Daily Bible Nugget #750, Proverbs 11:2

The Nugget:

Pro 11:2  When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom. (KJV)

Pro 11:2 When pride comes, there comes shame, but wisdom is with the quiet in spirit. (BBE, Basic English Bible)

Pro 11:2  People who are proud will soon be disgraced. It is wiser to be modest. (GNB, Good News Bible)

Pro 11:2  Wherever pride enters, there will be also disgrace: but the mouth of the lowly meditates wisdom. (LXX, Brenton translation)

Pro 11:2  When you act with presumption, convinced that you’re right, don’t be surprised if you fall flat on your face! But walking in humility helps you to make wise decisions. (TPT, The Passion Translation)

Pro 11:2  Arrogance comes, then comes shame, but wisdom remains with humble people. (GW, God’s Word translation)

Pro 11:2 Too much pride can put you to shame. It’s wiser to be humble. (CEV, Contemporary English Version)

My Comment:

I post verses in several English translations because each translation adds insight for English readers present in the underlying original text of the Bible. No single translation can convey all the depth of riches to be found in the original language. Some translations may be the product of translators with whom we otherwise have good reason to disagree. Nevertheless, sometimes even they shed light on the underlying meaning of the text that others may have missed. So the first step in quickly accessing the meaning of a Bible verse is to read it in what I call “distinctive translations.” These are translations which by their unique word choices bring out the meaning of a text more fully.

The second step in understanding a text in the Bible is to interpret a verse in the light of its immediate, its near, its related, and its distant contexts. This includes carefully following the flow of thought in a passage. I demonstrated this at considerable length in a recent post regarding John 17:3. But in the book of Proverbs, there often is no basis for following the immediate context principle of interpretation because individual proverbs are often unique gems of truth stated without reference to the immediate context.

The third step in understanding a text in the Bible is to interpret the verse in the light of what the rest of the Bible tells us about the subjects mentioned in the verse. To do this, we make use of cross reference Bible study. If you have not spent much if any time carefully consulting the cross references given for Bible verses of interest to you, you have been missing a whole new dimension of effective Bible study and understanding!

Yesterday, I encountered Proverbs 11:2 in my study of the Bible text for Proverbs 25:5 which I used for yesterday’s Daily Bible Nugget post. I discovered that the cross references given for Proverbs 11:2 could be improved. So I reorganized the cross references to better fit the key words in the verse and added the reciprocal references and some additional references never given before.

Here are the newly prepared cross references for Proverbs 11:2,

Proverbs 11:2
pride. +Pro 16:5; +Pro 16:18; +Pro 16:19; Pro 18:12, 2Sa 15:1. Isa 3:9. Eze 28:17. *Dan 4:30, 31, 32, *Luk 14:8, 9, 10, 11; *Luk 18:14.

cometh shame. *Pro 3:35; Pro 18:3; Pro 18:12; Gen 3:5; Gen 3:7, Num 12:2; Num 12:9, 10, 2Ch 26:16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 2Ch 32:21, Job 36:14. Dan 4:30, Zep 2:8; Zep 2:10; Zep 2:15. Luk 14:9. 1Co 6:9, 10. Eph 5:12.

but with the lowly. *Pro 3:34; Gen 41:16; Gen 41:38, 39, Dan 2:20, 21, Luk 14:10, 11, *1Co 8:1; *1Co 8:2.

is wisdom. Pro 1:2. Pro 2:6; Pro 15:33,