Pride: General Scriptures Concerning

Jethro declared, “Blessed be the LORD, who has delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh, and who has delivered the people from the hand of the Egyptians.

Now I know that the LORD is greater than all other gods, for He did this when they treated Israel with arrogance.”

I will break down your stubborn pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze,

Be careful not to forget the LORD your God by failing to keep His commandments and ordinances and statutes, which I am giving you this day. …

You might say in your heart, “The power and strength of my hands have made this wealth for me.” …

Finally all the trees said to the thornbush, ‘Come and reign over us.’

But the thornbush replied, ‘If you really are anointing me as king over you, come and find refuge in my shade. But if not, may fire come out of the thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon.’

Do not boast so proudly, or let arrogance come from your mouth, for the LORD is a God who knows, and by Him actions are weighed. …

And the king of Israel replied, “Tell him: ‘The one putting on his armor should not boast like one taking it off.’”

But Jehoash king of Israel replied to Amaziah king of Judah: “A thistle in Lebanon sent a message to a cedar in Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son in marriage.’ Then a wild beast in Lebanon came along and trampled the thistle.

You have indeed defeated Edom, and your heart has become proud. Glory in that and stay at home. Why should you stir up trouble so that you fall—you and Judah with you?”

But Jehoash king of Israel replied to Amaziah king of Judah: “A thistle in Lebanon sent a message to a cedar in Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son in marriage.’ Then a wild beast in Lebanon came along and trampled the thistle.

You have said, ‘Look, I have defeated Edom,’ and your heart has become proud and boastful. Now stay at home. Why should you stir up trouble so that you fall—you and Judah with you?”

But a witless man can no more become wise than the colt of a wild donkey can be born a man!

“Truly then you are the people with whom wisdom itself will die!

But I also have a mind; I am not inferior to you. Who does not know such things as these?

What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you.

If only you would remain silent; for that would be your wisdom!

Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied: …

Why are we regarded as cattle, as stupid in your sight?

Who denounces his behavior to his face? Who repays him for what he has done?

He is carried to the grave, and watch is kept over his tomb.

It is not only the old who are wise, or the elderly who understand justice. …

Therefore, men fear Him, for He is not partial to the wise in heart.”

Lay terror upon them, O LORD; let the nations know they are but men. Selah

In pride the wicked pursue the needy; let them be caught in the schemes they devise. …

He says to himself, “God has forgotten; He hides His face and never sees.”

They say, “With our tongues we will prevail. We own our lips—who can be our master?”

For You save an afflicted people, but You humble those with haughty eyes.

Love the LORD, all His saints. The LORD preserves the faithful, but fully repays the arrogant.

Their graves are their eternal homes—their dwellings for endless generations—even though their lands were their namesakes.

“Look at the man who did not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his wealth and strengthened himself by destruction.”

Therefore pride is their necklace; a garment of violence covers them.

They mock and speak with malice; with arrogance they threaten oppression.

They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongues strut across the earth.

I say to the proud, ‘Do not boast,’ and to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up your horn. …

Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, I will put to silence; the one with haughty eyes and a proud heart, I will not endure.

You rebuke the arrogant—the cursed who stray from Your commandments.

Though the arrogant have smeared me with lies, I keep Your precepts with all my heart.

Their hearts are callous and insensitive, but I delight in Your law.

May the arrogant be put to shame for subverting me with a lie; I will meditate on Your precepts.

Though the LORD is on high, He attends to the lowly; but the proud He knows from afar.

He mocks the mockers, but gives grace to the humble.

There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to Him:

…haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,

To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate arrogant pride, evil conduct, and perverse speech.

Whoever heeds instruction is on the path to life, but he who ignores reproof goes astray.

When pride comes, disgrace follows, but with humility comes wisdom.

Whoever shows contempt for his neighbor lacks judgment, but a man of understanding remains silent.

Better to be lightly esteemed yet have a servant, than to be self-important but lack food.

The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to counsel.

Arrogance leads only to strife, but wisdom is with the well-advised.

He who despises his neighbor sins, but blessed is he who shows kindness to the poor.

A fool rejects his father’s discipline, but whoever heeds correction is prudent.

Discipline is harsh for him who leaves the path; he who hates correction will die.

A mocker does not love to be reproved, nor will he consult the wise.

The LORD tears down the house of the proud, but He protects the boundaries of the widow.

He who ignores discipline despises himself, but whoever heeds correction gains understanding.

Everyone who is proud in heart is detestable to the LORD; be assured that he will not go unpunished.

