'Man' in the Bible

When the man went out toward the east with a measuring line in his hand, he measured a thousand cubits, and he led me through the water, water that was ankle-deep.

And he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen this?” Then he brought me back to the bank of the river.

So the man listened to them in this matter and tested them for ten days.

The Chaldeans answered the king and said, “There is not a man on earth who can tell the king this matter, for no king, lord or ruler has ever asked such a thing as this of any magician or enchanter or Chaldean.

Then Arioch hurriedly brought Daniel before the king and said this to him: “I have found a man among the exiles of Judah who can explain to the king the interpretation [of the dream].”

You, O king, have made a decree that everyone who hears the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, dulcimer, bagpipe, and all kinds of music is to fall down and worship the golden image.

There is a man in your kingdom in whom is a spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of your father, illumination, understanding and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods were found in him. And King Nebuchadnezzar, your father—your father the king, appointed him chief of the magicians, enchanters, Chaldeans and diviners.

All the commissioners of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the counselors and the governors have consulted and agreed together that the king should establish a royal statute and enforce an injunction that anyone who petitions (prays to) any god or man besides you, O king, during the next thirty days, shall be thrown into the den of lions.

Then they approached and spoke before the king regarding his injunction, “Have you not signed an injunction that anyone who petitions (prays to) any god or man except you, O king, within the designated thirty days, is to be thrown into the den of lions?” The king answered, “The statement is true, in accordance with the law of the Medes and Persians, which may not be altered or revoked.”

So this [man] Daniel prospered and enjoyed success in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.

The first (the Babylonian Empire under Nebuchadnezzar) was like a lion and had the wings of an eagle. I kept looking until its wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man; a human mind was given to it.

While I was considering the horns, behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, and three of the first horns were pulled up by the roots before it; and behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth boasting of great things.

“I kept looking in the night visions,And behold, on the clouds of heavenOne like a Son of Man was coming,And He came up to the Ancient of DaysAnd was presented before Him.

When I, Daniel, had seen the vision, I sought to understand it; then behold, standing before me was one who looked like a man.

And I heard the voice of a man between the banks of the Ulai, which called out and said, “Gabriel, give this man (Daniel) an understanding of the vision.”

So he came near where I was standing, and when he came I was frightened and fell face downward; but he said to me, “Understand, son of man, that the [fulfillment of the] vision pertains to [events that will occur in] the time of the end.”

while I was still speaking in prayer and extremely exhausted, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me about the time of the evening sacrifice.

I raised my eyes and looked, and behold, there was a certain man dressed in linen, whose loins were girded with [a belt of] pure gold of Uphaz.

So he said to me, “O Daniel, you highly regarded and greatly beloved man, understand the words that I am about to say to you and stand upright, for I have now been sent to you.” And while he was saying this word to me, I stood up trembling.

Then the one (Gabriel) whose appearance was like that of a man touched me again, and he strengthened me.

He said, “O man, highly regarded and greatly beloved, do not be afraid. Peace be to you; take courage and be strong.” Now when he had spoken to me, I was strengthened and said, “Let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me.”

And one said to the man dressed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, “How long will it be until the end of these wonders?”

And I heard the man dressed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, as he held up his right hand and his left hand toward heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever that it would be for a time, times, and a half a time (three and a half years); and as soon as they finish shattering and crushing the power of the holy people, all these things will be finished.

And I said to her, “You shall stay with me for many days. You shall not play the prostitute nor shall you have a man; so I will also be toward you [until you have proved your faithfulness].”

Yet let no one find fault, nor let any rebuke [others];For your people are like those who contend with the priest.

And as bands of robbers [lie in] wait for a man,So a band of priests murder on the road toward Shechem [covering their crimes in that city of refuge];Certainly they have committed crimes and outrages.

The days of punishment have come;The days of retribution are at hand;Let Israel know this!The prophet is [considered] a fool;The man [of God] who is inspired is [treated as if] demented,Because of the abundance of your wickedness and guilt,And because your deep antagonism [toward God and the prophets] is so great.

Even though they bring up their children,Yet I will bereave them until not one is left.Indeed, woe (judgment is coming) to them when I look away and withdraw [My blessing] from them!

I led them gently with cords of a man, with bonds of love [guiding them],And I was to them as one who lifts up and eases the yoke [of the law] over their jaws;And I bent down to them and fed them.

I will not execute the fierceness of My anger;I will not return to Ephraim to destroy him again.For I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst [who will not revoke My covenant],And I will not come in wrath or enter the city [in judgment].

“These who pant after (long to see) the dust of the earth on the head of the helpless [as sign of their grief and distress]Also turn aside the way of the humble;And a man and his father will go to the same girlSo that My holy name is profaned.

