Man is brought low, and mankind is humbled; therefore don’t forgive them.
Parallel Translations
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Man is brought low, and mankind is humbled; therefore don’t forgive them.
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And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not.
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And man boweth down, and man lowereth himself; and Thou canst not bear with them.
Cross-references (14)
Passages linked to Isaiah 2:9 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Isaiah 5:15 So man is brought low, mankind is humbled, and the eyes of the arrogant ones are humbled;
- Joshua 24:19 Joshua said to the people, “You can’t serve Yahweh, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your disobedience nor your sins.
- Nehemiah 4:5 Don’t cover their iniquity. Don’t let their sin be blotted out from before you; for they have insulted the builders.”
- Isaiah 27:11 When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off. The women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people of no understanding. Therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them, and he who formed them will show them no favor.
- Jeremiah 18:23 Yet, Yahweh, you know all their counsel against me to kill me. Don’t forgive their iniquity. Don’t blot out their sin from your sight, Let them be overthrown before you. Deal with them in the time of your anger.
- Mark 3:29 but whoever may blaspheme against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation.”
- Romans 3:23 for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God;
- Psalms 49:2 both low and high, rich and poor together.
- Psalms 62:9 Surely men of low degree are just a breath, and men of high degree are a lie. In the balances they will go up. They are together lighter than a breath.
- Isaiah 57:9 You went to the king with oil, increased your perfumes, sent your ambassadors far off, and degraded yourself even to Sheol.
- Colossians 2:23 These things indeed appear like wisdom in self-imposed worship, humility, and severity to the body; but aren’t of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.
- Jeremiah 5:4-5 Then I said, “Surely these are poor. They are foolish; for they don’t know the Yahweh’s way, nor the law of their God. I will go to the great men and will speak to them, for they know the way of Yahweh, and the law of their God.” But these with one accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.
- Colossians 2:18 Let no one rob you of your prize by self-abasement and worshiping of the angels, dwelling in the things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
- Revelation 6:15-17 The kings of the earth, the princes, the commanding officers, the rich, the strong, and every slave and free person, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains. They told the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of his wrath has come; and who is able to stand?”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (15 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain He noteth the nature of the idolaters, which are…
He noteth the nature of the idolaters, which are never satisfied in their superstitions.
Thus the Prophet spake, being inflamed with the zeal of God’s glory, and that he might fear them with God’s judgment.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Isa 2:9 And the mean man boweth down, and…
Isa 2:9 And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not.
Ver. 9. And the mean man boweth down.] There is a general conspiracy, and they are altogether become abominable. Lords and lowlies, kings and captives, all sorts were idolaters. Some render it, "Shall be brought down, and shall be humbled." God loveth to retaliate, to abate and abase man’s pride, by pulling down whatsoever height or strength they confide in.
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Therefore forgive them not.] A pious prayer doubtless, proceeding from true zeal, which is an extreme heat of all the affections for God’s glory. Ut pius sit in Deum, durus sit in proximum, saith Oecolampadius. Like another Elias he maketh intercession to God against Israel, {Rom 11:2} whom he saw to be incorrigible, and their sin to be irremissible, their judgment unavoidable.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The mean man boweth down, and the great man…
The mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself; men of all ranks fall down and worship idols.
