Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your brightness: I have cast you to the ground; I have laid you before kings, that they may see you.
Parallel translations
- KJV Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.
- BSB Your heart grew proud of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor; so I cast you to the earth; I made you a spectacle before kings.
- NKJV “Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, That they might gaze at you.
- NASB “Your heart was haughty because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I threw you to the ground; I put you before kings, That they may see you.
- NLT Your heart was filled with pride because of all your beauty. Your wisdom was corrupted by your love of splendor. So I threw you to the ground and exposed you to the curious gaze of kings.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
His heart grew proud over his beauty and his wisdom became corrupted, so God casts him to the ground before kings. Pride in God-given gifts brings public humiliation.
Overview
The root of the fall is named plainly: a heart lifted up by beauty and splendor. Self-admiration corrupted the very wisdom that should have led to humility. God responds by exposing him before watching rulers, displaying that he opposes the proud and brings them low, a principle Scripture applies universally and that finds its remedy in the humble, exalted Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 20
- Ezek 28:5by your great wisdom and by your traffic you have increased your riches, and your heart is lifted up because of your riches —
- Ezek 31:10Therefore thus said the Lord Yahweh: Because you are exalted in stature, and he has set his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height;
- Jas 4:6But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
- Prov 16:18Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
- Luke 14:11For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
- Ezek 28:2Son of man, tell the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because your heart is lifted up, and you have said, I am a god, I sit in the seat of God, in the middle of the seas; yet you are man, and not God, though you set your heart as the heart of God —
- Prov 11:2When pride comes, then comes shame, but with humility comes wisdom.
- Ps 147:6Yahweh upholds the humble. He brings the wicked down to the ground.
- Ezek 32:10Yes, I will make many peoples amazed at you, and their kings shall be horribly afraid for you, when I shall brandish my sword before them; and they shall tremble at every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of your fall.
- Isa 19:11–13The princes of Zoan are utterly foolish. The counsel of the wisest counselors of Pharaoh has become stupid. How do you say to Pharaoh, “I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?”
- Ezek 28:7therefore, behold, I will bring strangers on you, the terrible of the nations; and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom, and they shall defile your brightness.
- Rom 1:22–25Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
- Ezek 16:41They will burn your houses with fire, and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women. I will cause you to cease from playing the prostitute, and you will also give no hire any more.
- Ezek 23:48“‘Thus I will cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to be lewd like you.
- 1 Cor 1:19–21For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, I will bring the discernment of the discerning to nothing.”
- Isa 14:9–11Sheol from beneath has moved for you to meet you at your coming. It stirs up the departed spirits for you, even all the rulers of the earth. It has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
- Jer 8:9The wise men are disappointed. They are dismayed and trapped. Behold, they have rejected Yahweh’s word. What kind of wisdom is in them?
- Job 40:11–12Pour out the fury of your anger. Look at everyone who is proud, and bring him low.
- Ezek 16:14–15Your renown went out among the nations for your beauty; for it was perfect, through my majesty which I had put on you,” says the Lord Yahweh.
- Ps 73:18Surely you set them in slippery places. You throw them down to destruction.
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Christ at the center
The promise of one Shepherd-King David, a new heart and new Spirit, and the river of life flowing from the temple all stream toward Christ, the good Shepherd who gives the Spirit.
How Ezekiel 28:17 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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