For behold, He who forms the mountains and creates the windAnd declares to man what are His thoughts,He who makes the dawn into darknessAnd treads on the heights of the earth—The Lord God of hosts is His name.

It is as if a man runs from a lion [escaping one danger]And a bear meets him [so he dies anyway],Or goes home, and leans with his hand against the wallAnd a snake bites him.

Then the sailors were afraid, and each man cried out to his god; and to lighten the ship [and diminish the danger] they threw the ship’s cargo into the sea. But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship and had lain down and was sound asleep.

He issued a proclamation and it said, “In Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles: No man, animal, herd, or flock is to taste anything. They are not to eat or drink water.

But both man and animal must be covered with sackcloth; and every one is to call on God earnestly and forcefully that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence that is in his hands.

All her idols shall be broken in pieces,All her earnings [from her idolatry] shall be burned with fire,And all her images I shall make desolate;For from the earnings of a prostitute she collected them,And to the earnings of a prostitute they shall return.

They covet fields and seize them,And houses, and take them away.They oppress and rob a man and his house,A man and his inheritance.

“If a man walking in a false spirit [spouting deception]Should lie and say,‘I will prophesy to you [O Israel] of wine and liquor (greed, sensual pleasure),’He would be the acceptable spokesman of this people.

Each of them shall sit [in security and peace] under his vineAnd under his fig tree,With no one to make them afraid,For the mouth of the [omnipotent] Lord of hosts has spoken it.

For all the peoples [now] walkEach in the name of his god [in a transient relationship],As for us, we shall walk [securely]In the name of the Lord our [true] God forever and ever.

Then the remnant of JacobShall be among many peoplesLike dew from the Lord,Like showers on the grass [a source of blessing]Which [come suddenly and] do not wait for manNor delay for the sons of men.

He has told you, O man, what is good;And what does the Lord require of youExcept to be just, and to love [and to diligently practice] kindness (compassion),And to walk humbly with your God [setting aside any overblown sense of importance or self-righteousness]?

“Can I [be guiltless and] justify deceptive scalesAnd a bag of dishonest weights?

The godly person [who is faithful and loyal to God] has perished from the earth,And there is no upright person [one with good character and moral integrity] among men.They all lie in wait to shed blood;Each hunts the other with a net.

Concerning evil, both of their hands pursue it and do it diligently and thoroughly;The prince asks, also the judge, for a bribe,And a great man speaks the [evil] desire of his soul.So they twist the course of justice between them.

“Look at the proud one,His soul is not right within him,But the righteous will live by his faith [in the true God].

“Moreover, wine is treacherous and betrays the arrogant man,So that he does not stay at home.His appetite is large like Sheol,And he is like death, never satisfied.He gathers to himself all nationsAnd collects to himself all peoples [as if he owned them].

“I will consume and sweep away man and beast;I will consume and sweep away the birds of the airAnd the fish of the sea,And the stumbling blocks (idols) along with the wicked;And I will cut off and destroy man from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord.

The great [judgment] day of the Lord is near,Near and coming very quickly.Listen! The [voice of the] day of the Lord!The warrior cries out bitterly [unable to fight or to flee].

Her prophets are reckless and treacherous men;Her priests have profaned the sanctuary;They have done violence to the law [by pretending their word is God’s word].

“I [the Lord] have cut off and destroyed nations [as a warning to Judah];Their corner towers (battlements) are in ruins.I have made their streets desolateSo that no one passes by;Their cities are destroyedSo that there is no man, there is no inhabitant.

You look for much [harvest], but it comes to little; and even when you bring that home, I blow it away. Why?” says the Lord of hosts. “Because of My house, which lies in ruins while each of you runs to his own house [eager to enjoy it].

In the night I saw [a vision] and behold, a Man was riding on a red horse, and it stood among the myrtle trees that were in the ravine; and behind Him were horses: red, sorrel (reddish-brown), and white.

And the Man who stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, “These are the ones whom the Lord has sent to go throughout the earth and patrol it.”

I asked, “What are these [horns and craftsmen] coming to do?” And he said, “These are the horns (powers) that have scattered Judah so that no man raised up his head [because of the suffering inflicted by the Gentile nations]. But these craftsmen have come to terrify them and make them panic, and throw down the horns of the nations who have lifted up their horns against the land of Judah in order to scatter it.”

And I looked up, and saw a man with a measuring line in his hand.

and he said to the second angel, “Run, speak to that young man, saying, ‘Jerusalem will be inhabited [like villages] without walls [spreading out into the open country] because of the great number of people and livestock in it.

In that day,’ declares the Lord of hosts, ‘every one of you will invite his neighbor to sit under his vine and his fig tree [enjoying peace and prosperity in the kingdom].’”

And the angel who was speaking with me came back and awakened me, like a man who is awakened out of his sleep.