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

It is better to be lowly in spirit among the humble than to divide the spoil with the proud.

He who loves transgression loves strife; he who builds his gate high invites destruction.

A rich man’s wealth is his fortified city; it is like a high wall in his imagination.

Before his downfall a man’s heart is proud, but humility comes before honor.

Many a man proclaims his loving devotion, but who can find a trustworthy man?

Haughty eyes and a proud heart—the guides of the wicked—are sin.

Mocker is the name of the proud and arrogant man—of him who acts with excessive pride.

Like clouds and wind without rain is the man who boasts of gifts never given.

It is not good to eat too much honey or to search out one’s own glory.

Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he become wise in his own eyes.

Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

The slacker is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who answer discreetly.

Let another praise you, and not your own mouth—a stranger, and not your own lips.

A rich man is wise in his own eyes, but a poor man with discernment sees through him.

A greedy man stirs up strife, but he who trusts in the LORD will prosper.

Mockers inflame a city, but the wise turn away anger.

A man’s pride will bring him low, but a humble spirit will obtain honor.

There is a generation of those who are pure in their own eyes and yet unwashed of their filth.

There is a generation—how haughty are their eyes and pretentious are their glances—

The proud look of man will be humbled, and the loftiness of men brought low; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day. …

The LORD also says: “Because the daughters of Zion are haughty—walking with heads held high and wanton eyes, prancing and skipping as they go, jingling the bracelets on their ankles— …

Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field until no place is left and you live alone in the land.

So mankind will be brought low, and each man humbled; the arrogant will lower their eyes.

All the people will know it—Ephraim and the dwellers of Samaria. With pride and arrogance of heart they will say:

“The bricks have fallen, but we will rebuild with finished stone; the sycamores have been felled, but we will replace them with cedars.”

Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger; the staff in their hands is My wrath. …

I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity. I will end the haughtiness of the arrogant and lay low the pride of the ruthless.

How you have fallen from heaven, O day star, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the ground, O destroyer of nations. …

We have heard of Moab’s pomposity, his exceeding pride and conceit, his overflowing arrogance. But his boasting is empty.

Therefore let Moab wail; let them wail together for Moab. Moan for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth, you who are utterly stricken.

What are you doing here, and who authorized you to carve out a tomb for yourself here—to chisel your tomb in the height and cut your resting place in the rock?

I will remove you from office, and you will be ousted from your position.

Is this your jubilant city, whose origin is from antiquity, whose feet have taken her to settle far away?

The LORD of Hosts planned it, to defile all its glorious beauty, to disgrace all the renowned of the earth.

The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and fades; the exalted of the earth waste away.

In that day the LORD will punish the host of heaven above and the kings of the earth below.

For He has humbled those who dwell on high; He lays the lofty city low. He brings it down to the ground; He casts it into the dust.

The majestic crown of Ephraim’s drunkards will be trampled underfoot.

Our Redeemer—the LORD of Hosts is His name—is the Holy One of Israel. …

This is what the LORD says: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the wealthy man in his riches.

But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD, who exercises loving devotion, justice and righteousness on the earth—for I delight in these things,” declares the LORD.

“This is what the LORD says: In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.

Listen and give heed. Do not be arrogant, for the LORD has spoken.

But if you do not listen, I will weep in secret because of your pride. My eyes will overflow with tears, because the LORD’s flock has been taken captive.

Because you trust in your works and treasures, you too will be captured, and Chemosh will go into exile with his priests and officials.

How can you say, ‘We are warriors, mighty men ready for battle’?

Moab has been destroyed and its towns have been invaded; the best of its young men have gone down in the slaughter, declares the King, whose name is the LORD of Hosts.

We have heard of Moab’s pomposity, his exceeding pride and conceit, his proud arrogance and haughtiness of heart.

Why do you boast of your valleys—your valleys so fruitful, O faithless daughter? You trust in your riches and say, ‘Who can come against me?’

The terror you cause and the pride of your heart have deceived you, O dwellers in the clefts of the rocks, O occupiers of the mountain summit. Though you elevate your nest like the eagle, even from there I will bring you down,” declares the LORD.

“Behold, I am against you, O arrogant one,” declares the Lord GOD of Hosts, “for your day has come, the time when I will punish you.

The arrogant one will stumble and fall with no one to pick him up. And I will kindle a fire in his cities to consume all those around him.”

