Isaiah 34:5-6

34:5 He says, ¹  “Indeed, my sword has slaughtered heavenly powers. ² 

Look, it now descends on Edom, ³ 

on the people I will annihilate in judgment.”

34:6 The Lord’s sword is dripping with blood,

it is covered ⁴  with fat;

it drips ⁵  with the blood of young rams and goats

and is covered ⁶  with the fat of rams’ kidneys.

For the Lord is holding a sacrifice ⁷  in Bozrah, ⁸ 

a bloody ⁹  slaughter in the land of Edom.

Isaiah 66:16

66:16 For the Lord judges all humanity ¹⁰ 

with fire and his sword;

the Lord will kill many. ¹¹ 

Deuteronomy 32:41-42

32:41 I will sharpen my lightning-like sword,

and my hand will grasp hold of the weapon of judgment; ¹² 

I will execute vengeance on my foes,

and repay those who hate me! ¹³ 

32:42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood,

and my sword will devour flesh –

the blood of the slaughtered and captured,

the chief ¹⁴  of the enemy’s leaders!’”

Job 40:19

40:19 It ranks first among the works of God, ¹⁵ 

the One who made it

has furnished it with a sword. ¹⁶ 

Psalms 45:3

45:3 Strap your sword to your thigh, O warrior! ¹⁷ 

Appear in your majestic splendor! ¹⁸ 

Jeremiah 47:6

47:6 How long will you cry out, ¹⁹  ‘Oh, sword of the Lord,

how long will it be before you stop killing? ²⁰ 

Go back into your sheath!

Stay there and rest!’ ²¹ 

Revelation 2:16

2:16 Therefore, ²²  repent! If not, I will come against you quickly and make war against those people ²³  with the sword of my mouth.

Revelation 19:21

19:21 The ²⁴  others were killed by the sword that extended from the mouth of the one who rode the horse, and all the birds gorged ²⁵  themselves with their flesh.

¹ tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The Lord speaks at this point.

² tn Heb “indeed [or “for”] my sword is drenched in the heavens.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has תראה (“[my sword] appeared [in the heavens]”), but this is apparently an attempt to make sense out of a difficult metaphor. Cf. NIV “My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens.”

³ sn Edom is mentioned here as epitomizing the hostile nations that oppose God.

⁴ tn The verb is a rare Hotpaal passive form. See GKC 150 §54.h.

⁵ tn The words “it drips” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁶ tn The words “and is covered” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁷ tn Heb “for there is a sacrifice to the Lord.”

⁸ sn The Lord’s judgment of Edom is compared to a bloody sacrificial scene.

⁹ tn Heb “great” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

¹⁰ tn Heb “flesh” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NIV “upon all men”; TEV “all the people of the world.”

¹¹ tn Heb “many are the slain of the Lord.”

¹² tn Heb “judgment.” This is a metonymy, a figure of speech in which the effect (judgment) is employed as an instrument (sword, spear, or the like), the means, by which it is brought about.

¹³ tn The Hebrew term שָׂנֵא (sane’, “hate”) in this covenant context speaks of those who reject Yahweh’s covenant overtures, that is, who disobey its stipulations (see note on the word “rejecting” in Deut 5:9; also see Deut 7:10; 2 Chr 19:2; Ps 81:15; 139:20-21).

¹⁴ tn Or “head” (the same Hebrew word can mean “head” in the sense of “leader, chieftain” or “head” in the sense of body part).

¹⁵ tn Heb “the ways of God.”

¹⁶ tc The literal reading of the MT is “let the one who made him draw near [with] his sword.” The sword is apparently a reference to the teeth or tusks of the animal, which cut vegetation like a sword. But the idea of a weapon is easier to see, and so the people who favor the mythological background see here a reference to God’s slaying the Beast. There are again many suggestions on how to read the line. The RV probably has the safest: “He that made him has furnished him with his sword” (the sword being a reference to the sharp tusks with which he can attack).

¹⁷ tn Or “mighty one.”

¹⁸ tn The Hebrew text has simply, “your majesty and your splendor,” which probably refers to the king’s majestic splendor when he appears in full royal battle regalia.

¹⁹ 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.

²⁰ tn Heb “before you are quiet/at rest.”

²¹ 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.

²² tc The “therefore” (οὖν, oun) is not found in א 2053 2329 2351 Ï^A or the Latin mss. It is, however, included in impressive witnesses such as {A C 046 1006 1611 sy^p,h co}. Though the conjunction looks at first glance like a scribal clarification, its omission may be explained on the basis of its similarity to the last three letters of the verb “repent” (μετανόησον, metanohson; since οὖν is a postpositive conjunction in Greek, the final three letters of the verb [-σον, -son] would have been immediately followed by ουν). A scribe could have simply passed over the conjunction in his copy when he saw the last three letters of the imperative verb. A decision is difficult, however, because of the motivation to add to the text and the quality of witnesses that lack the conjunction.

²³ tn Grk “with them”; the referent (those people who follow the teaching of Balaam and the Nicolaitans) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

²⁴ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

²⁵ tn On the translation of ἐχορτάσθησαν (ecortasqhsan) BDAG 1087 s.v. χορτάζω 1.a states, “of animals, pass. in act. sense πάντα τὰ ὄρνεα ἐχορτάσθησαν ἐκ τῶν σαρκῶν αὐτῶν all the birds gorged themselves with their flesh Rv 19:21 (cp. TestJud. 21:8).”