Do not hold us accountable for the sins of earlier generations! ¹  Quickly send your compassion our way, ²  for we are in serious trouble! ³ 

The fortified city (along with the very tops of your ¹  walls) ²  he will knock down, he will bring it down, he will throw it down to the dusty ground. ³ 

Every valley must be elevated, and every mountain and hill leveled. The rough terrain will become a level plain, the rugged landscape a wide valley.

Every valley will be filled, ¹  and every mountain and hill will be brought low, and the crooked will be made straight, and the rough ways will be made smooth,

All the trees of the field will know that I am the Lord. I make the high tree low; I raise up the low tree. I make the green tree wither, and I make the dry tree sprout. I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will do it!’”

Look at every proud man and abase him; crush the wicked on the spot! ¹ 

Many times he delivered ¹  them, but they had a rebellious attitude, ²  and degraded themselves ³  by their sin.

Men bow down to them in homage, they lie flat on the ground in worship. ¹  Don’t spare them! ² 

Men are nothing but a mere breath; human beings are unreliable. ¹  When they are weighed in the scales, all of them together are lighter than air. ² 

Proud men will be brought low, arrogant men will be humiliated; ¹  the Lord alone will be exalted ²  in that day.

You will fall; while lying on the ground ¹  you will speak; from the dust where you lie, your words will be heard. ²  Your voice will sound like a spirit speaking from the underworld; ³  from the dust you will chirp as if muttering an incantation. ⁴ 

Scatter abroad ¹  the abundance ²  of your anger. Look at every proud man ³  and bring him low;

But the rich person’s pride should be in his humiliation, because he will pass away like a wildflower in the meadow. ¹ 

Then the cows went directly on the road to Beth Shemesh. They went along, mooing as they went; they turned neither to the right nor to the left. The leaders of the Philistines were walking along behind them all the way to the border of Beth Shemesh.

¹ I will punish the world for its evil, ²  and wicked people for their sin. I will put an end to the pride of the insolent, I will bring down the arrogance of tyrants. ³ 

The Lord humiliated ¹  Judah because of King Ahaz of Israel, ²  for he encouraged Judah to sin and was very ³  unfaithful to the Lord.

Look, the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, is ready to cut off the branches with terrifying power. ¹  The tallest trees ²  will be cut down, the loftiest ones will be brought low.

Look how you have fallen from the sky, O shining one, son of the dawn! ¹  You have been cut down to the ground, O conqueror ²  of the nations! ³ 

Bathsheba bowed down on the floor before ¹  the king. The king said, “What do you want?”

But man ¹  dies and is powerless; ²  he expires – and where is he? ³