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For 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.
Zechariah 9:13 · World English Bible
Parallel translations
  • KJV When I have bent Judah for me, filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and made thee as the sword of a mighty man.
  • BSB For I will bend Judah as My bow and fit it with Ephraim. I will rouse your sons, O Zion, against the sons of Greece. I will make you like the sword of a mighty man.
  • NKJV For I have bent Judah, My bow, Fitted the bow with Ephraim, And raised up your sons, O Zion, Against your sons, O Greece, And made you like the sword of a mighty man.”
  • NASB For I will bend Judah as My bow, I will fill the bow with Ephraim. And I will stir up your sons, Zion, against your sons, Greece; And I will make you like a warrior’s sword.
  • NLT Judah is my bow, and Israel is my arrow. Jerusalem is my sword, and like a warrior, I will brandish it against the Greeks.

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 will wield Judah and Ephraim like a bow and sword against Greece. He will empower His people to triumph over their enemies.

Overview

The Lord pictures His people as weapons in His hand, raised up against 'your sons, Greece,' often connected to the Maccabean victories over the Hellenistic Seleucids. The imagery shows God strengthening His people for spiritual and historical conflict. Ultimately it points to the triumph of God's kingdom over every hostile power.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 31

  • Rev 17:14These will war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings, and those who are with him are called chosen and faithful.”
  • Zech 10:3–7My anger is kindled against the shepherds, and I will punish the male goats; For Yahweh of Armies has visited his flock, the house of Judah, and will make them as his majestic horse in the battle.
  • Isa 49:2He has made my mouth like a sharp sword. He has hidden me in the shadow of his hand. He has made me a polished shaft. He has kept me close in his quiver.
  • Joel 3:6–8and have sold the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem to the sons of the Greeks, that you may remove them far from their border.
  • Rev 19:15Out of his mouth proceeds a sharp, double-edged sword, that with it he should strike the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod. He treads the wine press of the fierceness of the wrath of God, the Almighty.
  • Ps 45:3Strap your sword on your thigh, mighty one: your splendor and your majesty.
  • Zech 12:2–8“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of reeling to all the surrounding peoples, and it will also be on Judah in the siege against Jerusalem.
  • Zech 1:21Then I asked, “What are these coming to do?” He said, “These are the horns which scattered Judah, so that no man lifted up his head; but these have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations, which lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it.”
  • Ps 18:32–35the God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect?
  • Rev 1:16He had seven stars in his right hand. Out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining at its brightest.
  • 2 Cor 10:3–5For though we walk in the flesh, we don’t wage war according to the flesh;
  • Amos 2:11I raised up some of your sons for prophets, and some of your young men for Nazirites. Isn’t this true, you children of Israel?” says Yahweh.
  • 1 Cor 1:21–28For seeing that in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom didn’t know God, it was God’s good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believe.
  • Heb 4:12For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
  • Ps 144:1By David. Blessed be Yahweh, my rock, who teaches my hands to war, and my fingers to battle:
  • Dan 8:21–25The rough male goat is the king of Greece: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king.
  • Obad 1:21Saviors will go up on Mount Zion to judge the mountains of Esau, and the kingdom will be Yahweh’s.
  • Lam 4:2The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, How are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
  • Dan 11:32–34Such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he pervert by flatteries; but the people who know their God shall be strong, and take action.
  • Mic 5:4–9He shall stand, and shall shepherd in the strength of Yahweh, in the majesty of the name of Yahweh his God: and they will live, for then he will be great to the ends of the earth.
  • Rev 19:21The rest were killed with the sword of him who sat on the horse, the sword which came out of his mouth. All the birds were filled with their flesh.
  • Rom 15:16–20that I should be a servant of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, serving as a priest of the Good News of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be made acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
  • Eph 6:17And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;
  • Rev 2:12“To the angel of the assembly in Pergamum write: “He who has the sharp two-edged sword says these things:
  • 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.
  • 2 Tim 4:7I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith.
  • Mic 4:2–3Many nations will go and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” For the law will go out of Zion, and Yahweh’s word from Jerusalem;
  • Jer 51:20“You are my battle ax and weapons of war. With you I will break the nations into pieces. With you I will destroy kingdoms.
  • Ps 149:6May the high praises of God be in their mouths, and a two-edged sword in their hand;
  • Mark 16:15–20He said to them, “Go into all the world, and preach the Good News to the whole creation.
  • Ps 49:2–9both low and high, rich and poor together.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (5)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Zechariah videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Zechariah 9:13YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on ZechariahMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

The Branch who is both priest and king, the shepherd struck and the flock scattered, the king coming humble on a donkey, the one they pierced, the fountain opened for sin — Zechariah is dense with Christ.

How Zechariah 9:13 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.