Sword

VIEW:16 DATA:01-04-2020

SWORD.—See Armour, Arms, § 1 (c).
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

Sword. See Arms.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863

sōrd. See ARMOR, III., 5.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.

[ARMS]




The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.

Deu_33:29 (a) GOD Himself takes this name because He alone is able to guard Israel and to preserve them from their enemies.

Jos_5:13 (b) The man in this passage is the Holy Spirit. The sword in His hand is the Word of GOD. When the sword is with CHRIST, it is in His mouth. He speaks the word, and the Holy Spirit uses it effectively, as the Lord of the harvest.

2Sa_12:10 (b) The reference here is to war with all of its ravaging and killing effects.

1Ch_21:16 (b) Again we see the sword of the Spirit which brings a curse upon the people. This same truth is mentioned in Isa_40:7. The Spirit of GOD punishes and curses just the same as GOD the Father, and GOD the Son.

Psa_7:12 (b) This is a picture of GOD's judgments by which He will punish men for their iniquities.

Psa_45:3 (a) David desired the judgments of the Lord JESUS CHRIST to be put into effect. He looked forward to the time when CHRIST would take His place as King of kings, and the Lord of lords.

Psa_57:4 (a) The tongue is described as being this sharp, cruel instrument that brings damage and injury to many. Terrible destruction of heart, mind and life are brought about by a cruel tongue which cuts deeply into the hearts of the hearers. (See also Psa_55:21; Psa_64:3).

Psa_149:6 (b) The reference here is to the Word of GOD, the Bible. It does indeed cut down false faith, destroys doubts, and condemns the sinner. (See also Rev_1:16).

Pro_5:4 (a) The lips of a strange woman do indeed cut down and permanently injure many a life. That hurts the heart, destroys the family, and often injures the body. (See Pro_12:18).

Pro_25:18 (a) The gossiping man who carries tales from one to another injures, harms and hurts as the sword hurts the body. The damage is most severe in many cases as he separates friends, and brings hatred into hearts.

Isa_49:2 (a) The words that come from the mouth of our precious Lord are indeed a sharp instrument for bringing consternation to His enemies, and punishment to all His foes. (See also Rev_19:15).

Zec_9:13 (a) This is a wonderful picture of the way that GOD will use Israel as a sharp instrument to fight and subdue His enemies on the earth.

Zec_13:7 (b) In this unusual way GOD describes how He Himself will bring about the punishment of our Lord JESUS on Calvary when He was made sin for us, and was punished in our stead.

Luk_2:35 (a) By this picture we understand the deep sorrow that would pierce the heart of Mary when she saw her Son, her first. born, mistreated, misunderstood, and crucified on the Cross.

Eph_6:17 (a) This type represents the Word of GOD which effectually works in the souls of men. (See also Heb_4:12).

Rev_1:16 (b) The Bible is this sword. It cuts down its enemies, it cuts the attachments of men to their sins, it conquers the enemy, it brings victory to GOD's people.
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.


