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Concordances
Nave Topical Bible
• Sword
Thompson Chain Reference
• Sword of the Spirit
• Sword of the Lord
• Spirit, Sword of the
Treasury of Biblical Knowledge
• Punishment;: & God's Sword, Hanged, Israel, Leprosy
• Destroyed Peoples; for Israel, Confidence in God: & God's Sword
Torrey Topical Textbook
• Sword, the
Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
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Holman Bible Dictionary
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Hastings' BibleDictionary
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Hastings' NT Dictionary
• Sword (2)
• Sword
King James Dictionary
• Sword
Morrish Bible Dictionary
• Sword
1910 New Catholic Dictionary
• Swords, Cannon-Ball and
• Privy Chamberlains of Sword and Cape
• Chamberlains of Honor of Sword and Cape
•   (only first 3 shown)
Smith Bible Dictionary
• Sword
Vines' Expository Dictionary
• Sword
• Sword
Wilson's Bible Types
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Webster Dictionary
• Swording
• Sworded
• Sword-Shaped
•   (only first 3 shown)
Encyclopedias
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
• Sword
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
• Sword
Kitto Biblical Cyclopedia
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McClintock and Strong's Bible Encyclopedia
• Brethren of the Sword
• Sword
• Sword, Brothers of the
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The Jewish Encyclopedia
• Sword
Lexicons
• ܚܰܪܒ݁ܳܐ
• ܣܰܝܦ݂ܳܐ
• ܣܰܦ݂ܣܺܪܳܐ
• μάχαιρα
• ῥομφαία
• אִבְחָה
• בָּרָק
• חָרֵב , חָרֵב
•   (only first 3 shown)

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 Joshua 5:2; Ezekiel 5:12. Less frequent words are רֶעִח, retsach, Psalms 42:10 [11], a crushing or outbreak ("slaughter," Ezekiel 21:27); שֶׁלִח, shelach (Job 33:18; Job 36:12; Joel 2:8), a dart, as elsewhere rendered; N.T. ῥομφαία, a sabre, or long and broad sword (Luke 2:35; Revelation 1:16; Revelation 2:12; Revelation 2:16; Revelation 6:8; Revelation 19:15; Revelation 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" (Genesis 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 (Genesis 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 2 Samuel 2:16; 2 Samuel 20:8-10, and also of the ease with which David used the sword of a man so much larger than himself as Goliath (1 Samuel 17:51; 1 Samuel 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 2 Samuel 20:8-12 with 1 Kings 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, 1 Samuel 17:51; 2 Samuel 20:8, only; נָדָן, 1 Chronicles 21:27, only) slung by a girdle (1 Samuel 25:13) and restilng upon the thigh (Psalms 45:3; Judges 3:16), or upon the hips (2 Samuel 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 (1 Kings 3:24); and a similar expression occurs to denote those able to serve (Judges 8:10; 1 Chronicles 21:5). Other phrases, derived from the chereb, are, "to smite with the edge" (literally mouth; comp. στόμα; and comp. ‘ devour,' Isaiah 1:20) of the sword "slain with the sword" "men that drew sword," etc.

Swords with two edges are occasionally referred to (Judges 3:16; Psalms 149:6), and allusions are found to "whetting" the sword (Deuteronomy 32:41; Psalms 64:3; Ezekiel 21:9). There is no reference to the material of which it was composed (unless it be Isaiah 2:4; Joel 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 (Joshua 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).

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