Forgive them not; cut off these incorrigible idolaters. Such an imprecation is not strange, considering the heinousness and inexcusableness of the crime, the singular condition of the prophets, who spake such things not from any disorderly passion, but by Divine inspiration, and from a fervent zeal for God’s glory, which ever was and ought to be dearer to them than all the interests of men, and from a pious care and fear lest others should be infected by their counsel or example. Yet the words may be taken as a prediction, Thou wilt not forgive them; by this I know thou hast determined utterly to destroy them; for the Hebrew particle al is sometimes taken only for a simple denial, as Psa 121:3; Pro 12:28.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And the mean man boweth down, and the great…
And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself,.... Both high and low, rich and poor, bow down unto, humble themselves before, and worship idols made by the hands of men: the words for the "mean man" and "the great man" are and "Adam" and "Ish"; and which are also interpreted by Jarchi of little or mean men, and of princes and mighty ones:
therefore forgive them not; their sins of soothsaying, covetousness, and idolatry; and such that worship the beast and his image shall not be forgiven, but drink of the wine of divine wrath, and be tormented with fire for ever and ever, Rev 14:9. These are either the words of the prophet to the Lord representing the church, and imprecating evils on antichristian worshippers; or of the angel to the Christian powers, exhorting them not to spare Babylon, Rev 18:6 some refer these words to the mean and great men bowing down and humbling themselves, and read them in connection with them thus, "and lifts not up unto them"; that is, the head or soul; so Aben Ezra, who also observes, that the word "earth" may be wanting, and supplied thus, "and the earth shall not bear them"; they shall be destroyed from off it, both the idols and the worshippers of them. See Psa 10:16.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain The great man - Men of all ranks fall…
The great man - Men of all ranks fall down and worship idols.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 9. Boweth down - "Shall be bowed down"]…
Verse 9. Boweth down - "Shall be bowed down"] This has reference to the preceding verse. They bowed themselves down to their idols, therefore shall they be bowed down and brought low under the avenging hand of God.
Therefore forgive them not.] "And thou wilt not forgive them." - L.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain And the mean man - That is, the man…
And the mean man - That is, the man in humble life, the poor, the low in rank - for this is all that the Hebrew word here - אדם 'âdâm - implies. The distinction between the two words here used - אדם 'âdâm as denoting a man of humble rank, and אישׁ 'ı̂ysh as denoting one of elevated rank - is one that constantly occurs in the Scriptures. Our word “mean” conveys an idea of moral baseness and degradation, which is not implied in the Hebrew.
Boweth down - That is, before idols. Some commentators, however, have understood this of bowing down in “affliction,” but the other is probably the true interpretation.
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And the great man - The men in elevated rank in life. The expressions together mean the same as “all ranks of people.” It was a common or universal thing. No rank was exempt from the prevailing idolatry.
Therefore forgive them not - The Hebrew is “future” - להם ואל־תשׂא ve'al-tis'â' lâhem. Thou wilt not “bear” for them; that is, thou wilt not bear away their sins (by an atonement), or ‘thou wilt not forgive them;’ - but agreeable to a common Hebrew construction, it has the force of the imperative. It involves a “threatening” of the prophet, in the form of an address to God ‘So great is their sin, that thou, Lord, wilt not pardon them.’ The prophet then proceeds, in the following verses, to denounce the certainty and severity of the judgment that was coming upon them.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Forgive. Septuagint, "I will not dismiss them." Hebrew, "and…
Forgive. Septuagint, "I will not dismiss them." Hebrew, "and thou hast not pardoned them."
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain mean--in rank: not morally base: opposed to "the great…
mean--in rank: not morally base: opposed to "the great man." The former is in Hebrew, Adam, the latter, ish.
boweth--namely, to idols. All ranks were idolaters.
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forgive . . . not--a threat expressed by an imperative. Isaiah so identifies himself with God's will, that he prays for that which he knows God purposes. So Rev 18:6.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 9. Mean man… great man — All classes, both…
9. Mean man… great man — All classes, both common people and the upper ranks, were involved in this kind of idolatry — that is, in harbouring household penates and the like.
Boweth down… humbleth himself — Most commentators believe these expressions to refer both to bowing in worship to idols, and to the punishment following.
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Forgive them not — Not necessarily a wish of the prophet, except so far as he desired the proper vindication of the rights of Jehovah. The Hebrew tense is future; hence it amounts to a prediction: Thou wilt not forgive them. See note on Isa_1:24.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 9. boweth down … humbleth himself] If this be…
9. boweth down … humbleth himself] If this be the right translation, the reference must be to the degradation of human dignity involved in idolatry and superstition, a thought not unworthy of Isaiah. It is more probable, however (see ch. Isa_5:15), that the words refer to the judgment at hand, which is as certain as if it had already taken place. So R.V. is bowed down … is brought low. The verbs may be understood either in a reflexive or a passive sense.
mean man … great man] In the original the contrast is expressed by two words for “man,” corresponding to homo and vir in Latin, Mensch and Mann in German, &c. Sometimes, as here, the distinction is emphasised so as to mark a contrast (Psa_49:2).
