Psalms 51:17

51:17 The sacrifices God desires are a humble spirit ¹  –

O God, a humble and repentant heart ²  you will not reject. ³ 

Psalms 113:5-6

113:5 Who can compare to the Lord our God,

who sits on a high throne? ⁴ 

113:6 He bends down to look ⁵ 

at the sky and the earth.

Psalms 113:1

Psalm 113 ⁶ 

113:1 Praise the Lord!

Praise, you servants of the Lord,

praise the name of the Lord!

Psalms 2:7-8

2:7 The king says, ⁷  “I will announce the Lord’s decree. He said to me: ⁸ 

‘You are my son! ⁹  This very day I have become your father!

2:8 Ask me,

and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, ¹⁰ 

the ends of the earth as your personal property.

Proverbs 3:34

3:34 Although ¹¹  he is scornful to arrogant scoffers, ¹² 

yet ¹³  he shows favor to the humble. ¹⁴ 

Isaiah 57:15

57:15 For this is what the high and exalted one says,

the one who rules ¹⁵  forever, whose name is holy:

“I dwell in an exalted and holy place,

but also with the discouraged and humiliated, ¹⁶ 

in order to cheer up the humiliated

and to encourage the discouraged. ¹⁷ 

Isaiah 66:2

66:2 My hand made them; ¹⁸ 

that is how they came to be,” ¹⁹  says the Lord.

I show special favor ²⁰  to the humble and contrite,

who respect what I have to say. ²¹ 

Luke 1:51-53

1:51 He has demonstrated power ²²  with his arm; he has scattered those whose pride wells up from the sheer arrogance ²³  of their hearts.

1:52 He has brought down the mighty ²⁴  from their thrones, and has lifted up those of lowly position; ²⁵ 

1:53 he has filled the hungry with good things, ²⁶  and has sent the rich away empty. ²⁷ 

Luke 14:11

14:11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but ²⁸  the one who humbles ²⁹  himself will be exalted.”

Luke 18:14

18:14 I tell you that this man went down to his home justified ³⁰  rather than the Pharisee. ³¹  For everyone who exalts ³²  himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

James 4:6

4:6 But he gives greater grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.” ³³ 

James 4:1

Passions and Pride

4:1 Where do the conflicts and where ³⁴  do the quarrels among you come from? Is it not from this, ³⁵  from your passions that battle inside you? ³⁶ 

James 5:5-6

5:5 You have lived indulgently and luxuriously on the earth. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. ³⁷  5:6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous person, although he does not resist you. ³⁸ 

[51:17]  ¹ tn Heb “a broken spirit.”

[51:17]  ² tn Heb “a broken and crushed heart.”

[51:17]  ³ tn Or “despise.”

[113:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “the one who makes high to sit.”

[113:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “the one who makes low to see.”

[113:1]  ⁶ sn Psalm 113. The psalmist praises God as the sovereign king of the world who reaches down to help the needy.

[2:7]  ⁷ tn The words “the king says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The speaker is the Lord’s chosen king.

[2:7]  ⁸ tn Or “I will relate the decree. The Lord said to me” (in accordance with the Masoretic accentuation).

[2:7]  ⁹ sn ‘You are my son!’ The Davidic king was viewed as God’s “son” (see 2 Sam 7:14; Ps 89:26-27). The idiom reflects ancient Near Eastern adoption language associated with covenants of grant, by which a lord would reward a faithful subject by elevating him to special status, referred to as “sonship.” Like a son, the faithful subject received an “inheritance,” viewed as an unconditional, eternal gift. Such gifts usually took the form of land and/or an enduring dynasty. See M. Weinfeld, “The Covenant of Grant in the Old Testament and in the Ancient Near East,” JAOS 90 (1970): 184-203, for general discussion and some striking extra-biblical parallels.

[2:8]  ¹⁰ sn I will give you the nations. The Lord promises the Davidic king universal dominion.

[3:34]  ¹¹ tn The particle אִם (’im, “though”) introduces a concessive clause: “though….”

