the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Sword
Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words
or A. Noun.
Chereb (חֶרֶב, Strong's #2719), “sword; dagger; flint knife; chisel.” This noun has cognates in several other Semitic languages including Ugaritic, Aramaic, Syriac, Akkadian, and Arabic. The word occurs about 410 times and in all periods of biblical Hebrew.
Usually chereb represents an implement that can be or is being used in war, such as a “sword.” The exact shape of that implement, however, is not specified by this word. Presentday archaeology has unearthed various sickle swords and daggers from the earliest periods. Sickle swords are so named because they are shaped somewhat like a sickle with the outer edge of the arc being the cutting edge. These were long one-edged “swords.” This is what chereb refers to when one reads of someone’s being slain with the edge of the “sword”: “And they slew Hamor and Shechem his son with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house …” (Gen. 34:26). The first biblical occurrence of the word (Gen. 3:24) probably also represents such an implement: “… And he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way.…”
The precise meaning of chereb is confused, however, by its application to what we know as a “dagger,” a short two-edged sword: “But Ehud made him a dagger which had two edges, of a cubit [eighteen to twenty-four inches] length …” (Judg. 3:16).
The sickle sword was probably the implement used up to and during the conquest of Palestine. About the same time the Sea Peoples (among whom were the Philistines) were invading the ancient Near East. They brought with them a new weapon—the long twoedged “sword.” The first clear mention of such a “sword” in the biblical record appears in 1 Sam. 17:51: “Therefore David ran, and stood upon the Philistine [Goliath], and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him.…” Perhaps Saul also used the highly superior Philistine armor and “sword” (1 Sam. 17:39), but this is not clear. It is also possible that the angel who confronted Balaam with a drawn “sword” wielded a long two-edged “sword” (Num. 22:23). Certainly this would have made him (humanly speaking) a much more formidable sight. By the time of David, with his expertise and concern for warfare, the large two-edged “sword” was much more prominent if not the primary kind of “sword” used by Israel’s heavy infantry.
This two-edged “sword” can be compared to a tongue: “… Even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword” (Ps. 57:4). This usage tells us not only about the shape of the “sword” but that such a tongue is a violent, merciless, attacking weapon. In Gen. 27:40 “sword” is symbolic of violence: “And by thy sword shalt thou live.…” Prov. 5:4 uses chereb (of a long twoedged “sword”) to depict the grievous result of dealing with an adulteress; it is certain death: “But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.”
The “sword” is frequently depicted as an agent of God. It is not only used to safeguard the garden of Eden, but figures the judgment of God executed upon His enemies: “For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea …” (Isa. 34:5; cf. Deut. 28:22).
Chereb may be used of various other cutting implements. In Josh. 5:2 it means “knife”: “Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time.” Ezek. 5:1 uses chereb of a barber’s “razor”: “And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barber’s razor, and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thy beard.…” The exact size and shape of this tool cannot be determined, but it is clear that it was used as a razor.
This word can also be used of tools (“chisels”) for hewing stone: “And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it” (Exod. 20:25). The fact that a “sword,” an implement of death, would be used to cut the stone for an altar, the instrument of life, explains why this action would profane the altar.
B. Verb.
Charab means “to smite down, slaughter.” This verb, which appears 3 times in biblical Hebrew, has cognates in Arabic. The word appears in 2 Kings 3:23: “This is blood: the kings are surely slain.…”
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Vines, W. E., M. A. Entry for 'Sword'. Vine's Expository Dictionary of OT Words. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/vot/s/sword.html. 1940.
