Zechariah 12:8

12:8 On that day the Lord himself will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the weakest among them will be like mighty David, and the dynasty of David will be like God, like the angel of the Lord before them. ¹ 

Psalms 18:32-35

18:32 The one true God ²  gives ³  me strength; ⁴ 

he removes ⁵  the obstacles in my way. ⁶ 

18:33 He gives me the agility of a deer; ⁷ 

he enables me to negotiate the rugged terrain. ⁸ 

18:34 He trains my hands for battle; ⁹ 

my arms can bend even the strongest bow. ¹⁰ 

18:35 You give me your protective shield; ¹¹ 

your right hand supports me; ¹² 

your willingness to help ¹³  enables me to prevail. ¹⁴ 

Psalms 45:3

45:3 Strap your sword to your thigh, O warrior! ¹⁵ 

Appear in your majestic splendor! ¹⁶ 

Psalms 144:1

Psalm 144 ¹⁷ 

By David.

144:1 The Lord, my protector, ¹⁸  deserves praise ¹⁹  –

the one who trains my hands for battle, ²⁰ 

and my fingers for war,

Psalms 149:6

149:6 May they praise God

while they hold a two-edged sword in their hand, ²¹ 

Isaiah 41:15-16

41:15 “Look, I am making you like ²²  a sharp threshing sledge,

new and double-edged. ²³ 

You will thresh the mountains and crush them;

you will make the hills like straw. ²⁴ 

41:16 You will winnow them and the wind will blow them away;

the wind will scatter them.

You will rejoice in the Lord;

you will boast in the Holy One of Israel.

Isaiah 49:2

49:2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword,

he hid me in the hollow of his hand;

he made me like a sharpened ²⁵  arrow,

he hid me in his quiver. ²⁶ 

Ephesians 6:17

6:17 And take the helmet of salvation ²⁷  and the sword ²⁸  of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Hebrews 4:12

4:12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing even to the point of dividing soul from spirit, and joints from marrow; it is able to judge the desires and thoughts of the heart.

Revelation 1:16

1:16 He held ²⁹  seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp double-edged sword extended out of his mouth. His ³⁰  face shone like the sun shining at full strength.

Revelation 2:12

To the Church in Pergamum

2:12 “To ³¹  the angel of the church in Pergamum write the following: ³² 

“This is the solemn pronouncement of ³³  the one who has the sharp double-edged sword: ³⁴ 

Revelation 19:15

19:15 From his mouth extends a sharp sword, so that with it he can strike the nations. ³⁵  He ³⁶  will rule ³⁷  them with an iron rod, ³⁸  and he stomps the winepress ³⁹  of the furious ⁴⁰  wrath of God, the All-Powerful. ⁴¹ 

Revelation 19:21

19:21 The ⁴²  others were killed by the sword that extended from the mouth of the one who rode the horse, and all the birds gorged ⁴³  themselves with their flesh.

[12:8]  ¹ sn The statement the dynasty of David will be like God is hyperbole to show the remarkable enhancements that will accompany the inauguration of the millennial age.

[18:32]  ² tn Heb “the God.” The prefixed article emphasizes the Lord’s distinctiveness as the one true God (cf. Deut 33:26). See v. 30.

[18:32]  ³ tn Heb “is the one who clothes.” For similar language see 1 Sam 2:4; Pss 65:6; 93:1. The psalmist employs a generalizing hymnic style in vv. 32-34; he uses participles in vv. 32a, 33a, and 34a to describe what God characteristically does on his behalf.

[18:32]  ⁴ tn 2 Sam 22:33 reads, “the God is my strong refuge.”

[18:32]  ⁵ tn The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive here carries along the generalizing force of the preceding participle.

[18:32]  ⁶ tn Heb “he made my path smooth.” The Hebrew term תָּמִים (tamim, “smooth”) usually carries a moral or ethical connotation, “blameless, innocent.” However, in Ps 18:33 it refers to a pathway free of obstacles. The reality underlying the metaphor is the psalmist’s ability to charge into battle without tripping (see vv. 33, 36).

[18:33]  ⁷ tn Heb “[the one who] makes my feet like [those of ] a deer.”

[18:33]  ⁸ tn Heb “and on my high places he makes me walk.” The imperfect verbal form emphasizes God’s characteristic provision. The psalmist compares his agility in battle to the ability of a deer to negotiate rugged, high terrain without falling or being injured.

[18:34]  ⁹ sn He trains my hands. The psalmist attributes his skill with weapons to divine enablement. Egyptian reliefs picture gods teaching the king how to shoot a bow. See O. Keel, The Symbolism of the Biblical World, 265.

[18:34]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and a bow of bronze is bent by my arms”; or “my arms bend a bow of bronze.” The verb נָחַת (nakhat) apparently means “pull back, bend” here (see HALOT 692 s.v. נחת). The third feminine singular verbal form appears to agree with the feminine singular noun קֶשֶׁת (qeshet, “bow”). In this case the verb must be taken as Niphal (passive). However, it is possible that “my arms” is the subject of the verb and “bow” the object. In this case the verb is Piel (active). For other examples of a feminine singular verb being construed with a plural noun, see GKC 464 §145.k.

[18:35]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and you give to me the shield of your deliverance.”