[3:34]  ¹² tn Heb “he mocks those who mock.” The repetition of the root לִיץ (lits, “to scorn; to mock”) connotes poetic justice; the punishment fits the crime. Scoffers are characterized by arrogant pride (e.g., Prov 21:24), as the antithetical parallelism with “the humble” here emphasizes.

[3:34]  ¹³ tn The prefixed vav (ו) introduces the apodosis to the concessive clause: “Though … yet …”

[3:34]  ¹⁴ tn The Hebrew is structured chiastically (AB:BA): “he scorns / arrogant scoffers // but to the humble / he gives grace.” The word order in the translation is reversed for the sake of smoothness and readability.

[57:15]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the one who dwells forever.” שֹׁכֵן עַד (shokhen ’ad) is sometimes translated “the one who lives forever,” and understood as a reference to God’s eternal existence. However, the immediately preceding and following descriptions (“high and exalted” and “holy”) emphasize his sovereign rule. In the next line, he declares, “I dwell in an exalted and holy [place],” which refers to the place from which he rules. Therefore it is more likely that שֹׁכֵן עַד (shokhen ’ad) means “I dwell [in my lofty palace] forever” and refers to God’s eternal kingship.

[57:15]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and also with the crushed and lowly of spirit.” This may refer to the repentant who have humbled themselves (see 66:2) or more generally to the exiles who have experienced discouragement and humiliation.

[57:15]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “to restore the lowly of spirit and to restore the heart of the crushed.”

[66:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “all these.” The phrase refers to the heavens and earth, mentioned in the previous verse.

[66:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and all these were.” Some prefer to emend וַיִּהְיוּ (vayyihyu, “and they were”) to וְלִי הָיוּ (vÿli hayu, “and to me they were”), i.e., “and they belong to me.”

[66:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and to this one I look” (KJV and NASB both similar).

[66:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “to the humble and the lowly in spirit and the one who trembles at my words.”

[1:51]  ²² tn Or “shown strength,” “performed powerful deeds.” The verbs here switch to aorist tense through 1:55. This is how God will act in general for his people as they look to his ultimate deliverance.

[1:51]  ²³ tn Grk “in the imaginations of their hearts.” The psalm rebukes the arrogance of the proud, who think that power is their sovereign right. Here διανοίᾳ (dianoia) can be understood as a dative of sphere or reference/respect.

[1:52]  ²⁴ tn Or “rulers.”

[1:52]  ²⁵ tn Or “those of humble position”

[1:53]  ²⁶ sn Good things refers not merely to material blessings, but blessings that come from knowing God.

[1:53]  ²⁷ sn Another fundamental contrast of Luke’s is between the hungry and the rich (Luke 6:20-26).

[14:11]  ²⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context, which involves the reversal of expected roles.

[14:11]  ²⁹ sn The point of the statement the one who humbles himself will be exalted is humility and the reversal imagery used to underline it is common: Luke 1:52-53; 6:21; 10:15; 18:14.

[18:14]  ³⁰ sn The prayer that was heard and honored was the one given with humility; in a surprising reversal it was the tax collector who went down to his home justified.

[18:14]  ³¹ tn Grk “the other”; the referent (the Pharisee, v. 10) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:14]  ³² sn Everyone who exalts himself. See Luke 14:11. Jesus often called for humility and condemned those who sought honor.

[4:6]  ³³ sn A quotation from Prov 3:34.

[4:1]  ³⁴ tn The word “where” is repeated in Greek for emphasis.

[4:1]  ³⁵ tn Grk “from here.”

[4:1]  ³⁶ tn Grk “in your members [i.e., parts of the body].”

[5:5]  ³⁷ sn James’ point seems to be that instead of seeking deliverance from condemnation, they have defied God’s law (fattened your hearts) and made themselves more likely objects of his judgment (in a day of slaughter).

[5:6]  ³⁸ tn Literally a series of verbs without connectives, “you have condemned, you have murdered…he does not resist.”