What Does James 4:10 Mean?
Be made low before the face of the LORD, and he will lift you up.
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
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.THE KEY
The verse places your lowering before the Lord and your rising in his hands.
THE MEANING
You humble yourself before the Lord, and he raises you. Your rising comes from his action, not from making yourself high.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that you must make yourself impressive to be lifted up: the verse assigns the raising to the Lord.
THE ROOT
ταπεινώθητε
tapeinōthēte
GROWS FROM
ταπεινόω
tapeinoō
To lower, make low, humble.
“be made low” in this verse is tapeinōthēte. The verb names a downward movement, not merely a modest opinion of yourself; its word family also names lowliness and a low estate. English “humble” can sound like a private attitude, while this root gives the verse a felt change of height.
ALSO GROWS
tapeinos: Lowly, humble.
ταπεινός
This related word makes the lowliness of the verse a quality of position as well as attitude.
tapeinōsis: Low estate, humiliation.
ταπείνωσις
It shows the root can name an actual lowering, deepening the movement expressed by “humble yourselves.”
tapeinophrosynē: Humility, lowliness of mind.
ταπεινοφροσύνη
This branch carries the downward movement into a person’s way of thinking.
ὑψώσει
hypsōsei
GROWS FROM
ὑψόω
hypsoō
To raise high, exalt.
“lift you up” in this verse is hypsōsei. This verb is the upward counter-motion to the lowering: the Lord raises you to height. Since the Lord is its subject, the verse does not describe you climbing back up by force.
ALSO GROWS
hypsos: Height, the heights.
ὕψος
This branch makes the destination of the Lord’s raising concrete: height.
hypsēlos: High, lofty.
ὑψηλός
It shows the root can describe what has been raised above the low place.
hypsōma: Height, something lofty.
ὕψωμα
This related form echoes the elevated position carried by the promise to lift you up.
THE PATTERN
The person who stops raising themselves is raised by God, while self-exaltation is brought low.
Surely he scoffs at the scoffers, but he gives favor to the bowed.For everyone who lifts himself will be brought low; and the one who lowers himself will be lifted up.So be made low under the strong hand of God, that he may lift you up in season.THE THREAD
So be made low under the strong hand of God, that he may lift you up in season.Peter repeats James’s two verbs: ταπεινόω (tapeinoō), “to lower or humble,” and ὑψόω (hypsoō), “to raise or exalt.” His phrase “in due time” makes explicit that the raising belongs to God’s action and timing, opening the same low-to-high movement further.
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