Then I will strike your bow from your left hand and make your arrows fall from your right hand.
Parallel translations
- WEB and I will strike your bow out of your left hand, and will cause your arrows to fall out of your right hand.
- KJV And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
- BSB Then I will strike the bow from your left hand and dash down the arrows from your right hand.
- NKJV Then I will knock the bow out of your left hand, and cause the arrows to fall out of your right hand.
- NLT I will knock the bow from your left hand and the arrows from your right hand, and I will leave you helpless.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God disarms Gog, striking bow and arrows from his hands. The mightiest weapons are useless before the Lord.
Overview
In vivid terms the Lord renders Gog defenseless, knocking his bow and arrows away before the battle is even joined. The imagery stresses that victory belongs entirely to God, not to Israel's military strength. It illustrates the consistent biblical theme that the Lord breaks the weapons of war and that no armament can prevail against His will.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Ps 76:3There he broke the flaming arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the weapons of war. Selah.
- Hos 1:5It will happen in that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.”
- Jer 21:4–5‘Yahweh, the God of Israel says, “Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans who besiege you, without the walls; and I will gather them into the middle of this city.
- Ezek 20:21–24“‘“But the children rebelled against me. They didn’t walk in my statutes, neither kept my ordinances to do them, which if a man do, he shall live in them. They profaned my Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them, to accomplish my anger against them in the wilderness.
- Ps 46:9He makes wars cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow, and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots in the fire.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The promise of one Shepherd-King David, a new heart and new Spirit, and the river of life flowing from the temple all stream toward Christ, the good Shepherd who gives the Spirit.
How Ezekiel 39:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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