in the A.V., is the usual rendering of חֶרֶב, chereb (from חָרִב, to lay waste), which was simply a large knife, as it is rendered in Jos_5:2; Eze_5:12. Less frequent words are רֶעִח, retsach, Psa_42:10 [11], a crushing or outbreak (“slaughter,” Eze_21:27); שֶׁלִח, shelach (Job_33:18; Job_36:12; Joe_2:8), a dart, as elsewhere rendered; N.T. ῥομφαία, a sabre, or long and broad sword (Luk_2:35; Rev_1:16; Rev_2:12; Rev_2:16; Rev_6:8; Rev_19:15; Rev_19:21); elsewhere μάχαιρα, a dagger, or short sword. SEE ARMOR.
1. The first mention of this principal offensive weapon in Bible history is in the narrative of the massacre at Shechem, when “Simeon and Levi took each man his sword, and came upon the city boldly and slew all the males” (Gen_34:25). But there is an allusion to it shortly before in a passage undoubtedly of the earliest date (Ewald, 1, 446, note): the expostulation of Laban with Jacob (Gen_31:26). After this, during the account of the conquest and of the monarchy, the mention of the sword is frequent, but very little can be gathered from the casual notices of the text as to its shape, size, material, or mode of use. Perhaps if anything is to be inferred it is that the chereb was not either a heavy or a long weapon. That of Ehud was only a cubit; i.e. eighteen inches, long, so as to have been concealed under his garment, and nothing is said to lead to the inference that it was shorter than usual, for the “dagger” of the A. V. is without any ground, unless it be a rendering of the μάχαιρα of the Sept. But even assuming that Ehud's sword was shorter than usual, yet a consideration of the narratives in 2Sa_2:16; 2Sa_20:8-10, and also of the ease with which David used the sword of a man so much larger than himself as Goliath (1Sa_17:51; 1Sa_21:9-10), goes to show that the cheireb was both a lighter and a shorter weapon than the modern sword. What frightful wounds one blow of the sword of the Hebrews could inflict, if given even with the left hand of a practiced swordsman, may be gathered from a comparison of 2Sa_20:8-12 with 1Ki_2:5. A ghastly picture is there given us of the murdered man and is murderer. The unfortunate Amasa actually disemboweled by the single stroke, and “wallowing” in his blood in the middle of the road the treacherous Joab standing over him, bespattered from his “girdle” to his “shoes” with the blood which had spouted from his victim!
The chereb was carried in a sheath (תִּעִר, 1Sa_17:51; 2Sa_20:8, only; נָדָן, 1Ch_21:27, only) slung by a girdle (1Sa_25:13) and restilng upon the thigh (Psa_45:3; Jdg_3:16), or upon the hips (2Sa_20:8). “Girding on the sword” was a symbolical expression for commencing war, the more forcible because in times of peace even the king in state did not wear a sword (1Ki_3:24); and a similar expression occurs to denote those able to serve (Jdg_8:10; 1Ch_21:5). Other phrases, derived from the chereb, are, “to smite with the edge” (literally mouth; comp. στόμα; and comp. ‘devour,' Isa_1:20) of the sword “slain with the sword” “men that drew sword,” etc.
Swords with two edges are occasionally referred to (Jdg_3:16; Psa_149:6), and allusions are found to “whetting” the sword (Deu_32:41; Psa_64:3; Eze_21:9). There is no reference to the material of which it was composed (unless it be Isa_2:4; Joe_3:10); doubtless it was of metal, from the allusions to its brightness and “glittering” (see the two passages quoted above, and others), and the ordinary word: for blade, viz. לִהִב, “a flame.” From the expression (Jos_5:2-3) swords of rock,” A.V. “sharp knives,” we may perhaps infer that in early times the material was flint. Smith. SEE KNIFE.
2. The Egyptian sword was straight and short, from two and a half to three feet in length, having generally a double edge, and tapering to a sharp point. It was used for cut and thrust. They had also a dagger, the handle of which, hollowed in the center, and gradually increasing in thickness at either extremity, was inlaid with costly stones, precious woods, or metals; and the pommel of that worn by the king in his girdle was frequently surmounted by one or two heads of a hawk, the symbol of Phrah, or the Sun, the title given to the monarchs of the Nile. It was much smaller than the sword: its blade was about ten or seven inches in length, tapering gradually in breadth, from one inch and a half to two thirds of an inch, towards the point; and the total length, with the handle, only completed a foot or sixteen inches. The blade was bronze, thicker in the middle than at the edges, and slightly grooved in that part; and so exquisitely was the metal worked that some retain their pliability and spring after a period of several thousand years, and almost resemble steel in elasticity. Such is the dagger of the Berlin collection, which was discovered in a Theban tomb, together with its leather sheath. The handle is partly covered with metal, and adorned with numerous small pins and studs of gold, which are purposely shown through suitable openings in the front of the sheath; but the upper extremity consists solely of bone, neither ornamented nor covered with any metal casing. Other instances of this have been found; and a dagger in Mr. Salt's collection, now in the British Museum, measuring eleven and a half inches in length, had the handle formed in a similar manner. There was also a falchion called shopsh, or khopsh, resembling in form and name the κοπίς, or chopper, of the Argives, reputed to be an Egyptian colony. It was more generally used than the sword, being borne by light as well as heavy-armed troops; and that it was a most efficient weapon is evident as well from the size and form of the blade as from its weight, the back of this bronze or iron blade being sometimes cased with brass (Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt. 1, 358).
3. Assyrian swords, like the scepters, as seen on the monuments, were often richly decorated. The hilt was generally ornamented with several lions heads, arranged to form both handle and cross-bar. The scabbard or sheath was elaborately embossed or engraved (Layard, Nineveh, 2, 234).
4. The Greek and Roman sword (gladius, ξίφος, poet. ἄορ, φάσγανον, a glaive, by the Latin poets called ensis) hadgenerally a straight two-edged blade, rather broad, and nearly of equal width from hilt to point. The Greeks and Romans wore them on the left side, so as to draw them out of the sheath (vagina, κολεός) by passing the right hand in front of the body to take hold of the hilt with the thumb next to the blade. The early Greeks used a very short sword. Iphicrates, who made various improvements in armor about B.C. 400, doubled its length. The Roman sword was larger, heavier, and more formidable than the Greek (see Smith, Dict. of Antiq. s.v. “Gladius”). The swords of the most ancient times were made of brass or copper, hardened by some process now unknown; and this continued to be the case long subsequently with the Greeks and Romans, as well as among the Phoenicians (Kitto, Pict. Bible, note at Num_31:8).
5. The sword is the symbol of war and slaughter (Lev_26:25; Isa_34:5; Rev_19:17-18), of divine judgment (Deu_32:41; Psa_17:13; Jer_12:12; Revelation 1, 16), and of power and authority (Rom_13:4). The Word of God is called “the sword,” i.e. the weapon or instrument, of the Spirit (Eph_6:17).



CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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