Proverbs 16:18

Pride ¹  goes ²  before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. ³ 

Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.

Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before stumbling.

Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall.

First pride, then the crash--the bigger the ego, the harder the fall.

Pride goes before destruction, and a stiff spirit before a fall.

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.

Pride ¹  goes ²  before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. ³ 

¹ sn The two lines of this proverb are synonymous parallelism, and so there are parasynonyms. “Pride” is paired with “haughty spirit” (“spirit” being a genitive of specification); and “destruction” is matched with “a tottering, falling.”

² tn Heb “[is] before destruction.”

³ sn Many proverbs have been written in a similar way to warn against the inevitable disintegration and downfall of pride. W. McKane records an Arabic proverb: “The nose is in the heavens, the seat is in the mire” (Proverbs [OTL], 490).