Mikha 5:8-15

5:8 Those survivors from Jacob will live among the nations,

in the midst of many peoples.

They will be like a lion among the animals of the forest,

like a young lion among the flocks of sheep,

which attacks when it passes through;

it rips its prey ¹  and there is no one to stop it. ² 

5:9 Lift your hand triumphantly against your adversaries; ³ 

may all your enemies be destroyed! ⁴ 

The Lord Will Purify His People

5:10 “In that day,” says the Lord,

“I will destroy ⁵  your horses from your midst,

and smash your chariots.

5:11 I will destroy the cities of your land,

and tear down all your fortresses.

5:12 I will remove the sorcery ⁶  that you practice, ⁷ 

and you will no longer have omen readers living among you. ⁸ 

5:13 I will remove your idols and sacred pillars from your midst;

you will no longer worship what your own hands made.

5:14 I will uproot your images of Asherah ⁹  from your midst,

and destroy your idols. ¹⁰ 

5:15 I will angrily seek vengeance

on the nations that do not obey me.” ¹¹ 

Daniel 2:44

2:44 In the days of those kings the God of heaven will raise up an everlasting kingdom that will not be destroyed and a kingdom that will not be left to another people. It will break in pieces and bring about the demise of all these kingdoms. But it will stand forever.

Zakharia 9:13-15

9:13 I will bend Judah as my bow; I will load the bow with Ephraim, my arrow! ¹²  I will stir up your sons, Zion, against yours, Greece, and I will make you, Zion, ¹³  like a warrior’s sword.

9:14 Then the Lord will appear above them, and his arrow will shoot forth like lightning; the Lord God will blow the trumpet and will sally forth on the southern storm winds. 9:15 The Lord who rules over all will guard them, and they will prevail and overcome with sling stones. Then they will drink, and will become noisy like drunkards, ¹⁴  full like the sacrificial basin or like the corners of the altar. ¹⁵ 

Wahyu 2:26-27

2:26 And to the one who conquers ¹⁶  and who continues in ¹⁷  my deeds until the end, I will give him authority over the nations ¹⁸  –

2:27 he ¹⁹  will rule ²⁰  them with an iron rod ²¹ 

and like clay jars he will break them to pieces, ²² 

[5:8]  ¹ tn The words “its prey” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[5:8]  ² tn Heb “and there is no deliverer.”

[5:9]  ³ tn Heb “let your hand be lifted against your adversaries.”

[5:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “be cut off.”

[5:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “cut off” (also in the following verse).

[5:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “magic charms” (so NCV, TEV); NIV, NLT “witchcraft”; NAB “the means of divination.” The precise meaning of this Hebrew word is uncertain, but note its use in Isa 47:9, 12.

[5:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “from your hands.”

[5:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “and you will not have omen-readers.”

[5:14]  ⁹ tn Or “Asherah poles.”

[5:14]  sn Asherah was a leading deity of the Canaanite pantheon, wife/sister of El and goddess of fertility. She was commonly worshiped at shrines in or near groves of evergreen trees, or, failing that, at places marked by wooden poles. These were to be burned or cut down (Deut 12:3; 16:21; Judg 6:25, 28, 30; 2 Kgs 18:4). The Lord states that he will destroy these images, something the Israelites themselves should have done but failed to do.

[5:14]  ¹⁰ tn The MT reads “your cities,” but many emend the text to צִרֶיךָ (tsirekha, “your images”) or עֲצַבֶּיךָ (’atsbbekha, “your idols”).

[5:15]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I will accomplish in anger and in rage, vengeance on the nations who do not listen.”

[9:13]  ¹² tn The words “my arrow” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation to clarify the imagery for the modern reader (cf. NRSV, NLT).

[9:13]  ¹³ tn The word “Zion” is not repeated here in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation to indicate that the statement refers to Zion and not to Greece.

[9:15]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “they will drink and roar as with wine”; the LXX (followed here by NAB, NRSV) reads “they will drink blood like wine” (referring to a figurative “drinking” of the blood of their enemies).

[9:15]  ¹⁵ sn The whole setting is eschatological as the intensely figurative language shows. The message is that the Lord will assume his triumphant reign over all the earth and will use his own redeemed and renewed people Israel to accomplish that work. The imagery of v. 15 is the eating and drinking of the flesh and blood of God’s enemies, that is, Israel’s complete mastery of them. Like those who drink too much wine, the Lord’s warriors will be satiated with the blood of their foes and will exult as though drunk.

[2:26]  ¹⁶ tn Or “who is victorious”; traditionally, “who overcomes.”

[2:26]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “keeps.” In a context that speaks of “holding on to what you have,” the idea here is one of continued faithful behavior (BDAG 1002 s.v. τηρέω 3 has “ὁ τηρῶν τὰ ἔργα μου the one who takes my deeds to heart Rv 2:26”).

[2:26]  ¹⁸ tn Or “over the Gentiles” (the same Greek word may be translated “Gentiles” or “nations”).

[2:27]  ¹⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[2:27]  ²⁰ tn Grk “will shepherd.”

[2:27]  ²¹ tn Or “scepter.” The Greek term ῥάβδος (rJabdo") can mean either “rod” or “scepter.”

[2:27]  ²² sn A quotation from Ps 2:9 (with the line introducing the quotation containing a partial allusion to Ps 2:8). See also Rev 12:5, 19:15.