Yesaya 2:9

2:9 Men bow down to them in homage,

they lie flat on the ground in worship. ¹ 

Don’t spare them! ² 

Yesaya 5:15

5:15 Men will be humiliated,

they will be brought low;

the proud will be brought low. ³ 

Yesaya 14:18

14:18 ⁴ As for all the kings of the nations,

all of them ⁵  lie down in splendor, ⁶ 

each in his own tomb. ⁷ 

Yesaya 41:6

41:6 They help one another; ⁸ 

one says to the other, ‘Be strong!’

[2:9]  ¹ tn Heb “men bow down, men are low.” Since the verbs שָׁחָח (shakhakh) and שָׁפַל (shafal) are used later in this discourse to describe how God will humiliate proud men (see vv. 11, 17), some understand v. 9a as a prediction of judgment, “men will be brought down, men will be humiliated.” However, these prefixed verbal forms with vav (ו) consecutive appear to carry on the description that precedes and are better taken with the accusation. They draw attention to the fact that human beings actually bow down and worship before the lifeless products of their own hands.

[2:9]  ² tn Heb “don’t lift them up.” The idiom “lift up” (נָשָׂא with לְ, nasa’ with preposition lamed) can mean “spare, forgive” (see Gen 18:24, 26). Here the idiom plays on the preceding verbs. The idolaters are bowed low as they worship their false gods; the prophet asks God not to “lift them up.”

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

[14:18]  ⁴ sn It is unclear where the quotation of the kings, begun in v. 10b, ends. However, the reference to the “kings of the nations” in v. 18 (see also v. 9) seems to indicate that the quotation has ended at this point and that Israel’s direct taunt (cf. vv. 4b-10a) has resumed. In fact the references to the “kings of the nations” may form a stylistic inclusio or frame around the quotation.

[14:18]  ⁵ tc The phrase “all of them” does not appear in the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a.

[14:18]  ⁶ sn This refers to the typically extravagant burial of kings.

[14:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “house” (so KJV, ASV), but in this context a tomb is in view. Note the verb “lie down” in the preceding line and the reference to a “grave” in the next line.

[41:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “each his neighbor helps”; NCV “The workers help each other.”