1 Chronicles 21:12

21:12 three 1  years of famine, or three months being chased by your enemies and struck down by their swords, 2  or three days being struck down by the Lord, during which a plague will invade the land and the Lord’s messenger will destroy throughout Israel’s territory.’ 3  Now, decide what I should tell the one who sent me.”

1 Chronicles 21:20

21:20 While Ornan was threshing wheat, he turned and saw the messenger, and he and his four sons hid themselves.

Jeremiah 47:6

47:6 How long will you cry out, 4  ‘Oh, sword of the Lord,

how long will it be before you stop killing? 5 

Go back into your sheath!

Stay there and rest!’ 6 

Ezekiel 21:30

21:30 Return it to its sheath! 7 

In the place where you were created, 8 

in your native land, I will judge you.

Matthew 26:52

26:52 Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back in its place! 9  For all who take hold of the sword will die by the sword.

John 18:11

18:11 But Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its sheath! Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?” 10 

1 tc The parallel text in the MT of 2 Sam 24:13 has “seven,” but LXX has “three” there.

2 tc Heb “or three months being swept away from before your enemies and the sword of your enemies overtaking.” The Hebrew term נִסְפֶּה (nisppeh, Niphal participle from סָפָה, safah) should probably be emended to נֻסְכָה (nusÿkhah, Qal infinitive from נוּס [nus] with second masculine singular suffix). See 2 Sam 24:13.

3 tn Heb “or three days of the sword of the Lord and plague in the land, and the messenger [or “angel”] of the Lord destroying in all the territory of Israel.”

4 tn The words “How long will you cry out” are not in the text but some such introduction seems necessary because the rest of the speech assumes a personal subject.

5 tn Heb “before you are quiet/at rest.”

6 sn The passage is highly figurative. The sword of the Lord, which is itself a figure of the destructive agency of the enemy armies, is here addressed as a person and is encouraged in rhetorical questions (the questions are designed to dissuade) to “be quiet,” “be at rest,” “be silent,” all of which is designed to get the Lord to call off the destruction against the Philistines.

7 sn Once the Babylonian king’s sword (vv. 19-20) has carried out its assigned task, the Lord commands it to halt and announces that Babylon itself will also experience his judgment. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:28.

8 tn In the Hebrew text of vv. 30-32 the second person verbal and pronominal forms are feminine singular. This may indicate that the personified Babylonian sword is being addressed. The Hebrew word for “sword” (see v. 28) is feminine. However, it may refer to the Ammonites.

9 tn The translation “put your sword back in its place” for this phrase is given in L&N 85.52.

10 tn Grk “The cup that the Father has given me to drink, shall I not drink it?” The order of the clauses has been rearranged to reflect contemporary English style.