Then say to Joshua, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Behold (look, keep in sight, watch), a Man (Messiah) whose name is Branch, for He shall branch out from His place (Israel, the Davidic line); and He shall build the [ultimate] temple of the Lord.

“Thus has the Lord of hosts said, ‘Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion, to each other;

“but I scattered them with a storm wind among all the nations whom they have not known. Thus the land was desolate after they had gone, so that no one passed through or returned, for they [by their sins] had made the pleasant land desolate and deserted.”

Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Old men and old women will again sit in the streets (public places) of Jerusalem, each man with his staff in his hand because of his advanced age.

For before those days there were no wages for man or animal; nor was there any peace or success for him who went out or came in because of his enemies, for I set all men against one another.

These are the things which you should do: speak the truth with one another; judge with truth and pronounce the judgment that brings peace in [the courts at] your gates.

For I will bend Judah as My bow,I will fit the bow with Ephraim [as My arrow].And I will stir up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece,And will make you [Israel] like the sword of a warrior.

For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of the land,” declares the Lord; “but behold, I will cause the men to fall, each into the hand of another and into the hands of his [foreign] king. And the enemy will strike the land, and I will not rescue the people from their hand.”

The oracle (a burdensome message) of the word of the Lord concerning Israel.Thus declares the Lord who stretches out the heavens and lays the foundation of the earth and forms the spirit of man within him:

“Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd,And against the Man, My Associate,”Declares the Lord of hosts.“Strike the Shepherd so that the sheep [of the flock] may be scattered;And I will turn My hand and stretch it out against the little ones [of the flock].

As for the man who does this, may the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob to the last man those who do this [evil thing], awake and aware, even the one who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts.

“Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings [you have withheld].

“They will be Mine,” says the Lord of hosts, “on that day when I publicly recognize them and openly declare them to be My own possession [that is, My very special treasure]. And I will have compassion on them and spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.”

And Joseph her [promised] husband, being a just and righteous man and not wanting to expose her publicly to shame, planned to send her away and divorce her quietly.

But Jesus replied, “It is written and forever remains written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God.’”

But I say to you, do not resist an evil person [who insults you or violates your rights]; but whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other toward him also [simply ignore insignificant insults or trivial losses and do not bother to retaliate—maintain your dignity, your self-respect, your poise].

Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will [instead] give him a stone?

“So everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, will be like a wise man [a far-sighted, practical, and sensible man] who built his house on the rock.

And everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them, will be like a foolish (stupid) man who built his house on the sand.

For I also am a man subject to authority [of a higher rank], with soldiers subject to me; and I say to one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.”

Jesus replied to him, “Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”

The men wondered in amazement, saying, “What kind of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”

They brought to Him a man who was paralyzed, lying on a stretcher. Seeing their [active] faith [springing from confidence in Him], Jesus said to the paralytic, “Do not be afraid, son; your sins are forgiven [the penalty is paid, the guilt removed, and you are declared to be in right standing with God].”

And some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man blasphemes [by claiming the rights and prerogatives of God]!”

But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority and the power on earth to forgive sins”—then He said to the paralytic, “Get up, pick up your stretcher and go home.”

As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man named Matthew (Levi) sitting in the tax collector’s booth; and He said to him, “Follow Me [as My disciple, accepting Me as your Master and Teacher and walking the same path of life that I walk].” And Matthew got up and followed Him.

While they were going away, a mute, demon-possessed man was brought to Jesus.

And when the demon was driven out [by Jesus], the mute man spoke; and the crowds wondered in amazement, saying, “Never before has anything like this [miracle] been seen in Israel.”

“When they persecute you in one city [because of your faith in Me], flee to the next; for I assure you and most solemnly say to you, you will not finish going through all the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;

He who receives and welcomes a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and he who receives a righteous (honorable) man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward.

What did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing [entirely unsuited for the harsh desert]? Those who wear soft clothing are in the palaces of kings!

The Son of Man came eating and drinking [with others], and they say, ‘Look! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners [including non-observant Jews]!’ Yet wisdom is justified and vindicated by her deeds [in the lives of those who respond to Me].”

For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

A man was there whose hand was withered. And they asked Jesus, “Is it lawful and permissible to heal on the Sabbath?”—they asked this so that they might accuse Him and bring charges into court.

But He said to them, “What man is there among you who, if he has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out?

How much more valuable then is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful and permissible to do good on the Sabbath.”

Then He said to the man, “Reach out your hand!” The man reached out and it was restored, as normal and healthy as the other.

Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus, and He healed him, so that the mute man both spoke and saw.

But the Pharisees heard it and said, “This man casts out demons only by [the help of] Beelzebul (Satan) the prince of the demons.”