Jeremiah 9:23

American Standard Version (1901)

Thus saith Jehovah, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches;

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

כִּ֣י אִם־בְּזֹ֞את יִתְהַלֵּ֣ל הַמִּתְהַלֵּ֗ל הַשְׂכֵּל֮ וְיָדֹ֣עַ אוֹתִי֒ כִּ֚י אֲנִ֣י יְהוָ֔ה עֹ֥שֶׂה חֶ֛סֶד מִשְׁפָּ֥ט וּצְדָקָ֖ה בָּאָ֑רֶץ כִּֽי־בְאֵ֥לֶּה חָפַ֖צְתִּי נְאֻם־יְהוָֽה׃

Transliteration

kî 'im-in-this yithallēl hammithallēl haśkēl wĕyādōa' 'ôtî kî 'ănî YHWH 'ōśeh ḥesed mišpāṭ ûṣĕdāqāh in-the-'āreṣ kî-in-these ḥāpaṣtî nĕ'um-YHWH

Grammar Details

• *kî*: conjunction - for
• *'im*: conditional particle - if
• *yithallēl*: imperfect verb, 3rd person masculine singular, hitpael, jussive - let him boast
• *hammithallēl*: participle, masculine singular, hitpael with definite article - the one boasting
• *haśkēl*: infinitive absolute, hiphil - understanding
• *wĕyādōa'*: conjunction + infinitive absolute - and knowing
• *'ôtî*: direct object marker with 1st person singular suffix - me
• *'ănî*: 1st person singular pronoun - I
• *YHWH*: divine name
• *'ōśeh*: participle, masculine singular - doing/practicing
• *ḥesed*: masculine noun - lovingkindness
• *mišpāṭ*: masculine noun - justice
• *ûṣĕdāqāh*: conjunction + feminine noun - and righteousness
• *'āreṣ*: feminine noun with prefixed preposition - in the earth
• *ḥāpaṣtî*: perfect verb, 1st person singular - I delight
• *nĕ'um-YHWH*: construct phrase - declaration of YHWH

Word Meanings

• *kî 'im*: but rather/except in/only in
• *yithallēl*: let him boast/glory/praise himself
• *hammithallēl*: the one boasting/glorying/priding himself
• *haśkēl wĕyādōa'*: understanding and knowing (emphatic construction)
• *'ôtî*: me/myself
• *'ōśeh*: doing/practicing/performing
• *ḥesed*: lovingkindness/steadfast love/mercy
• *mišpāṭ*: justice/judgment/right
• *ûṣĕdāqāh*: and righteousness/equity/virtue
• *'āreṣ*: earth/land/world
• *ḥāpaṣtî*: I delight/take pleasure/desire
• *nĕ'um-YHWH*: declaration of YHWH/utterance of YHWH

