What Does Isaiah 2:11 Mean?
The lifted eyes of man shall be brought low, and the heights of men shall bow down, and the LORD alone shall be lifted high in that day.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
The 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.THE KEY
The verse does not erase height; it brings human height low and leaves the LORD alone exalted.
THE MEANING
Human prominence reaches for height, but it cannot hold: the elevated human gaze and status are brought low. The LORD alone remains exalted, placing lasting height outside human rank.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that status or self-importance can secure lasting elevation; the verse says human height comes down.
THE ROOT
נִשְׂגַּב
nisgav
GROWS FROM
שגב
To be high, lofty, or inaccessible; to stand securely above reach.
“lifted high” in this verse is nisgav. The close names a height that belongs to the LORD alone. A branch of this root also names a high refuge, joining elevation with security.
ALSO GROWS
misgav: High place, refuge, or stronghold.
מִשְׂגָּב
This branch gives the root’s height a sense of secure refuge, deepening the verse’s claim that the LORD alone holds exaltation.
sāgav: To be high, exalted, or beyond reach.
שָׂגַב
The verb carries the same height found in the closing word, where the LORD alone is exalted.
גְּבַהוּת
geva'hut
GROWS FROM
גבה
To be or become high, raised, or lofty.
“lifted eyes” in this verse is geva'hut. The Hebrew names the gaze itself as “eyes of loftiness”: גְּבַהוּת (geva’hut, loftiness) is what the eyes carry. It shares ג־ב (g-b) with נִשְׂגַּב (nisgav, exalted), though the words have distinct roots; their sound links the two heights as the lowering clauses distinguish their outcomes.
ALSO GROWS
gābōah: High or lofty.
גָּבֹהַּ
The adjective gives the same root’s elevation a direct form, echoing the verse’s image of a lofty human gaze.
higbiah: To raise or make high.
הִגְבִּיהַּ
This causative form shows the root can describe height being lifted up, the very condition the verse says does not last for human beings.
שָׁפֵל
shāphēl
GROWS FROM
שפל
To be low, brought down, or humbled.
The verse’s lowering is a real reversal of position: human height is brought low. The same root can describe low terrain, giving the passage’s vertical contrast a concrete shape.
ALSO GROWS
shippēl: To lower or bring down.
שִׁפֵּל
This form makes the lowering active and clarifies the movement implied when human haughtiness is bowed down.
shephelah: Lowland or lower country.
שְׁפֵלָה
The root can name a low place in the landscape, grounding the verse’s movement from human height to lowliness.
THE PATTERN
Human height is brought low while exaltation belongs to the LORD alone.
The LORD strips, and makes rich; he lays low, and lifts high.Though the LORD is lifted high, he sees the low ones, and the lofty he perceives from afar.He has pulled the mighty down from their seats, and lifted up the low.THE THREAD
And the height of man shall bow down, and the heights of men shall be brought low; and the LORD alone shall be lifted high in that day.Verse 17 repeats נִשְׂגַּב (nisgav, exalted) for the LORD while naming human loftiness and height as brought low. The repetition makes the distinction structural: elevation remains, but the LORD alone occupies it.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us