Psalms 76:3-6

76:3 There he shattered the arrows, ¹ 

the shield, the sword, and the rest of the weapons of war. ²  (Selah)

76:4 You shine brightly and reveal your majesty,

as you descend from the hills where you killed your prey. ³ 

76:5 The bravehearted ⁴  were plundered; ⁵ 

they “fell asleep.” ⁶ 

All the warriors were helpless. ⁷ 

76:6 At the sound of your battle cry, ⁸  O God of Jacob,

both rider ⁹  and horse “fell asleep.” ¹⁰ 

Ezekiel 39:3

39:3 I will knock your bow out of your left hand and make your arrows fall from your right hand.

Ezekiel 39:9-10

39:9 “‘Then those who live in the cities of Israel will go out and use the weapons for kindling ¹¹  – the shields, ¹²  bows and arrows, war clubs and spears – they will burn them for seven years. 39:10 They will not need to take ¹³  wood from the field or cut down trees from the forests, because they will make fires with the weapons. They will take the loot from those who looted them and seize the plunder of those who plundered them, ¹⁴  declares the sovereign Lord.

[76:3]  ¹ tn Heb “flames of the bow,” i.e., arrows.

[76:3]  ² tn Heb “shield and sword and battle.” “Battle” probably here stands by metonymy for the weapons of war in general.

[76:4]  ³ tn Heb “radiant [are] you, majestic from the hills of prey.” God is depicted as a victorious king and as a lion that has killed its victims.

[76:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “strong of heart.” In Isa 46:12, the only other text where this phrase appears, it refers to those who are stubborn, but here it seems to describe brave warriors (see the next line).

[76:5]  ⁵ tn The verb is a rare Aramaized form of the Hitpolel (see GKC 149 §54.a, n. 2); the root is שָׁלַל (shalal, “to plunder”).

[76:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “they slept [in] their sleep.” “Sleep” here refers to the “sleep” of death. A number of modern translations take the phrase to refer to something less than death, however: NASB “cast into a deep sleep”; NEB “fall senseless”; NIV “lie still”; NRSV “lay stunned.”

[76:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “and all the men of strength did not find their hands.”

[76:6]  ⁸ tn Heb “from your shout.” The noun is derived from the Hebrew verb גָּעַר (ga’ar), which is often understood to mean “rebuke.” In some cases it is apparent that scolding or threatening is in view (see Gen 37:10; Ruth 2:16; Zech 3:2). However, in militaristic contexts this translation is inadequate, for the verb refers in this setting to the warrior’s battle cry, which terrifies and paralyzes the enemy. See A. Caquot, TDOT 3:53, and note the use of the verb in Pss 68:30; 106:9; Nah 1:4, as well as the related noun in Job 26:11; Pss 9:5; 18:15; 104:7; Isa 50:2; 51:20; 66:15.

[76:6]  ⁹ tn Or “chariot,” but even so the term is metonymic for the charioteer.

[76:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he fell asleep, and [the] chariot and [the] horse.” Once again (see v. 5) “sleep” refers here to the “sleep” of death.

[39:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “burn and kindle the weapons.”

[39:9]  ¹² tn Two different types of shields are specified in the Hebrew text.

[39:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “they will not carry.”

[39:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “loot their looters and plunder their plunderers.”