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therefore forgive them not] Or, and thou canst (or wilt) not forgive them. The verbal form employed in the Heb. (jussive) properly expresses the will or desire of the speaker (as E.V.), but in negative sentences it “sometimes expresses merely the subjective feeling and sympathy of the speaker with the act” (Davidson, Synt. § 128, R. 2).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (9) And the mean man boweth down.—The English gives…
(9) And the mean man boweth down.—The English gives adequately the significance of the two words for “man”—in Hebrew, adam and îsh. The Authorised Version applies the words to the prostrations of the worshippers of idols, whether of low or high degree; others refer them to the punishment of that idolatry: The mean man must be bowed down . . . the great man must be humbled.
Therefore forgive them not.—As a prayer the words find a parallel in Psa_69:27; Psa_109:14, but the rendering adopted by Cheyne and others, And thou canst not forgive them, is perhaps preferable. The sin is treated as “a sin unto death,” for which it is vain to pray (Isa_22:14).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain And the mean man boweth down, etc. So Ewald…
And the mean man boweth down, etc. So Ewald and Kay; but most other commentators render, "Therefore shall the mean man be bowed down, and the great man brought low, and thou shalt not or, "canst not forgive them" (Rosenm Lowth, Gcsenius, Knobel, Cheyne). The transition from narrative to threatening comes best at the beginning of the verse.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain The mean man
Isa_2:9
The mean man
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The mean man
Mean there does not mean selfish or stingy, but the man between two extremes, the mean, average, ordinary man.
The mean man and the great man are both bowing--what are they bowing to? Something beneath them; they have lost the sense of their dignity, and they have forgotten that they are kings, and now they are bowing down to things that they ought to control. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
In Isa 2:9 Isaiah finishes speaking to Yahweh. In Isa 2:10-11 Isaiah speaks to the people of Judah. Both times he speaks in the form of a poem. (See: Parallelism)
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The people will be bowed down, and individuals will fall down
Here being low to the ground represents people who are completely humiliated because they realize all they trusted in is worthless, and they can do nothing to help themselves. This can be stated in active form. AT: "God will make the people ashamed, and they will realize that all they trusted in is worthless" (See: Metaphor and Active or Passive)
The people
human beings, as opposed to animals
individuals
"each person"
do not raise them up
The words "raise them up" are a metaphor for Yahweh forgiving the people. AT: "do not forgive them" (See: Metaphor)
Go into the rocky places
Possible meanings are the people should go into 1) caves on steep hillsides or 2) places where there are many large rocks among which to hide.
hide in the ground
Possible meanings are that the people should hide 1) in natural holes in the ground or 2) in pits that they dig in the ground.
from the terror of Yahweh
Here the abstract noun "terror" can be expressed by the verb "terrifying." AT: "to get away from Yahweh's terrifying presence" or "from Yahweh because you will be extremely afraid of him" (See: Abstract Nouns)
the glory of his majesty
"the great beauty and power he has as king" or "his royal splendor." See how you translated this in Isaiah 2:10.
The lofty gaze of man will be brought low
"Yahweh will bring down the lofty gaze of man." A man with a "lofty gaze" is looking above everyone to show them that he is better than they are. Here all people are guilty of thinking they are better than Yahweh, and the way they look at those who worship Yahweh, is a metonym for their pride. AT: "Yahweh will make ashamed all people because they think they are better than he is" (See: Metaphor and Metonymy)
the pride of men will be brought down
"The pride of men" here is a metonym for proud people, and being "brought down" is a metaphor for being humbled or ashamed. This can be stated in active form. AT: "Yahweh will bring down proud men" or "Yahweh will make proud people ashamed of themselves" (See: Metonymy and Metaphor and Active or Passive)
Yahweh alone will be exalted
This can be stated in active form. AT: "people will praise only Yahweh" (See: Active or Passive)
on that day
This is an idiom. AT: "on the day that Yahweh judges everyone" (See: Idiom)
translationWords
bow
terror
glory
majesty
proud
exalt
day of the Lord
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.