Skip to main content

To Captivity and the Sword


While reading Jeremiah this morning I came across a familiar refrain:

Jeremiah 43: 10-12 (NASB)*
and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Behold, I am going to send and get Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and I am going to set his throne right over these stones that I have hidden; and he will spread his canopy over them. 11 He will also come and strike the land of Egypt; those who are meant for death will be given over to death, and those for captivity to captivity, and those for the sword to the sword.
I had read it earlier in the year, in Jeremiah 15:1-3 (NASB)*
Then the Lord said to me, “Even though Moses and Samuel were to stand before Me, My heart would not be with this people; send them away from My presence and let them go! And it shall be that when they say to you, ‘Where should we go?’ then you are to tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord:
"Those destined for death, to death;
And those destined for the sword, to the sword;
And those destined for famine, to famine;
And those destined for captivity, to captivity.”’
I will appoint over them four kinds of doom,” declares the Lord: “the sword to slay, the dogs to drag off, and the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.
These are echoed in the book of Revelation, when the second beast is making war with the saints of God (Revelation 13: 7-10). However, when I looked it up, I ran into a puzzle. The NASB* and most other major English translations put it this way:
  " It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain.  If anyone has an ear, let him hear. If anyone is destined for captivity, to captivity he goes; if anyone kills with the sword, with the sword he must be killed. Here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints.
However, just as the OT prophecies said nothing about those leading others to captivity or drawing the sword/ killing, the Greek interlinear doesn’t seem to indicate that those destined for captivity or the sword have done something to deserve it. Maybe it’s not a call to face the Antichrist unarmed after all!
Mounce Reverse Intralinear  (Revelation 13:10)
"If anyone meant for captivity into captivity he will go. If anyone is to be killed by the sword, by the sword he will be killed. This calls for the endurance and faithfulness of the saints."
---------------------------
*The NASB puts in italics those words which do not appear in the Hebrew or Greek yet make sense of the English interpretation. I am surprised that they do not to the same with “kills with the sword” since the Greek verb form is exactly the same as the verb form for being "killed by the sword," which leads me to doubt the general English-translation interpretation.

Comments