Isaiah 51:9

51:9 Wake up! Wake up!

Clothe yourself with strength, O arm of the Lord! ¹ 

Wake up as in former times, as in antiquity!

Did you not smash ²  the Proud One? ³ 

Did you not ⁴  wound the sea monster? ⁵ 

Isaiah 51:17

51:17 Wake up! Wake up!

Get up, O Jerusalem!

You drank from the cup the Lord passed to you,

which was full of his anger! ⁶ 

You drained dry

the goblet full of intoxicating wine. ⁷ 

Daniel 10:9

10:9 I listened to his voice, ⁸  and as I did so ⁹  I fell into a trance-like sleep with my face to the ground.

Daniel 10:16-19

10:16 Then ¹⁰  one who appeared to be a human being ¹¹  was touching my lips. I opened my mouth and started to speak, saying to the one who was standing before me, “Sir, ¹²  due to the vision, anxiety has gripped me and I have no strength. 10:17 How, sir, am I able to speak with you? ¹³  My strength is gone, ¹⁴  and I am breathless.” 10:18 Then the one who appeared to be a human being touched me again ¹⁵  and strengthened me. 10:19 He said to me, “Don’t be afraid, you who are valued. ¹⁶  Peace be to you! Be strong! Be really strong!” When he spoke to me, I was strengthened. I said, “Sir, you may speak now, ¹⁷  for you have given me strength.”

Haggai 2:4

2:4 Even so, take heart, Zerubbabel,’ says the Lord. ‘Take heart, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and ¹⁸  all you citizens of the land,’ ¹⁹  says the Lord, ‘and begin to work. For I am with you,’ says the Lord who rules over all.

Ephesians 6:10

Exhortations for Spiritual Warfare

6:10 Finally, be strengthened in the Lord and in the strength of his power.

¹ tn The arm of the Lord is a symbol of divine military power. Here it is personified and told to arouse itself from sleep and prepare for action.

² tn Heb “Are you not the one who smashed?” The feminine singular forms agree grammatically with the feminine noun “arm.” The Hebrew text has ַהמַּחְצֶבֶת (hammakhtsevet), from the verbal root חָצַב (khatsav, “hew, chop”). The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has, probably correctly, המחצת, from the verbal root מָחַץ (makhats, “smash”) which is used in Job 26:12 to describe God’s victory over “the Proud One.”

³ tn This title (רַהַב, rahav, “proud one”) is sometimes translated as a proper name: “Rahab” (cf. NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV). It is used here of a symbolic sea monster, known elsewhere in the Bible and in Ugaritic myth as Leviathan. This sea creature symbolizes the forces of chaos that seek to destroy the created order. In the Bible “the Proud One” opposes God’s creative work, but is defeated (see Job 26:12; Ps 89:10). Here the title refers to Pharaoh’s Egyptian army that opposed Israel at the Red Sea (see v. 10, and note also Isa 30:7 and Ps 87:4, where the title is used of Egypt).

⁴ tn The words “did you not” are understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line). The rhetorical questions here and in v. 10 expect the answer, “Yes, you certainly did!”

⁵ tn Hebrew תַּנִּין (tannin) is another name for the symbolic sea monster. See the note at 27:1. In this context the sea creature represents Egypt. See the note on the title “Proud One” earlier in this verse.

⁶ tn Heb “[you] who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his anger.”

⁷ tn Heb “the goblet, the cup [that causes] staggering, you drank, you drained.”

⁸ tc Heb “I heard the sound of his words.” These words are absent in the LXX and the Syriac.

⁹ tn Heb “as I listened to the sound of his words.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “Behold.”

¹¹ tc So most Hebrew MSS; one Hebrew MS along with the Dead Sea Scrolls and LXX read “something that looked like a man’s hand.”

¹² tn Heb “my lord,” here a title of polite address. Cf. v. 19.

¹³ tn Heb “How is the servant of this my lord able to speak with this my lord?”

¹⁴ tn Heb “does not stand.”

¹⁵ tn Heb “He added and touched me.” The construction is a verbal hendiadys.

¹⁶ tn Heb “treasured man.”

¹⁷ tn Heb “my lord may speak.”

¹⁸ tn Heb “and take heart.” Although emphatic, the repetition of the verb is redundant in contemporary English style and has been left untranslated.

¹⁹ tn Heb “the people of the land” (עַם הָאָרֶץ, ’am ha’arets); this is a technical term referring to free citizens as opposed to slaves.