Lectionary Calendar
Saturday, August 2nd, 2025
the Week of Proper 12 / Ordinary 17
Attention!
StudyLight.org has pledged to help build churches in Uganda. Help us with that pledge and support pastors in the heart of Africa.
Click here to join the effort!

Read the Bible

Easy-to-Read Version

Isaiah 2:9

The people have become worse and worse. They have become very low, and you leaders did nothing to lift them up!

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Idolatry;   Isaiah;  

Dictionaries:

- Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Jesus Christ;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Isaiah;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Isaiah, Book of;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Kingdom of christ of heaven;   Kingdom of god;   Kingdom of heaven;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Forgiveness;   Humility;   Mean;   Zephaniah, Book of;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Hadrian;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
So humanity is brought low,and each person is humbled.Do not forgive them!
Hebrew Names Version
Man is brought low, And mankind is humbled; Therefore don't forgive them.
King James Version
And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not.
English Standard Version
So man is humbled, and each one is brought low— do not forgive them!
New American Standard Bible
So the common person has been humbled And the person of importance has been brought low, But do not forgive them.
New Century Version
People will not be proud any longer but will bow low with shame. God, do not forgive them.
Amplified Bible
So the common man has been humbled [before idols] And the man of importance has been degraded, Therefore do not forgive them [O LORD].
World English Bible
Man is brought low, And mankind is humbled; Therefore don't forgive them.
Geneva Bible (1587)
And a man bowed himselfe, and a man humbled himselfe: therefore spare them not.
Legacy Standard Bible
So the common man has been bowed down,And the man of importance has been made low,But do not forgive them.
Berean Standard Bible
So mankind is brought low, and man is humbled-do not forgive them!
Contemporary English Version
And so, all of them will be ashamed and disgraced. Don't help them!
Complete Jewish Bible
A person bows down, a man lowers himself — don't forgive them!
Darby Translation
And the mean man shall be bowed down, and the great man shall be brought low: and do not thou forgive them!
George Lamsa Translation
And the common man is humbled, and the mighty man is brought low; therefore forgive them not.
Good News Translation
Everyone will be humiliated and disgraced. Do not forgive them, Lord !
Lexham English Bible
So humanity is humbled; everyone is humbled, and you must not forgive them.
Literal Translation
And man bowed down; and man was humbled, but You do not lift them up.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
There kneleth the man, there falleth the man downe before them, so yt thou canst not bringe him awaye from thence.
American Standard Version
And the mean man is bowed down, and the great man is brought low: therefore forgive them not.
Bible in Basic English
And the poor man's head is bent, and the great man goes down on his face: for this cause there will be no forgiveness for their sin.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
And man boweth down, and man lowereth himself; and Thou canst not bear with them.
King James Version (1611)
And the meane man boweth downe, and the great man humbleth himselfe; therefore forgiue them not.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
There kneeleth the man, there falleth the man downe [before them:] therfore forgeue them not.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And the mean man bowed down, and the great man was humbled: and I will not pardon them.
English Revised Version
And the mean man is bowed down, and the great man is brought low; therefore forgive them not.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
and a man bowide hymsilf, and a man of ful age was maad low. Therfor foryyue thou not to hem.
Update Bible Version
And man is bowed down, and a man is brought low: therefore don't forgive them.
Webster's Bible Translation
And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not.
New English Translation
Men bow down to them in homage, they lie flat on the ground in worship. Don't spare them!
New King James Version
People bow down, And each man humbles himself; Therefore do not forgive them.
New Living Translation
So now they will be humbled, and all will be brought low— do not forgive them.
New Life Bible
So pride has been taken away from the poor man, and important men have been put to shame. Do not forgive them.
New Revised Standard
And so people are humbled, and everyone is brought low— do not forgive them!
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
So the mean man boweth down And the great man stoopeth low, - Therefore do not thou forgive them!
Douay-Rheims Bible
And man hath bowed himself down, and man hath been debased: therefore forgive them not.
Revised Standard Version
So man is humbled, and men are brought low--forgive them not!
Young's Literal Translation
And the low boweth down, and the high is humbled, And Thou acceptest them not.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
So the common man has been humbled And the man of importance has been abased, But do not forgive them.

Contextual Overview

6 Family of Jacob, you have abandoned your people. This is clear because they have been filled with bad influences from the East, and now your people try to tell the future like the Philistines. They have completely accepted those strange ideas. 7 Jacob's land has been filled with silver and gold from other places. There are many treasures there. His land has been filled with horses and many chariots. 8 His land is full of gods that the people bow down to worship. They made those idols themselves. 9 The people have become worse and worse. They have become very low, and you leaders did nothing to lift them up!

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

the mean: Isaiah 5:15, Psalms 49:2, Jeremiah 5:4, Jeremiah 5:5, Romans 3:23, Revelation 6:15-17

humbleth: Isaiah 57:9, Colossians 2:18, Colossians 2:23

therefore: Isaiah 27:11, Joshua 24:19, Jeremiah 18:23, Mark 3:29

Reciprocal: 2 Kings 22:17 - the works 2 Chronicles 34:25 - Because Proverbs 6:35 - regard Isaiah 24:2 - as with the people Isaiah 40:20 - chooseth Acts 7:41 - rejoiced

Cross-References

Genesis 2:8
Then the Lord God planted a garden in the East, in a place named Eden. He put the man he made in that garden.
Genesis 2:9
Then the Lord God caused all the beautiful trees that were good for food to grow in the garden. In the middle of the garden, he put the tree of life and the tree that gives knowledge about good and evil.
Genesis 2:17
But you must not eat from the tree that gives knowledge about good and evil. If you eat fruit from that tree, on that day you will certainly die!"
Genesis 3:3
But there is one tree we must not eat from. God told us, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden. You must not even touch that tree, or you will die.'"
Deuteronomy 6:25
If we carefully obey the whole law, exactly as the Lord our God told us to, he will say that we have done a very good thing.'
Proverbs 3:18
Wisdom is like a life-giving tree to those who hold on to her; she is a blessing to those who keep her close.
Proverbs 11:30
What good people produce is like a life-giving tree. Those who are wise give new life to others.
Isaiah 44:25
False prophets tell lies, but the Lord shows that their lies are false. He makes fools of those who do magic. He confuses even the wise. They think they know a lot, but he makes them look foolish.
Isaiah 47:10
You do bad things but still feel safe. You say to yourself, ‘No one sees the wrong I do.' You thought that your wisdom and knowledge would save you. You tell yourself, ‘I alone am important, and no one else matters.'
Ezekiel 31:16
I made the tree fall—and the nations shook with fear at the sound of the falling tree. I sent the tree down to the place of death to join the other people who had gone down into that deep hole. In the past, all the trees of Eden, the best of Lebanon, drank that water. The trees were comforted in the world below.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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 אדם and

איש, "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, Revelation 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, Revelation 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 Psalms 10:16.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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.

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.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 2:9. 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.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile