He says, “You are My war-club, My weapon of war; And with you I shatter nations, And with you I destroy kingdoms.
Parallel translations
- WEB “You are my battle ax and weapons of war. With you I will break the nations into pieces. With you I will destroy kingdoms.
- KJV Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms;
- BSB “You are My war club, My weapon for battle. With you I shatter nations; with you I bring kingdoms to ruin.
- NKJV “Youare My battle-ax and weapons of war: For with you I will break the nation in pieces; With you I will destroy kingdoms;
- NLT “You are my battle-ax and sword,” says the Lord. “With you I will shatter nations and destroy many kingdoms.
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 addresses an instrument, 'You are my battle ax,' with which He shatters nations and destroys kingdoms. The Lord wields nations as weapons to accomplish His judgments.
Overview
The 'battle ax' or war club is likely Babylon (or her conqueror) as God's tool, used to break the nations as part of His sovereign judgment, though interpreters differ on whether it refers to Babylon being used or now being broken. Either way, the point is that nations rise and fall as instruments in God's hand. This sovereignty over the nations assures that history serves God's redemptive plan centered in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Isa 41:15–16Behold, I have made you into a new sharp threshing instrument with teeth. You will thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and will make the hills like chaff.
- Mic 4:13Arise and thresh, daughter of Zion; for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hoofs brass; and you will beat in pieces many peoples: and I will devote their gain to Yahweh, and their substance to the Lord of the whole earth.
- Isa 37:26Have you not heard how I have done it long ago, and formed it in ancient times? Now I have brought it to pass, that it should be yours to destroy fortified cities, turning them into ruinous heaps.
- Zech 9:13–14For indeed I bend Judah as a bow for me. I have filled the bow with Ephraim; and I will stir up your sons, Zion, against your sons, Greece, and will make you like the sword of a mighty man.
- Isa 14:5–6Yahweh has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers,
- Jer 27:5–7‘I have made the earth, the men and the animals that are on the surface of the earth, by my great power and by my outstretched arm; and I give it to whom it seems right to me.
- Matt 22:7When the king heard that, he was angry, and sent his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
- Jer 25:9behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,” says Yahweh, “and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations around. I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations.
- Isa 10:5Alas Assyrian, the rod of my anger, the staff in whose hand is my indignation!
- Jer 50:23How the hammer of the whole earth is cut apart and broken! How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!
- Jer 25:11This whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
- Isa 13:5They come from a far country, from the uttermost part of heaven, even Yahweh, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
- Isa 10:15Should an ax brag against him who chops with it? Should a saw exalt itself above him who saws with it? As if a rod should lift those who lift it up, or as if a staff should lift up someone who is not wood.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 51:20 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.