Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 2:9

"And the mean man is bowed down, and the great man is brought low: therefore forgive them not." — Isaiah 2:9 (ASV)

And the mean man bows down. —The English adequately gives the significance of the two words for “man”—in Hebrew, adam and îsh. The Authorised Version applies the words to the prostrations of the worshippers of idols, whether of low or high degree; others refer them to the punishment of that idolatry: The mean man must be bowed down ... the great man must be humbled.

Therefore forgive them not. —As a prayer, the words find a parallel in Psalm 69:27 and Psalm 109:14, but the rendering adopted by Cheyne and others, And you cannot forgive them, is perhaps preferable. The sin is treated as “a sin to death,” for which it is vain to pray (Isaiah 22:14).