'Man' in the Bible

“They did not say, ‘Where is the LordWho brought us up from the land of Egypt,Who led us through the wilderness,Through a land of deserts and of pits,Through a land of drought and of the deep darkness [of the shadow of death],Through a land that no man passed throughAnd where no man lived?’

That is to say, “If a man divorces his wifeAnd she goes [away] from himAnd becomes another man’s [wife],Will he return to her again? [Of course not!]Will not that land [where such a thing happened] be completely desecrated?But you [rebelled against Me and you] are a prostitute with many lovers;Yet you turn to Me.” says the Lord.

I looked, and behold, there was no man,And all the birds of the air had fled.

Every city runs away at the sound of the horsemen and archers.They go into the thickets and climb among the rocks;Every city is deserted,And no man lives in them.

“Roam back and forth through the streets of Jerusalem,And look now and take note.And look in her open squaresTo see if you can find a man [as Abraham sought in Sodom],One who is just, who [has integrity and moral courage and] seeks truth (faithfulness);Then I will pardon Jerusalem—[for the sake of one uncompromisingly righteous person].

“They seize bow and spear;They are cruel and inhuman and have no mercy.Their voice sounds like the roaring sea;They ride [in formation] on horses,Arrayed as a man for battleAgainst you, O Daughter of Zion (Jerusalem)!”

For if you thoroughly change your ways and your behavior, if you thoroughly and honestly practice justice between a man and his neighbor,

Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, My anger and My wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; and it will burn and [the fire will] not be quenched.”

“I have listened and heard,But they have spoken what is not right;No man repented of his wickedness,Saying, ‘What have I done?’Everyone turns to his [individual] course,As the horse rushes like a torrent into battle.

Who is the wise man who may understand this [without any doubt]? To whom has the mouth of the Lord spoken, so that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined, laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?

Every man has become [like a brute] irrational and stupid, without knowledge [of God];Every goldsmith is shamed by his carved idols;For his molten images are frauds and lies,And there is no breath in them.

O Lord, I know that the path of [life of] a man is not in himself;It is not within [the limited ability of] man [even one at his best] to choose and direct his steps [in life].

Say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, “Cursed is the man who does not heed the words of this covenant

“They have made it a wasteland,Desolate, it mourns before Me;The whole land has been made a wasteland,Because no man takes it to heart.

And it shall come about that after I have uprooted them, I will return and have compassion on them; and I will bring them back again, each one to his inheritance and each one to his land.

For as the waistband clings to the body of a man, so I caused the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cling to Me,’ says the Lord, ‘that they might be for Me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory; but they did not listen and obey.’

“O Hope of Israel,Her Savior in time of distress and trouble,Why should You be like a sojourner (temporary resident) in the landOr like a traveler who turns aside and spreads his tent to linger [only] for a night?

“Why should You be [hesitant and inactive] like a man astounded and perplexed,Like a mighty man unable to save?Yet You, O Lord, are among us,And we are called by Your name;Do not leave us!”

Woe to me, my mother, that you have given birth to meTo be a man of strife and a man of contention to all the earth!I have not loaned, nor have men lent money to me,Yet everyone curses me.

“Can a man make gods for himself?Such [things] are not gods!

Thus says the Lord,“Cursed is the man who trusts in and relies on mankind,Making [weak, faulty human] flesh his strength,And whose mind and heart turn away from the Lord.

“Blessed [with spiritual security] is the man who believes and trusts in and relies on the LordAnd whose hope and confident expectation is the Lord.

“I, the Lord, search and examine the mind,I test the heart,To give to each man according to his ways,According to the results of his deeds.

Cursed be the man who brought the newsTo my father, saying,“A son has been born to you!”Making him very glad.

And let that man be like the citiesWhich the Lord overthrew without regret.Let him hear an outcry in the morningAnd a shout of alarm at noon;

I will also strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they will die of a great virulent disease.

“Many nations will pass by this city; and each man will say to another, ‘Why has the Lord done this to this great city?’

“Is this man [King] Coniah a despised, broken jar?Is he a vessel in which no one takes pleasure?Why are he and his [royal] descendants hurled outAnd cast into a land which they do not know or understand?

Thus says the Lord,‘Write this man [Coniah] down as childless,A man who will not prosper (succeed) in his lifetime;For not one of his descendants will succeedIn sitting on the throne of DavidOr ruling again in Judah.’”

Concerning the prophets:My heart [says Jeremiah] is broken within me,All my bones shake;I have become like a drunken man,A man whom wine has overcome,Because of the LordAnd because of His holy words [declared against unfaithful leaders].

who think that they can make My people forget My Name by their [contrived] dreams which each one tells another, just as their fathers forgot My Name because of Baal?

And as for the prophet, the priest, or [any of] the people, whoever says, ‘The oracle of the Lord,’ [as if he knows God’s will], I will punish that man and his household.

It may be that they will listen and everyone will turn from his wickedness, so that I may relent and reverse [My decision concerning] the disaster which I am planning to do to them because of their malevolent deeds.’

Then the priests and the [false] prophets said to the princes and to all the people, “This man is deserving of death, for he has prophesied against this city as you have heard with your own ears.”

Then the princes and all the people said to the priests and to the [false] prophets, “This man is not deserving of death, for he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.”

And there was also a man who prophesied in the name of the Lord, Uriah the son of Shemaiah of Kiriath-jearim, who prophesied against this city and against this land in words similar to all those of Jeremiah.

‘Ask now, and seeWhether a man can give birth [to a child].Why then do I see every manWith his hands on his loins, as a woman in labor?Why have all faces turned pale?

