Jeremiah 47:6

47:6 How long will you cry out,¹ ‘Oh, sword of the Lord,

how long will it be before you stop killing?²

Go back into your sheath!

Stay there and rest!’³

Leviticus 26:25

26:25 I will bring on you an avenging sword, a covenant vengeance.⁴ Although⁵ you will gather together into your cities, I will send pestilence among you and you will be given into enemy hands.⁶

Isaiah 66:16

66:16 For the Lord judges all humanity⁷

with fire and his sword;

the Lord will kill many.⁸

Ezekiel 14:2

14:2 The word of the Lord came to me:

Hosea 11:6

11:6 A sword will flash in their cities,

it will destroy the bars of their city gates,

and will devour them in their fortresses.

Zechariah 11:17

11:17 Woe to the worthless shepherd

who abandons the flock!

May a sword fall on his arm and his right eye!

May his arm wither completely away,

and his right eye become completely blind!”

¹tn 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.

²tn Heb “before you are quiet/at rest.”

³sn 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.

⁴tn Heb “vengeance of covenant”; cf. NAB “the avenger of my covenant.”

⁵tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) has a concessive force in this context.

⁶tn Heb “in hand of enemy,” but Tg. Ps.-J. and Tg. Neof. have “in the hands of your enemies” (J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 454).

⁷tn Heb “flesh” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NIV “upon all men”; TEV “all the people of the world.”

⁸tn Heb “many are the slain of the Lord.”