Deuteronomy 32:41-42

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

and my hand will grasp hold of the weapon of judgment; ¹ 

I will execute vengeance on my foes,

and repay those who hate me! ² 

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 ³  of the enemy’s leaders!’”

Psalms 17:13

17:13 Rise up, Lord!

Confront him! ⁴  Knock him down! ⁵ 

Use your sword to rescue me from the wicked man! ⁶ 

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, ⁷ 

a cudgel with which I angrily punish. ⁸ 

10:6 I sent him ⁹  against a godless ¹⁰  nation,

I ordered him to attack the people with whom I was angry, ¹¹ 

to take plunder and to carry away loot,

to trample them down ¹²  like dirt in the streets.

Isaiah 10:15

10:15 Does an ax exalt itself over the one who wields it,

or a saw magnify itself over the one who cuts with it? ¹³ 

As if a scepter should brandish the one who raises it,

or a staff should lift up what is not made of wood!

Zephaniah 2:12

2:12 “You ¹⁴  Ethiopians ¹⁵  will also die by my sword!” ¹⁶ 

[32:41]  ¹ 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.

[32:41]  ² 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).

[32:42]  ³ tn Or “head” (the same Hebrew word can mean “head” in the sense of “leader, chieftain” or “head” in the sense of body part).

[17:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “Be in front of his face.”

[17:13]  ⁵ tn Or “bring him to his knees.”

[17:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “rescue my life from the wicked [one] [by] your sword.”

[10:5]  ⁷ 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.

[10:5]  ⁸ 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.”

[10:6]  ⁹ sn Throughout this section singular forms are used to refer to Assyria; perhaps the king of Assyria is in view (see v. 12).

[10:6]  ¹⁰ tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “impious”; NCV “separated from God.”

[10:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and against the people of my anger I ordered him.”

[10:6]  ¹² tn Heb “to make it [i.e., the people] a trampled place.”

[10:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “the one who pushes it back and forth”; KJV “him that shaketh it”; ASV “him that wieldeth it.”

[2:12]  ¹⁴ sn Though there is no formal introduction, these words are apparently spoken by the Lord (note my sword).

[2:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Cushites.” This is traditionally assumed to refer to people from the region south of Egypt, i.e., Nubia or northern Sudan, referred to as “Ethiopia” by classical authors (not the more recent Abyssinia).

[2:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Also you Cushites, who lie dead by my sword.”