43 Bible Verses about Inferiority

But Gideon said to Him, “Please Lord, how am I to rescue Israel? Behold, my family is the least [significant] in Manasseh, and I am the youngest (smallest) in my father’s house.”

But I am [treated as] a worm [insignificant and powerless] and not a man;
I am the scorn of men and despised by the people.

I came to you in [a state of] weakness and fear and great trembling.

So Saul’s servants spoke these words to David. But David said, “Is it a trivial thing in your sight to become a king’s son-in-law, seeing that I am a poor man and insignificant?”

[And Nehemiah prayed] Hear, O our God, how we are despised! Return their taunts on their own heads. Give them up as prey in a land of captivity.

For they all wanted to frighten us, thinking, “They will become discouraged with the work and it will not be done.” But now, [O God,] strengthen my hands.

Be gracious and compassionate to me, O Lord, for I am in trouble;
My eye is clouded and weakened by grief, my soul and my body also.

For my life is spent with sorrow
And my years with sighing;
My strength has failed because of my iniquity,
And even my body has wasted away.

But I am afflicted and needy;
Come quickly to me, O God!
You are my help and my rescuer;
O Lord, do not delay.

Let not the oppressed return dishonored;
Let the afflicted and needy praise Your name.

Incline Your ear, O Lord, and answer me,
For I am distressed and needy [I long for Your help].

For I am suffering and needy,
And my heart is wounded within me.

Daleth.
My earthly life clings to the dust;
Revive and refresh me according to Your word.

The highways are deserted, the traveler has ceased [to appear].
The enemy has broken the covenant, he has rejected the cities,
He has no regard for [any] man.

“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 out
And cast into a land which they do not know or understand?

All her people groan, seeking bread;
They have exchanged their desirable and precious things for food
To restore their lives.
“See, O Lord, and consider
How despised and repulsive I have become!”

“So I have also made you despised and abased before all the people, just as you are not keeping My ways but are showing partiality [to people] in [your administration of] the law.”

Then I said,

“Woe is me! For I am ruined,
Because I am a man of [ceremonially] unclean lips,
And I live among a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”

“Blessed [spiritually prosperous, happy, to be admired] are the poor in spirit [those devoid of spiritual arrogance, those who regard themselves as insignificant], for theirs is the kingdom of heaven [both now and forever].

But when Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”

David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has allowed your sin to pass [without further punishment]; you shall not die.

“Therefore I retract [my words and hate myself]
And I repent in dust and ashes.”

O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your wrath,
Nor discipline me in Your burning anger.

For Your arrows have sunk into me and penetrate deeply,
And Your hand has pressed down on me and greatly disciplined me.

There is no soundness in my flesh because of Your indignation;
There is no health in my bones because of my sin.
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For my iniquities have gone over my head [like the waves of a flood];
As a heavy burden they weigh too much for me.

My wounds are loathsome and foul
Because of my foolishness.

I am bent over and greatly bowed down;
I go about mourning all day long.

For my sides are filled with burning,
And there is no health in my flesh.

I am numb and greatly bruised [deadly cold and completely worn out];
I groan because of the disquiet and moaning of my heart.
Lord, all my desire is before You;
And my sighing is not hidden from You.

My heart throbs violently, my strength fails me;
And as for the light of my eyes, even that has also gone from me.

My loved ones and my friends stand aloof from my plague;
And my neighbors stand far away.

Those who seek my life lay snares for me,
And those who seek to injure me threaten mischievous things and destruction;
They devise treachery all the day long.
But I, like a deaf man, do not hear;
I am like a mute man who does not open his mouth.

Yes, I am like a man who does not hear,
In whose mouth are no arguments.

For in You, O Lord, I hope;
You will answer, O Lord my God.

For I pray, “May they not rejoice over me,
Who, when my foot slips, would boast against me.”

For I am ready to fall;
My sorrow is continually before me.

For I do confess my guilt and iniquity;
I am filled with anxiety because of my sin.

But my [numerous] enemies are vigorous and strong,
And those who hate me without cause are many.

They repay evil for good, they attack and try to kill me,
Because I follow what is good.

Do not abandon me, O Lord;
O my God, do not be far from me.

Make haste to help me,
O Lord, my Salvation.

For I am conscious of my transgressions and I acknowledge them;
My sin is always before me.

Against You, You only, have I sinned
And done that which is evil in Your sight,
So that You are justified when You speak [Your sentence]
And faultless in Your judgment.
I was brought forth in [a state of] wickedness;
In sin my mother conceived me [and from my beginning I, too, was sinful].

When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead. And He placed His right hand on me and said, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last [absolute Deity, the Son of God],

Because you say, “I am rich, and have prospered and grown wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked [without hope and in great need],

But now the Lord speaks, saying, “Within three years, as the years of a hired man [who will not serve longer than the agreed time], the glory of Moab will be degraded along with all the great population, and the remnant [that survives] will be very small and of no account.”

“For behold, [Edom] I have made you small among the nations
And despised among men.

It will be the lowliest of the kingdoms, and it will never again exalt itself above the nations; I will diminish the Egyptians so they will never again rule over the nations.

“But I have intelligence and understanding as well as you;
I am not inferior to you.
Who does not know such things as these [of God’s wisdom and might]?

Let no one look down on [you because of] your youth, but be an example and set a pattern for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in [moral] purity.

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

A student is not superior to his teacher; but everyone, after he has been completely trained, will be like his teacher.

“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor is a bond-servant above his master.

I assure you and most solemnly say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him.

Remember [and continue to remember] that I told you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.

For I am the least [worthy] of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I [at one time] fiercely oppressed and violently persecuted the church of God.

To me, [though I am] the very least of all the saints (God’s people), this grace [which is undeserved] was graciously given, to proclaim to the Gentiles the good news of the incomprehensible riches of Christ [that spiritual wealth which no one can fully understand],

and He told them, “Whoever welcomes this child in My name welcomes Me; and whoever welcomes Me [also] welcomes Him who sent Me; for the one who is least among all of you [that is, the one who is genuinely humble—the one with a realistic self-view]—he is the one who is [truly] great.”

I assure you and most solemnly say to you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater [in privilege] than he.

I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater [in privilege] than he.”

So whoever breaks one of the least [important] of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least [important] in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever practices and teaches them, he will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

This is a faithful and trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance and approval, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost [of sinners], Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example or pattern for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.

After you will arise another kingdom (Medo-Persia) inferior to you, and then a third kingdom of bronze (Greece under Alexander the Great), which will rule over all the earth.