Proverbs 21:31

21:31 A horse is prepared for the day of battle,

but the victory is from the Lord. ¹ 

Isaiah 10:5-6

The Lord Turns on Arrogant Assyria

10:5 Assyria, the club I use to vent my anger, is as good as dead, ² 

a cudgel with which I angrily punish. ³ 

10:6 I sent him ⁴  against a godless ⁵  nation,

I ordered him to attack the people with whom I was angry, ⁶ 

to take plunder and to carry away loot,

to trample them down ⁷  like dirt in the streets.

Jeremiah 27:5-6

27:5 “I made the earth and the people and animals on it by my mighty power and great strength, ⁸  and I give it to whomever I see fit. ⁹  27:6 I have at this time placed all these nations of yours under the power ¹⁰  of my servant, ¹¹  King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. I have even made all the wild animals subject to him. ¹² 

Deuteronomy 2:37

2:37 However, you did not approach the land of the Ammonites, the Wadi Jabbok, ¹³  the cities of the hill country, or any place else forbidden by the Lord our God.

John 19:11

19:11 Jesus replied, “You would have no authority ¹⁴  over me at all, unless it was given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you ¹⁵  is guilty of greater sin.” ¹⁶ 

Romans 15:18

15:18 For I will not dare to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in order to bring about the obedience ¹⁷  of the Gentiles, by word and deed,

¹ tn Heb “of the Lord.” The victory being “of the Lord” means that it is accomplished by him. Ultimate success comes from the Lord and not from human efforts. The faithful have acknowledged this down through the ages, even though they have been responsible and have prepared for the wars. Without this belief there would have been no prayer on the eve of battle (e.g., Ps 20:7 and 33:17).

² tn Heb “Woe [to] Assyria, the club of my anger.” On הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) see the note on the first phrase of 1:4.

³ tn Heb “a cudgel is he, in their hand is my anger.” It seems likely that the final mem (ם) on בְיָדָם (bÿyadam) is not a pronominal suffix (“in their hand”), but an enclitic mem. If so, one can translate literally, “a cudgel is he in the hand of my anger.”

⁴ sn Throughout this section singular forms are used to refer to Assyria; perhaps the king of Assyria is in view (see v. 12).

⁵ tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “impious”; NCV “separated from God.”

⁶ tn Heb “and against the people of my anger I ordered him.”

⁷ tn Heb “to make it [i.e., the people] a trampled place.”

⁸ tn Heb “by my great power and my outstretched arm.” Again “arm” is symbolical for “strength.” Compare the similar expression in 21:5.

⁹ sn See Dan 4:17 for a similar statement.

¹⁰ tn Heb “have given…into the hand of.”

¹¹ sn See the study note on 25:9 for the significance of the application of this term to Nebuchadnezzar.

¹² tn Heb “I have given…to him to serve him.” The verb “give” in this syntactical situation is functioning like the Hiphil stem, i.e., as a causative. See Dan 1:9 for parallel usage. For the usage of “serve” meaning “be subject to” compare 2 Sam 22:44 and BDB 713 s.v. עָבַד 3.

¹³ sn Wadi Jabbok. Now known as the Zerqa River, this is a major tributary of the Jordan that normally served as a boundary between Ammon and Gad (Deut 3:16).

¹⁴ tn Or “power.”

¹⁵ tn Or “who delivered me over to you.”

¹⁶ tn Grk “has the greater sin” (an idiom).

¹⁷ tn Grk “unto obedience.”