Referenced Verses

• Eccl 9:11 : 11 I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
• Job 31:24-25 : 24 If I have made gold my hope, And have said to the fine gold, [Thou art] my confidence; 25 If I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, And because my hand had gotten much;
• 1 Cor 1:27-29 : 27 but God chose the foolish things of the world, that he might put to shame them that are wise; and God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong; 28 and the base things of the world, and the things that are despised, did God choose, [yea] and the things that are not, that he might bring to nought the things that are: 29 that no flesh should glory before God.
• 1 Cor 3:18-20 : 18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man thinketh that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool, that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He that taketh the wise in their craftiness: 20 and again, The Lord knoweth the reasonings of the wise that they are vain.
• 1 Kgs 20:10-11 : 10 And Ben-hadad sent unto him, and said, The gods do so unto me, and more also, if the dust of Samaria shall suffice for handfuls for all the people that follow me. 11 And the king of Israel answered and said, Tell him, Let not him that girdeth on [his armor] boast himself as he that putteth it off.
• Mark 10:24 : 24 And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!
• Rom 1:22 : 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
• Isa 5:21 : 21 Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
• Isa 10:8 : 8 For he saith, Are not my princes all of them kings?
• Isa 10:12-13 : 12 Wherefore it shall come to pass, that, when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks. 13 For he hath said, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I have understanding: and I have removed the bounds of the peoples, and have robbed their treasures, and like a valiant man I have brought down them that sit [on thrones] :
• Isa 36:8-9 : 8 Now therefore, I pray thee, give pledges to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them. 9 How then canst thou turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put thy trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?
• Ezek 7:19 : 19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be as an unclean thing; their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of Jehovah: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels; because it hath been the stumblingblock of their iniquity.
• Ezek 28:2-9 : 2 Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyre, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because thy 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 man, and not God, though thou didst set thy heart as the heart of God;-- 3 behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that is hidden from thee; 4 by thy wisdom and by thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures; 5 by thy great wisdom [and] by thy traffic hast thou increased thy riches, and thy heart is lifted up because of thy riches;-- 6 therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because thou hast set thy heart as the heart of God, 7 therefore, behold, I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations; and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness. 8 They shall bring thee down to the pit; and thou shalt die the death of them that are slain, in the heart of the seas. 9 Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God? but thou art man, and not God, in the hand of him that woundeth thee.
• Ezek 29:9 : 9 And the land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste; and they shall know that I am Jehovah. Because he hath said, The river is mine, and I have made it;
• Dan 3:15 : 15 Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made, [well] : but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that god that shall deliver you out of my hands?
• Dan 4:30-31 : 30 The king spake and said, Is not this great Babylon, which I have built for the royal dwelling-place, by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty? 31 While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, [saying], O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken: The kingdom is departed from thee:
• Dan 4:37 : 37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven; for all his works are truth, and his ways justice; and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.
• Dan 5:18-23 : 18 O thou king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father the kingdom, and greatness, and glory, and majesty: 19 and because of the greatness that he gave him, all the peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him: whom he would he slew, and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he raised up, and whom he would he put down. 20 But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him: 21 and he was driven from the sons of men, and his heart was made like the beasts', and his dwelling was with the wild asses; he was fed with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; until he knew that the Most High God ruleth in the kingdom of men, and that he setteth up over it whomsoever he will. 22 And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thy heart, though thou knewest all this, 23 but hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou and thy lords, thy wives and thy concubines, have drunk wine from them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know; and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified.
• Ps 33:16-17 : 16 There is no king saved by the multitude of a host: A mighty man is not delivered by great strength. 17 A horse is a vain thing for safety; Neither doth he deliver any by his great power.
• Ps 49:6-9 : 6 They that trust in their wealth, And boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; 7 None [of them] can by any means redeem his brother, Nor give to God a ransom for him; 8 (For the redemption of their life is costly, And it faileth for ever;) 9 That he should still live alway, That he should not see corruption. 10 For he shall see it. Wise men die; The fool and the brutish alike perish, And leave their wealth to others. 11 Their inward thought is, [that] their houses [shall continue] for ever, [And] their dwelling-places to all generations; They call their lands after their own names. 12 But man [being] in honor abideth not: He is like the beasts that perish. 13 This their way is their folly: Yet after them men approve their sayings. {{Selah
• Ps 49:16-18 : 16 Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, When the glory of his house is increased. 17 For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away; His glory shall not descend after him. 18 Though while he lived he blessed his soul (And men praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself,)
• Ps 52:6-7 : 6 The righteous also shall see [it], and fear, And shall laugh at him, [saying] , 7 Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength, But trusted in the abundance of his riches, And strengthened himself in his wickedness.
• Ps 62:10 : 10 Trust not in oppression, And become not vain in robbery: If riches increase, set not your heart [thereon] .
• Prov 11:4 : 4 Riches profit not in the day of wrath; But righteousness delivereth from death.
• Eccl 2:13-16 : 13 Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness. 14 The wise man's eyes are in his head, and the fool walketh in darkness: and yet I perceived that one event happeneth to them all. 15 Then said I in my heart, As it happeneth to the fool, so will it happen even to me; and why was I then more wise? Then said I in my heart, that this also is vanity. 16 For of the wise man, even as of the fool, there is no remembrance for ever; seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. And how doth the wise man die even as the fool!
• Eccl 2:19 : 19 And who knoweth whether he will be a wise man or a fool? yet will he have rule over all my labor wherein I have labored, and wherein I have showed myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity.
• 1 Cor 1:19-21 : 19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And the discernment of the discerning will I bring to nought. 20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For seeing that in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom knew not God, it was God's good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save them that believe.
• Luke 12:19-20 : 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, be merry. 20 But God said unto him, Thou foolish one, this night is thy soul required of thee; and the things which thou hast prepared, whose shall they be?
• Acts 12:22-23 : 22 And the people shouted, [saying], The voice of a god, and not of a man. 23 And immediately an angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.
• Job 5:12-14 : 12 He frustrateth the devices of the crafty, So that their hands cannot perform their enterprise. 13 He taketh the wise in their own craftiness; And the counsel of the cunning is carried headlong. 14 They meet with darkness in the day-time, And grope at noonday as in the night.
• Deut 8:17 : 17 and [lest] thou say in thy heart, My power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth.
• 1 Sam 17:4-9 : 4 And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. 5 And he had a helmet of brass upon his head, and he was clad with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass. 6 And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a javelin of brass between his shoulders. 7 And the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam; and his spear's head [weighed] six hundred shekels of iron: and his shield-bearer went before him. 8 And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me. 9 If he be able to fight with me, and kill me, then will we be your servants; but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us. 10 And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.
• 1 Sam 17:42 : 42 And when the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him; for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and withal of a fair countenance.
• 1 Tim 6:10 : 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil: which some reaching after have been led astray from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
• Jas 3:14-16 : 14 But if ye have bitter jealousy and faction in your heart, glory not and lie not against the truth. 15 This wisdom is not [a wisdom] that cometh down from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. 16 For where jealousy and faction are, there is confusion and every vile deed.
• Zeph 1:18 : 18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of Jehovah's wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he will make an end, yea, a terrible end, of all them that dwell in the land.
• Amos 2:14-16 : 14 And flight shall perish from the swift; and the strong shall not strengthen his force; neither shall the mighty deliver himself; 15 neither shall he stand that handleth the bow; and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver [himself] ; neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself; 16 and he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith Jehovah.