There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up.
Parallel translations
- WEB There is a generation, oh how lofty are their eyes! Their eyelids are lifted up.
- BSB There is a generation—how haughty are their eyes and pretentious are their glances—
- NKJV There is a generation—oh, how lofty are their eyes! And their eyelids are lifted up.
- NASB There is a kind—oh how lofty are his eyes! And his eyelids are raised in arrogance.
- NLT They look proudly around, casting disdainful glances.
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
There is a generation marked by proud, haughty eyes and looks of contempt.
Overview
Lofty, lifted-up eyes are a biblical picture of arrogance, here describing a people consumed by pride. Such haughtiness is among the things God most detests, for it exalts self against Him and looks down on others. The remedy is the humility Christ both taught and embodied, lifting up the lowly and bringing down the proud.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Prov 6:17A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
- Isa 2:11The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
- Ps 101:5Whoso privily slandereth his neighbour, him will I cut off: him that hath an high look and a proud heart will not I suffer.
- Ps 131:1Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.
- Isa 3:16Moreover the LORD saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet:
- Prov 21:4An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin.
- Dan 11:36–37And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
- Hab 2:4Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.
- Ezek 28:2–5Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God:
- Ezek 28:9Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God? but thou shalt be a man, and no God, in the hand of him that slayeth thee.
- 2 Th 2:3–4Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 30:13 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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