Proverbs 11:2

11:2 When pride ¹  comes, ²  then comes disgrace, ³ 

but with humility ⁴  comes ⁵  wisdom.

Proverbs 16:18

16:18 Pride ⁶  goes ⁷  before destruction,

and a haughty spirit before a fall. ⁸ 

Proverbs 29:23

29:23 A person’s pride ⁹  will bring him low, ¹⁰ 

but one who has a lowly spirit ¹¹  will gain honor.

Ezekiel 16:49-50

16:49 “‘See here – this was the iniquity ¹²  of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters had majesty, abundance of food, and enjoyed carefree ease, but they did not help ¹³  the poor and needy. 16:50 They were haughty and practiced abominable deeds before me. Therefore when I saw it I removed them.

Ezekiel 28:2

28:2 “Son of man, say to the prince ¹⁴  of Tyre, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:

“‘Your heart is proud ¹⁵  and you said, “I am a god; ¹⁶ 

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. ¹⁷ 

Ezekiel 28:9

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 5:23-24

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 ¹⁸  that cannot see or hear or comprehend! But you have not glorified the God who has in his control ¹⁹  your very breath and all your ways! 5:24 Therefore the palm of a hand was sent from him, and this writing was inscribed.

Acts 12:21-23

12:21 On a day determined in advance, Herod ²⁰  put on his royal robes, ²¹  sat down on the judgment seat, ²²  and made a speech ²³  to them. 12:22 But the crowd ²⁴  began to shout, ²⁵  “The voice of a god, ²⁶  and not of a man!” 12:23 Immediately an angel of the Lord ²⁷  struck ²⁸  Herod ²⁹  down because he did not give the glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died. ³⁰ 

[11:2]  ¹ tn Heb “presumptuousness.” This term is from the root זִיד, zid (or זוּד, zud) which means “to boil; to seethe; to act proudly; to act presumptuously.” The idea is that of boiling over the edge of the pot, signifying overstepping the boundaries (e.g., Gen 25:29).

[11:2]  ² tn The verbs show both the sequence and the correlation. The first is the perfect tense of בּוֹא (bo’, “to enter; to come”); it is followed by the preterite with vav consecutive from the same verb, showing that one follows or comes with the other. Because the second verb in the colon is sequential to the first, the first may be subordinated as a temporal clause.

[11:2]  ³ sn This proverb does not state how the disgrace will come, but affirms that it will follow pride. The proud will be brought down.

[11:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “modesty”; KJV, ASV “the lowly.” The adjective צְנוּעִים (tsÿnu’im, “modest”) is used as a noun; this is an example of antimeria in which one part of speech is used in the place of another (see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 491-506), e.g., “Let the dry [adjective] appear!” = dry land (Gen 1:9). The root צָנַע (tsana’, “to be modest; to be humble”) describes those who are reserved, retiring, modest. The plural form is used for the abstract idea of humility.

[11:2]  ⁵ tn The term “comes” does not appear in the Hebrew, but is supplied in the translation from parallelism.

[16:18]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Heb “[is] before destruction.”

[16:18]  ⁸ 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).

[29:23]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Heb “low in spirit”; KJV “humble in spirit.” This refers to an attitude of humility.

[16:49]  ¹² tn Or “guilt.”

[16:49]  ¹³ tn Heb “strengthen the hand of.”

[28:2]  ¹⁴ tn Or “ruler” (NIV, NCV).

[28:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “lifted up.”

[28:2]  ¹⁶ tn Or “I am divine.”

[28:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and you made your heart (mind) like the heart (mind) of gods.”

[5:23]  ¹⁸ tn Aram “which.”

[5:23]  ¹⁹ tn Aram “in whose hand [are].”

[12:21]  ²⁰ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Herod) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:21]  ²¹ tn Or “apparel.” On Herod’s robes see Josephus, Ant. 19.8.2 (19.344), summarized in the note at the end of v. 23.

[12:21]  ²² tn Although BDAG 175 s.v. βῆμα 3 gives the meaning “speaker’s platform” for this verse, and a number of modern translations use similar terms (“rostrum,” NASB; “platform,” NRSV), since the bema was a standard feature in Greco-Roman cities of the time, there is no need for an alternative translation here.

[12:21]  ²³ tn Or “delivered a public address.”

[12:22]  ²⁴ 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]  ²⁵ 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]  ²⁶ sn The voice of a god. Contrast the response of Paul and Barnabas in Acts 14:13-15.

[12:23]  ²⁷ tn Or “the angel of the Lord.” See the note on the word “Lord” in 5:19.

[12:23]  ²⁸ 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]  ²⁹ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Herod) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:23]  ³⁰ 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).