1:52a
He has brought down rulers from their thrones: The clause He has brought down rulers from their thrones is a figure of speech. It indicates that the Lord has removed rulers from their positions of authority. In this verse, the word thrones represents the authority that kings have. Therefore, this expression means that God has caused people who were kings to be kings no longer.
In some languages, people may not understand this figure of speech. If that is true in your language, here are other ways to translate it:
• Use the figure of speech and also make the meaning explicit. For example:
He has pulled kings from their thrones and taken their kingship from them
• Use a similar figure of speech in your language. For example:
He has taken the kings’ staffs of office from them
• Translate the meaning without the figure of speech. For example:
He has removed kings from their positions of authority
-or-
He has taken away the power of kings
1:52b
but: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as but is often translated as “and.” It connects two ways in which God showed his power: He has brought down rulers from their thrones (1:52a), and he has lifted up humble people (1:52b). These two actions contrast with each other, so but is natural in English. Connect these parts of the verse in a natural way in your language. In some languages a conjunction may not be needed.
has exalted the humble: The verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as exalted here has the figurative meaning of “to give a high position to.” It has the opposite meaning of the verb “brought down” in 1:52a. The phrase the humble refers to people who were poor and also humble in spirit.
Mary and Elizabeth were examples of humble people whom God exalted. God exalted Mary by giving her the honor of becoming the mother of the Messiah. He exalted Elizabeth by making her the mother of John, who prepared people for the Messiah.
Some other ways to translate exalted the humble are:
exalted the lowly (New Living Translation (1996))
-or-
honored humble people (God’s Word)
© 2009, 2010, 2013 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.