Did you not treat your sister Sodom as an object of scorn in the day of your pride,

“Son of man, tell the ruler of Tyre that this is what the Lord GOD says: Your heart is proud, and you have said, ‘I am a god; I sit in the seat of gods in the heart of the sea.’ Yet you are a man and not a god, though you have regarded your heart as that of a god. …

Your heart grew proud of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor; so I cast you to the earth; I made you a spectacle before kings.

For this is what the LORD says: The allies of Egypt will fall, and her proud strength will collapse. From Migdol to Syene they will fall by the sword within her, declares the Lord GOD.

Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Since it became great in height and set its top among the clouds, and it grew proud on account of its height, …

Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, for all His works are true and all His ways are just. And He is able to humble those who walk in pride.

He will pitch his royal tents between the sea and the beautiful holy mountain, but he will meet his end with no one to help him.

Israel’s arrogance testifies against them; Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity; even Judah stumbles with them.

Israel’s arrogance testifies against them, yet they do not return to the LORD their God; despite all this, they do not seek Him.

Ephraim is a well-trained heifer that loves to thresh; but I will place a yoke on her fair neck. I will harness Ephraim, Judah will plow, and Jacob will break the hard ground.

The pride of your heart has deceived you, O dwellers in the clefts of the rocks whose habitation is the heights, who say in your heart, ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’

Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, even from there I will bring you down,” declares the LORD.

There is no healing for your injury; your wound is severe. All who hear the news of you applaud your downfall, for who has not experienced your constant cruelty?

Look at the proud one; his soul is not upright—but the righteous will live by faith—

…and wealth indeed betrays him. He is an arrogant man never at rest. He enlarges his appetite like Sheol, and like Death, he is never satisfied. He gathers all the nations to himself and collects all the peoples as his own.

Woe to him who builds his house by unjust gain, to place his nest on high and escape the hand of disaster!

This they shall have in return for their pride, for taunting and mocking the people of the LORD of Hosts.

This carefree city that dwells securely, that thinks to herself: “I am it, and there is none besides me,” what a ruin she has become, a resting place for beasts. Everyone who passes by her hisses and shakes his fist.

On that day you will not be put to shame for any of the deeds by which you have transgressed against Me. For then I will remove from among you those who rejoice in their pride, and you will never again be haughty on My holy mountain.

“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of Hosts. “Not a root or branch will be left to them.”

It shall not be this way among you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,

…and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave—

They love the places of honor at banquets, the chief seats in the synagogues, …

Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Christ. …

For from within the hearts of men come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,

But it shall not be this way among you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,

In His teaching Jesus also said, “Watch out for the scribes. They like to walk around in long robes, to receive greetings in the marketplaces,

…and to have the chief seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets.

He has performed mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who are proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has exalted the humble.

Then an argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest.

Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the chief seats in the synagogues and the greetings in the marketplaces.

“When you are invited to a wedding banquet, do not sit in the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited.

Then the host who invited both of you will come and tell you, ‘Give this man your seat.’ And in humiliation, you will have to take the last place.

I tell you, this man, rather than the Pharisee, went home justified. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

In the hearing of all the people, Jesus said to His disciples, …

Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools,

They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips,

…slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent new forms of evil; they disobey their parents.

Now if some branches have been broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others to share in the nourishment of the olive root, …

I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you will not be conceited: A hardening in part has come to Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but think of yourself with sober judgment, according to the measure of faith God has given you.

Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but associate with the lowly. Do not be conceited.

…so that no one may boast in His presence.

Let no one deceive himself. If any of you thinks he is wise in this age, he should become a fool, so that he may become wise.

Brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us not to go beyond what is written. Then you will not take pride in one man over another. …

We are fools for Christ, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honored, but we are dishonored.

And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been stricken with grief and have removed from your fellowship the man who did this?

Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven works through the whole batch of dough?

Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

The one who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know.

So the one who thinks he is standing firm should be careful not to fall.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

But if anyone ignores this, he himself will be ignored.

We demolish arguments and every presumption set up against the knowledge of God; and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they show their ignorance.

For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.

…or because of these surpassingly great revelations. So to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.

If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty pride, but in humility consider others more important than yourselves.

Likewise, I want the women to adorn themselves with respectable apparel, with modesty, and with self-control, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes,

He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same condemnation as the devil.

If anyone teaches another doctrine and disagrees with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and with godly teaching,

…he is conceited and understands nothing. Instead, he has an unhealthy interest in controversies and disputes about words, out of which come envy, strife, abusive talk, evil suspicions,

Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be conceited and not to put their hope in the uncertainty of wealth, but in God, who richly provides all things for us to enjoy.

For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,

…traitorous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,