the sun, the people cried out flatteries and declared him to be a god. The king, carried away by the flattery, saw an owl (an omen of death) sitting on a nearby rope, and immediately was struck with severe stomach pains. He was carried off to his house and died five days later. The two accounts can be reconciled without difficulty, since while Luke states that Herod was immediately struck down by an angel, his death could have come several days later. The mention of worms with death adds a humiliating note to the scene. The formerly powerful ruler had been thoroughly reduced to nothing (cf. Jdt 16:17; 2 Macc 9:9; cf. also Josephus, Ant. 17.6.5 [17.168-170], which details the sickness which led to Herod the Great’s death).

[1:16]  ⁵² tn “And” is not in Greek, but is supplied for the sake of English style.

[1:16]  ⁵³ tn Or “going.” Though the participle is anarthrous, so also is the subject. Thus, the participle could be either adverbial or adjectival.

[1:16]  ⁵⁴ tn Grk “(who go/going) according to their own lusts.”

[1:16]  ⁵⁵ tn Grk “and their mouth speaks bombastic things.”

[1:16]  ⁵⁶ sn Enchanting folks (Grk “awing faces”) refers to the fact that the speeches of these false teachers are powerful and seductive.

[1:16]  ⁵⁷ tn Or “to their own advantage.”