1 Samuel 2:10

2:10 The Lord shatters ¹  his adversaries; ² 

he thunders against them from ³  the heavens.

The Lord executes judgment to the ends of the earth.

He will strengthen ⁴  his king

and exalt the power ⁵  of his anointed one.” ⁶ 

Daniel 7:14

7:14 To him was given ruling authority, honor, and sovereignty.

All peoples, nations, and language groups were serving ⁷  him.

His authority is eternal and will not pass away. ⁸ 

His kingdom will not be destroyed. ⁹ 

Micah 4:13

4:13 “Get up and thresh, Daughter Zion!

For I will give you iron horns; ¹⁰ 

I will give you bronze hooves,

and you will crush many nations.” ¹¹ 

You will devote to the Lord the spoils you take from them,

and dedicate their wealth to the sovereign Ruler ¹²  of the whole earth. ¹³ 

Habakkuk 3:4

3:4 He is as bright as lightning; ¹⁴ 

a two-pronged lightning bolt flashes from his hand. ¹⁵ 

This is the outward display of his power. ¹⁶ 

Luke 1:69

1:69 For ¹⁷  he has raised up ¹⁸  a horn of salvation ¹⁹  for us in the house of his servant David, ²⁰ 

Philippians 2:9-11

2:9 As a result God exalted him

and gave him the name

that is above every name,

2:10 so that at the name of Jesus

every knee will bow

– in heaven and on earth and under the earth –

2:11 and every tongue confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord

to the glory of God the Father.

[2:10]  ¹ tn The imperfect verbal forms in this line and in the next two lines are understood as indicating what is typically true. Another option is to translate them with the future tense. See v. 10b.

[2:10]  ² tc The present translation follows the Qere, many medieval Hebrew manuscripts, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Vulgate in reading the plural (“his adversaries,” similarly many other English versions) rather than the singular (“his adversary”) of the Kethib.

[2:10]  ³ tn The Hebrew preposition here has the sense of “from within.”

[2:10]  ⁴ tn The imperfect verbal forms in this and the next line are understood as indicating what is anticipated and translated with the future tense, because at the time of Hannah’s prayer Israel did not yet have a king.

[2:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “the horn,” here a metaphor for power or strength. Cf. NCV “make his appointed king strong”; NLT “increases the might of his anointed one.”

[2:10]  ⁶ tc The LXX greatly expands v. 10 with an addition that seems to be taken from Jer 9:23-24.

[7:14]  ⁷ tn Some take “serving” here in the sense of “worshiping.”

[7:14]  ⁸ tn Aram “is an eternal authority which will not pass away.”

[7:14]  ⁹ tn Aram “is one which will not be destroyed.”

[4:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “I will make your horn iron.”

[4:13]  ¹¹ sn Jerusalem (Daughter Zion at the beginning of the verse; cf. 4:8) is here compared to a powerful ox which crushes the grain on the threshing floor with its hooves.

[4:13]  ¹² tn Or “the Lord” (so many English versions); Heb “the master.”

[4:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “and their wealth to the master of all the earth.” The verb “devote” does double duty in the parallelism and is supplied in the second line for clarification.

[3:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “[His] radiance is like light.” Some see a reference to sunlight, but the Hebrew word אוֹר (’or) here refers to lightning, as the context indicates (see vv. 4b, 9, 11). The word also refers to lightning in Job 36:32 and 37:3, 11, 15.

[3:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “two horns from his hand to him.” Sharp, pointed lightning bolts have a “horn-like” appearance. The weapon of “double lightning” appears often in Mesopotamian representations of gods. See Elizabeth Van Buren, Symbols of the Gods in Mesopotamian Art (AnOr), 70-73.

[3:4]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and there [is] the covering of his strength”; or “and there is his strong covering.” The meaning of this line is unclear. The point may be that the lightning bolts are merely a covering, or outward display, of God’s raw power. In Job 36:32 one reads that God “covers his hands with light [or, “lightning”].”

[1:69]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “and,” but specifying the reason for the praise in the psalm.

[1:69]  ¹⁸ sn The phrase raised up means for God to bring someone significant onto the scene of history.

[1:69]  ¹⁹ sn The horn of salvation is a figure that refers to the power of Messiah and his ability to protect, as the horn refers to what an animal uses to attack and defend (Ps 75:4-5, 10; 148:14; 2 Sam 22:3). Thus the meaning of the figure is “a powerful savior.”

[1:69]  ²⁰ sn In the house of his servant David is a reference to Messiah’s Davidic descent. Zechariah is more interested in Jesus than his own son John at this point.