pride

The Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as “pride” in English is translated as

  • “continually boasting” (Amganad Ifugao)
  • “lifting oneself up” (Tzeltal)
  • “answering haughtily” (Yucateco) (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • “unbent neck” (like llamas) (Kaqchikel) (source: Nida 1952, p. 151)
  • “praising oneself, saying: I am better” (Shipibo-Conibo) (source: Nida 1964, p. 237).
  • “bigness of head” (existing idiom: girman kai) in the Hausa Common Language Bible it is idiomatically translated as or (Source: Andy Warren-Rothlin)
  • “trying to make yourself the leader” in Mairasi (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • “make oneself important” (sick upspeeln) in Low German (source: translation by Johannes Jessen, publ. 1933, republ. 2006)
  • “a haughty liver” in Yakan (source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • “lift head” in Upper Guinea Crioulo (source: Nicoleti 2012, p. 78)

See also proud / arrogant.

Translation commentary on Isaiah 5:15

Man is bowed down, and men are brought low repeats 2.9 (see the comments there). As in 2.9, Man and men are general terms for (all) people and should be so translated.

And the eyes of the haughty are humbled is synonymous with the first line. It is almost identical to the first line of 2.11 (see the comments there). Eyes refers to how people look around and thus their attitude.

In this verse there is a difference in tense between Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation: Revised Standard Version uses present tense while Good News Translation has future, probably with “that day” in mind (see 2.11).

Alternative translation models for this verse are:

• Everyone will be brought low and humbled,
people’s arrogant looks will be removed.

• Every person will be brought low, all will be humbled,
their arrogant looks will be removed.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .