¹ tn Heb “like my strength then, like my strength now, for battle and for going out and coming in.”

¹ tn Heb “But you must cross over armed for battle before your brothers, all [you] mighty men of strength.”

¹ sn The statement the Lord will go to battle introduces the conflict known elsewhere as the “battle of Armageddon,” a battle in which the Lord delivers his people and establishes his millennial reign (cf. Joel 3:12, 15-16; Ezek 38-39; Rev 16:12-21; 19:19-21).

² sn The time frame moves backward now to where it began in v. 3. Possibly v. 6 ends an oracle, and now Jeremiah continues on the same topic. Or it could be that the rhetoric of a single oracle starts at battle preparations and then, after showing what God has foreseen about the battle, returns to address those preparing for battle.

² sn The cross is portrayed as part of the cosmic battle between Satan and God; see Luke 4:1-13; 11:14-23.

¹ tn Traditionally, “host.” The term refers to God’s heavenly angelic assembly, which he sometimes leads into battle as an army.

⁴ tn Or more freely, “Their arrows will be as successful at hitting their mark // as a skilled soldier—he always returns from battle with plunder.”

² tn Heb “Rise up for battle.” The idea “against her” is implicit from the context and has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

¹ sn The passage jumps forward in time here, moving from the Egyptian army being summoned to battle to a description of their being routed in defeat.

² tn Heb “hear the sound of the trumpet.” The trumpet was used to gather the troops and to sound the alarm for battle.

¹ sn Heb “you will not fall by the sword.” In the context this would include death in battle and execution as a prisoner of war.

³ tn Heb “will die by the sword.” Here “sword” stands contextually for “battle,” while “starvation” stands for death by starvation during siege.

² tn Heb “Sanctify war.” This is probably an idiom from early Israel’s holy wars in which religious rites were to precede the battle.

² tn Heb “to cause to return with the rage of his anger, and his battle cry [or “rebuke”] with flames of fire.”

³ sn Smearing the shields with oil would make them more flexible and effective in battle. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:394.

¹ sn The seven-to-one ratio emphasizes the great disparity that will exist in the population due to the death of so many men in battle.

² tn Or “rises up.” The verb form is an imperfect, not a jussive. The psalmist is describing God’s appearance in battle in a dramatic fashion.

² tn The Hebrew text has simply, “your majesty and your splendor,” which probably refers to the king’s majestic splendor when he appears in full royal battle regalia.

¹ tn Traditionally, “the Lord of hosts,” a title which here pictures the Lord as a mighty warrior-king who leads armies into battle.

³ sn Gives me strength. As the following context makes clear, this refers to physical and emotional strength for battle (see especially v. 39).