4:10a

Humble yourselves before the Lord: The Greek verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Humble yourselves is a command that literally means “Make yourselves low.” Here it refers to making our attitudes low. It means “Submit yourselves” to the authority and greatness of God.

Some other ways to translate this clause are:

Be humble in the Lord’s presence (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
Don’t be too proud in the Lord’s presence (New Century Version)

This verb is related to the adjective humble in 4:6d.

before the Lord: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as before the Lord can also be translated as:

to the Lord
-or-
in front of the Lord

the Lord: The word Lord also occurs in 3:9a. See the Note there for translation advice.

4:10b

and: The Greek conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as and here introduces what God will do if and when people obey the command in the previous verse. Another way to translate this conjunction is:

Then (God’s Word)

He will exalt you: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates literally as He will exalt you contrasts with “humble yourselves” in 4:10a. James meant that God would honor this person and make this person truly great.

Some other ways to translate this phrase are:

he will lift you up in honor (New Living Translation (2004 Revision))
-or-
he will honor you (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
he will give you a high position (God’s Word)

James did not say when God will do this. If you must be specific, it is best to translate this in a way that includes both this life and the future life.

© 2012 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.