Bible Strands
Proverbs 30:13
There is a generation—how haughty are their eyes and pretentious are their glances—
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Agur addresses a community of readers regarding a specific generation, positioning this observation between warnings about self-righteousness and predatory exploitation.
The words — The Hebrew רָמ֣וּ (ra.Mu) and יִנָּשֵֽׂאוּ (yi.na.Se.'u) literally mean "they are raised" and "they are lifted up," describing the physical elevation of eyes and eyelids.
The thread — This motif of an elevated gaze appears in Proverbs 6:17 as a listed abomination, Isaiah 2:11 as a pride destined for humbling, and Psalms 101:5 as a trait incompatible with fellowship with the Lord.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that physical arrogance signals spiritual rebellion, requiring readers to examine their own posture before God and reject self-exalting attitudes.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
There is a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up.
Cross-references
- Proverbs 6:17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,
- Isaiah 2:11 The proud look of man will be humbled, and the loftiness of men brought low; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.
- Psalms 101:5 Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, I will put to silence; the one with haughty eyes and a proud heart, I will not endure.
- Psalms 131:1 A song of ascents. Of David. My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty. I do not aspire to great things or matters too lofty for me.
- Proverbs 21:4 Haughty eyes and a proud heart—the guides of the wicked—are sin.
- Isaiah 3:16 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—
- Ezekiel 28:2 “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.
- Ezekiel 28:9 Will you still say, ‘I am a god,’ in the presence of those who slay you? You will be only a man, not a god, in the hands of those who wound you.
- Daniel 11:36 Then the king will do as he pleases and will exalt and magnify himself above every god, and he will speak monstrous things against the God of gods. He will be successful until the time of wrath is completed, for what has been decreed must be accomplished.
- Habakkuk 2:4 Look at the proud one; his soul is not upright—but the righteous will live by faith—