Isaiah 2:17

2:17 Proud men will be humiliated,

arrogant men will be brought low; ¹ 

the Lord alone will be exalted ² 

in that day.

Isaiah 5:15

5:15 Men will be humiliated,

they will be brought low;

the proud will be brought low. ³ 

Isaiah 14:12-16

14:12 Look how you have fallen from the sky,

O shining one, son of the dawn! ⁴ 

You have been cut down to the ground,

O conqueror ⁵  of the nations! ⁶ 

14:13 You said to yourself, ⁷ 

“I will climb up to the sky.

Above the stars of El ⁸ 

I will set up my throne.

I will rule on the mountain of assembly

on the remote slopes of Zaphon. ⁹ 

14:14 I will climb up to the tops ¹⁰  of the clouds;

I will make myself like the Most High!” ¹¹ 

14:15 But you were brought down ¹²  to Sheol,

to the remote slopes of the pit. ¹³ 

14:16 Those who see you stare at you,

they look at you carefully, thinking: ¹⁴ 

“Is this the man who shook the earth,

the one who made kingdoms tremble?

Jeremiah 50:29-32

50:29 “Call for archers ¹⁵  to come against Babylon!

Summon against her all who draw the bow!

Set up camp all around the city!

Do not allow anyone to escape!

Pay her back for what she has done.

Do to her what she has done to others.

For she has proudly defied me, ¹⁶ 

the Holy One of Israel. ¹⁷ 

50:30 So her young men will fall in her city squares.

All her soldiers will be destroyed at that time,”

says the Lord. ¹⁸ 

50:31 “Listen! I am opposed to you, you proud city,” ¹⁹ 

says the Lord God who rules over all. ²⁰ 

“Indeed, ²¹  your day of reckoning ²²  has come,

the time when I will punish you. ²³ 

50:32 You will stumble and fall, you proud city;

no one will help you get up.

I will set fire to your towns;

it will burn up everything that surrounds you.” ²⁴ 

Daniel 5:22-23

5:22 “But you, his son ²⁵  Belshazzar, have not humbled yourself, ²⁶  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 ²⁷  that cannot see or hear or comprehend! But you have not glorified the God who has in his control ²⁸  your very breath and all your ways!

[2:17]  ¹ tn Heb “and the pride of men will be brought down, and the arrogance of men will be brought low.” As in v. 11, 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.

[2:17]  ² tn Or “elevated”; NCV “praised”; CEV “honored.”

[5:15]  ³ tn Heb “men are brought down, men are brought low, the eyes of pride are brought low.”

[14:12]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew text has הֵילֵל בֶּן־שָׁחַר (helel ben-shakhar, “Helel son of Shachar”), which is probably a name for the morning star (Venus) or the crescent moon. See HALOT 245 s.v. הֵילֵל.

[14:12]  ⁵ tn Some understand the verb to from חָלַשׁ (khalash, “to weaken”), but HALOT 324 s.v. II חלשׁ proposes a homonym here, meaning “to defeat.”

[14:12]  ⁶ sn In this line the taunting kings hint at the literal identity of the king, after likening him to the god Helel and a tree. The verb גָדַע (gada’, “cut down”) is used of chopping down trees in 9:10 and 10:33.

[14:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “you, you said in your heart.”

[14:13]  ⁸ sn In Canaanite mythology the stars of El were astral deities under the authority of the high god El.

[14:13]  ⁹ sn Zaphon, the Canaanite version of Olympus, was the “mountain of assembly” where the gods met.

[14:14]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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.

[14:15]  ¹² tn The prefixed verb form is taken as a preterite. Note the use of perfects in v. 12 to describe the king’s downfall.

[14:15]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew term בּוּר (bor, “cistern”) is sometimes used metaphorically to refer to the place of the dead or the entrance to the underworld.

[14:16]  ¹⁴ tn The word “thinking” is supplied in the translation in order to make it clear that the next line records their thoughts as they gaze at him.

[50:29]  ¹⁵ tn For this word see BDB 914 s.v. III רַב and compare usage in Prov 26:10 and Job 16:12 and compare the usage of the verb in Gen 49:23. Based on this evidence, it is not necessary to emend the form to רֹבִים (rovim) as many commentators contend.

[50:29]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “for she has acted insolently against the Lord.” Once again there is the problem of the Lord speaking about himself in the third person (or the prophet dropping his identification with the Lord). As in several other places the present translation, along with several other modern English versions (TEV, CEV, NIrV), has substituted the first person to maintain consistency with the context.

[50:29]  ¹⁷ sn The Holy One of Israel is a common title for the Lord in the book of Isaiah. It is applied to the Lord only here and in 51:5 in the book of Jeremiah. It is a figure where an attribute of a person is put as a title of a person (compare “your majesty” for a king). It pictures the Lord as the sovereign king who rules over his covenant people and exercises moral authority over them.

[50:30]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[50:31]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Behold, I am against you, proud one.” The word “city” is not in the text but it is generally agreed that the word is being used as a personification of the city which had “proudly defied” the Lord (v. 29). The word “city” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[50:31]  ²⁰ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord Yahweh of armies.” For the rendering of this title and an explanation of its significance see the study note on 2:19.

[50:31]  ²¹ tn The particle כִּי (ki) is probably asseverative here (so J. A. Thompson, Jeremiah [NICOT], 739, n. 13, and cf. BDB 472 s.v. כִּי 1.e for other examples). This has been a common use of this particle in the book of Jeremiah.

[50:31]  ²² tn The words “of reckoning” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[50:31]  ²³ sn Compare v. 27.

[50:32]  ²⁴ tn Heb “And the proud one will fall and there will be no one to help him up. I will start a fire in his towns and it will consume all that surround him.” The personification continues but now the stance is indirect (third person) rather than direct (second person). It is easier for the modern reader who is not accustomed to such sudden shifts if the second person is maintained. The personification of the city (or nation) as masculine is a little unusual; normally cities and nations are personified as feminine, as daughters or mothers.

[5:22]  ²⁵ tn Or “descendant”; or “successor.”

[5:22]  ²⁶ tn Aram “your heart.”

[5:23]  ²⁷ tn Aram “which.”

[5:23]  ²⁸ tn Aram “in whose hand [are].”