[18:35]  ¹² tc 2 Sam 22:36 omits this line, perhaps due to homoioarcton. A scribe’s eye may have jumped from the vav (ו) prefixed to “your right hand” to the vav prefixed to the following “and your answer,” causing the copyist to omit by accident the intervening words (“your right hand supports me and”).

[18:35]  ¹³ tn The MT of Ps 18:35 appears to read, “your condescension,” apparently referring to God’s willingness to intervene (cf. NIV “you stoop down”). However, the noun עֲנָוָה (’anavah) elsewhere means “humility” and is used only here of God. The form עַנְוַתְךָ (’anvatÿkha) may be a fully written form of the suffixed infinitive construct of עָנָה (’anah, “to answer”; a defectively written form of the infinitive appears in 2 Sam 22:36). In this case the psalmist refers to God’s willingness to answer his prayer; one might translate, “your favorable response.”

[18:35]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “makes me great.”

[45:3]  ¹⁵ tn Or “mighty one.”

[45:3]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew text has simply, “your majesty and your splendor,” which probably refers to the king’s majestic splendor when he appears in full royal battle regalia.

[144:1]  ¹⁷ sn Psalm 144. The psalmist expresses his confidence in God, asks for a mighty display of divine intervention in an upcoming battle, and anticipates God’s rich blessings on the nation in the aftermath of military victory.

[144:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “my rocky summit.” The Lord is compared to a rocky summit where one can find protection from enemies. See Ps 18:2.

[144:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “blessed [be] the Lord, my rocky summit.”

[144:1]  ²⁰ sn The one who trains my hands for battle. The psalmist attributes his skill with weapons to divine enablement (see Ps 18:34). Egyptian reliefs picture gods teaching the king how to shoot a bow. See O. Keel, The Symbolism of the Biblical World, 265.

[149:6]  ²¹ tn Heb “[May] praises of God [be] in their throat, and a two-edged sword in their hand.”

[41:15]  ²² tn Heb “into” (so NIV); ASV “have made thee to be.”

[41:15]  ²³ tn Heb “owner of two-mouths,” i.e., double-edged.

[41:15]  ²⁴ sn The mountains and hills symbolize hostile nations that are obstacles to Israel’s restoration.

[49:2]  ²⁵ tn Or perhaps, “polished” (so KJV, ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); NASB “a select arrow.”

[49:2]  ²⁶ sn The figurative language emphasizes the servant’s importance as the Lord’s effective instrument. The servant’s mouth, which stands metonymically for his words, is compared to a sharp sword because he will be an effective spokesman on God’s behalf (see 50:4). The Lord holds his hand on the servant, ready to draw and use him at the appropriate time. The servant is like a sharpened arrow reserved in a quiver for just the right moment.

[6:17]  ²⁷ sn An allusion to Isa 59:17.

[6:17]  ²⁸ sn The Greek term translated sword (μάχαιρα, macaira) refers to the Roman gladius, a short sword about 2 ft (60 cm) long, used for close hand-to-hand combat. This is the only clearly offensive weapon in the list of armor mentioned by the author (he does not, for example, mention the lance [Latin pilum]).

[1:16]  ²⁹ tn Grk “and having.” In the Greek text this is a continuation of the previous sentence, but because contemporary English style employs much shorter sentences, a new sentence was started here in the translation by supplying the pronoun “he.”

[1:16]  ³⁰ tn This is a continuation of the previous sentence in the Greek text, but a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[2:12]  ³¹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated due to differences between Greek and English style.

[2:12]  ³² tn The phrase “the following” after “write” is supplied to clarify that what follows is the content of what is to be written.

[2:12]  ³³ tn Grk “These things says [the One]…” See the note on the phrase “this is the solemn pronouncement of” in 2:1.

[2:12]  ³⁴ sn On the sharp double-edged sword see 1:16.

[19:15]  ³⁵ tn Or “the Gentiles” (the same Greek word may be translated “Gentiles” or “nations”).

[19:15]  ³⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[19:15]  ³⁷ tn Grk “will shepherd.”

[19:15]  ³⁸ tn Or “scepter.” The Greek term ῥάβδος (rJabdo") can mean either “rod” or “scepter.”

[19:15]  ³⁹ sn He stomps the winepress. See Isa 63:3, where Messiah does this alone (usually several individuals would join in the process), and Rev 14:20.

[19:15]  ⁴⁰ tn The genitive θυμοῦ (qumou) has been translated as an attributed genitive. Following BDAG 461 s.v. θυμός 2, the combination of the genitives of θυμός (qumos) and ὀργή (orgh) in Rev 16:19 and 19:15 are taken to be a strengthening of the thought as in the OT and Qumran literature (Exod 32:12; Jer 32:37; Lam 2:3; CD 10:9).

[19:15]  ⁴¹ tn On this word BDAG 755 s.v. παντοκράτωρ states, “the Almighty, All-Powerful, Omnipotent (One) only of God…(ὁ) κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὁ π. …Rv 1:8; 4:8; 11:17; 15:3; 16:7; 21:22.”

[19:21]  ⁴² tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[19:21]  ⁴³ tn On the translation of ἐχορτάσθησαν (ecortasqhsan) BDAG 1087 s.v. χορτάζω 1.a states, “of animals, pass. in act. sense πάντα τὰ ὄρνεα ἐχορτάσθησαν ἐκ τῶν σαρκῶν αὐτῶν all the birds gorged themselves with their flesh Rv 19:21 (cp. TestJud. 21:8).”