“How long will you hesitate [to return],O you faithless and renegade daughter?For the Lord has created a new thing in the land [of Israel]:A woman will encompass (tenderly love) a man.”

“Behold (listen carefully), the days are coming,” says the Lord, “when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of beast.

But everyone will die [only] for his own wickedness; every man who eats sour grapes—his [own] teeth shall be set on edge.

And each man will no longer teach his neighbor and his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me [through personal experience], from the least of them to the greatest,” says the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness, and I will no longer remember their sin.”

Fields will be bought in this land of which you say, “It is desolate, without man or animal; it is given into the hands of the Chaldeans.”

“Thus says the Lord, ‘Yet again there will be heard in this place of which you say, “It is a [desolate] waste, without man and without animal”—even in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without animal—

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘There will again be in this desolate place—[a place] without man or animal—and in all its cities, pastures for shepherds who rest their flocks.

For thus says the Lord, ‘David shall never lack a man (descendant) to sit on the throne of the house of Israel;

and the Levitical priests shall never lack a man (descendant) to offer burnt offerings before Me and to burn grain offerings and to prepare sacrifices all day long.’”

that every man should let his Hebrew slaves, male and female, go free, so that no one should make a slave of a Jew, his brother.

“At the end of seven years each of you shall set free his Hebrew brother who has sold himself [into servitude] or who has been sold to you and has served you six years, you shall release him from [serving] you; but your forefathers did not listen [submissively] to Me or obey Me.

and I brought them into the house of the Lord, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, the man of God, which was near the chamber of the princes, above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum the doorkeeper.

I have also sent to you all My servants the prophets, sending them repeatedly, saying, ‘Let every one of you turn now from his evil way and alter your behavior, and do not follow other gods to worship and serve them; and then you will live in the land which I have given to you and to your forefathers. But you have not submitted or listened to Me.

therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Jonadab the son of Rechab shall never fail to have a man (descendant) to stand before Me always.”’”

And concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah you shall say, ‘Thus says the Lord, “You have burned this scroll, saying, ‘Why have you written on it that the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land, and will cut off man and beast from it?’”

For even if you had defeated the whole army of the Chaldeans who fight against you, and there remained only the wounded men among them, yet they would rise up, every man confined in his tent, and burn down this city with fire.’”

Therefore the princes (court officials) said to the king, “Please [we implore you] let this man [Jeremiah] be put to death; for [speaking] in this way he discourages and weakens [the will of] the soldiers who remain in this city and he discourages and weakens [the will of] all the people by speaking such words to them; for this man is not seeking the well-being of these people, but rather their harm.”

Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Let no man know about this conversation and you will not die.

they even sent and took Jeremiah out of the court of the guardhouse and entrusted him to Gedaliah [a prominent citizen], the son of Ahikam [who had once saved Jeremiah’s life], the son of Shaphan, to take him home [with him to Mizpah]. So Jeremiah [was released and] lived among the people.

Then Johanan the son of Kareah spoke secretly to Gedaliah in Mizpah, saying, “Let me go and kill Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and not a man will know [who is responsible]. Why should he kill you and cause all the Jews who are gathered near you to be scattered and the remnant of Judah to perish?”

Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you now fear [as if he were deity]; do not be afraid of him,’ says the Lord, ‘for [he is a mere man, but I am the living, omniscient God and] I am with you [always] to protect you and to deliver you from his hand.

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘You have seen all the disaster that I have brought on Jerusalem and on all the cities of Judah; and see, this day they are desolated and no one lives in them

Therefore now thus says the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, “Why did you commit this great evil against yourselves [bringing disaster] that will cut off from you man and woman, child and infant, out of Judah, leaving yourselves without a remnant?

Therefore hear the word of the Lord, all [you people of] Judah who are living in the land of Egypt, ‘Behold, I have sworn [an oath] by My great Name,’ says the Lord, ‘that My Name shall never again be invoked by the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, “As the Lord God lives.”

Do not let the swift man run,Nor the mighty man escape;In the north by the river EuphratesThey have stumbled and fallen.

“Behold, I am going to bring terror on you,”Says the Lord God of hosts,“From all who are around you;And each of you will be driven out headlong,And there will be no one to gather the fugitives together.

As [it was] in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah with their neighboring cities,” says the Lord, “no man will live there, nor will a son of man dwell in it.

“Hazor will become a haunt and dwelling place of jackals,A desolation forever;No one will live there,Nor will a son of man reside in it.”

For out of the north a nation (Media) has come against her which will make her land desolate, and no one will live there. They have fled, they have gone away—both man and animal.

“As when God overthrew SodomAnd Gomorrah and their neighboring cities,” says the Lord,“So no man will live there;Nor shall any son of man live there.”

“They seize their bow and spear;They are cruel and have no compassion.They sound like the roaring of the sea;They ride on horses,Every man equipped like a man [ready] for the battleAgainst you, O Daughter of Babylon.

Flee out of Babylon,Let every one of you save his life!Do not be destroyed in her punishment,For this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance;He is going to pay her what she has earned.

Every man has become stupid and brutelike, without knowledge [of God];Every goldsmith is shamed by the cast images he has made;For his molten idols are a lie,And there is no breath [of life] or spirit in them.

With you I shatter man and woman,With you I shatter old man and youth,With you I shatter young man and virgin,

“Her cities have become an astonishing desolation and an object of horror,A parched land and a desert,A land in which no one lives,And through which no son of man passes.

“Come out of her midst, My people,And each of you [escape and] save yourselfFrom the fierce anger of the Lord.

and say, ‘You, O Lord, have promised concerning this place to cut it off and destroy it, so that there shall be nothing living in it, neither man nor animal, but it will be perpetually desolate.’