Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up — the principle of exaltation through humiliation appears repeatedly in Scripture (cf. 1 Peter 5:6, Matthew 23:12). The tapeinoō (humble) oneself before the Lord results in hypsoō (elevation/exaltation) by him. The symmetry suggests that God's lifting up matches the measure of one's self-humiliation. This is not self-abasement but the alignment of will with God's purposes.

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