'Mighty' in the Bible

There were Nephilim (men of stature, notorious men) on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God lived with the daughters of men, and they gave birth to their children. These were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown (great reputation, fame).

The waters became mighty and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the waters.

The waters prevailed so greatly and were so mighty and overwhelming on the earth, so that all the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were covered.

Cush became the father of Nimrod; he became a mighty one on the earth.

He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord.”

since Abraham is destined to become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him?

“Listen to us, my lord; you are a prince of God [a mighty prince] among us; bury your dead in the choicest of our graves; none of us will refuse you his grave or hinder you from burying your dead [wife].”

So Rachel said, “With mighty wrestlings [in prayer to God] I have struggled with my sister and have prevailed.” So she named him Naphtali (my wrestlings).

“But his bow remained firm and steady [in the Strength that does not fail],For his arms were made strong and agileBy the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob,(By the name of the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel),

He said to his people, “Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are too many and too mighty for us [they greatly outnumber us].

But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless [he is forced] by a strong hand.

Therefore, say to the children of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will free you from their bondage. I will redeem and rescue you with an outstretched (vigorous, powerful) arm and with great acts of judgment [against Egypt].

Pray and entreat the Lord, for there has been enough of God’s thunder and hail; I will let you go, and you shall stay here no longer.”

“You blew with Your wind, the sea covered them;[Clad in armor] they sank like lead in the mighty waters.

“Then the [tribal] chiefs of Edom were dismayed and horrified;The [mighty] leaders of Moab, trembling grips them;All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away [in despair]—

But Moses appeased and entreated the Lord his God, and said, “Lord, why does Your anger burn against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?

‘You shall not do injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor show a preference for the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.

‘O Lord God, You have only begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your mighty hand; for what god is there in heaven or on earth that can do such works and mighty acts (miracles) as Yours?

Or has any [man-made] god ever tried to go and take for himself a nation from within another nation by trials, by signs and wonders and by war and by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm and by great terrors, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your [very] eyes?

And because He loved your fathers, He chose their descendants who followed them, and brought you from Egypt with His Presence, with His great and awesome power,

You shall remember [with thoughtful concern] that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.

then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.

But because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed (bought) you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

the great trials which you saw with your own eyes, and the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the Lord your God brought you out. So shall the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.

You shall not dread them, for the Lord your God is in your midst, a great and awesome God.

But the Lord your God will hand them over to you, and will confuse them with a great panic until they are destroyed.

Then I prayed to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord God, do not destroy Your people, even Your inheritance, whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought from Egypt with a mighty hand.

Yet they are Your people and Your inheritance, whom You have brought out by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm.’

For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe.

Know this day that I am not speaking to your children who have not known [by personal experience] and who have not seen [firsthand] the instruction and discipline of the Lord your God—His greatness, His mighty hand and His outstretched arm;

And you shall say before the Lord your God, ‘My father [Jacob] was a wandering Aramean, and he [along with his family] went down to Egypt and lived there [as strangers], few in number; but while there he became a great, mighty and populous nation.

and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with great terror [suffered by the Egyptians] and with signs and with wonders;

and in all the mighty power and all the great and terrible deeds which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.

Your wives, your children, and your cattle shall [be allowed to] stay in the land which Moses gave you on this [eastern] side of the Jordan, but you shall go across [the river] before your brothers (the other tribes) armed for battle, all your brave warriors, and you shall help them [conquer and take possession of their land],

so that all the peoples of the earth may know [without any doubt] and acknowledge that the hand of the Lord is mighty and extraordinarily powerful, so that you will fear the Lord your God [and obey and worship Him with profound awe and reverence] forever.”

The Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and the mighty warriors.

So Joshua set out with all the people of war to go up against Ai; then Joshua chose thirty thousand valiant men, and sent them out at night.

he [and his people] feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city, like one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all its men were mighty.

So Joshua went up from Gilgal, he and all the people of war with him, and all the men of valor.

“The Mighty One, God, the Lord, the Mighty One, God, the Lord! He knows, and may Israel itself know. If it was in rebellion, or if in an unfaithful act against the Lord, do not save us this day!

“Then down marched the survivors to the nobles;The people of the Lord marched down for Me against the mighty.

‘Curse Meroz,’ said the messenger of the Lord,‘Utterly curse its inhabitants;Because they did not come to the help of the Lord,To the help of the Lord against the mighty.’

And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O brave man.”

Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a brave warrior, but he was the son of a prostitute. Gilead was the father of Jephthah.

“The bows of the mighty are broken,But those who have stumbled equip themselves with strength.

Woe to us! Who will rescue us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness.

There was a man of [the tribe of] Benjamin whose name was Kish the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Becorath, the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite, a mighty man of influence and wealth.

Now the war against the Philistines was severe (brutal, relentless) all the days of Saul; and whenever Saul saw any mighty or courageous man, he recruited him for his staff.

So he ran and stood over the Philistine, grasped his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him, and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their [mighty] champion was dead, they fled.

“Your glory and splendor, O Israel, is slain upon your high places!How the mighty have fallen!

“O mountains of Gilboa,Let not dew or rain be upon you, nor fields with offerings;For there the shield of the mighty was defiled,The shield of Saul, [dry, cracked] not anointed with oil.

“From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty,The bow of Jonathan did not turn back,And the sword of Saul did not return empty.

“How the mighty have fallen in the midst of the battle!Jonathan lies slain upon your high places.

“How the mighty have fallen,And the weapons of war have perished!”

When David heard about it, he sent Joab and the entire army, the strong and brave men.

He threw stones at David and at all the servants of King David; yet all the people and all the warriors remained on his right and on his left.

And Hushai said, “You know your father and his men, that they are brave men, and they are enraged and fierce, like a bear deprived of her cubs in the field. Your father is a [shrewd] man of war, and will not spend the night with the people [knowing that you seek his life].

And even the one who is brave, whose heart is like the heart of a lion, will completely lose heart and melt away; for all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man, and that those who are with him are brave men.

So Joab’s men went after him, along with [David’s bodyguards] the Cherethites and Pelethites and all the warriors; they went out from Jerusalem to pursue Sheba the son of Bichri.

“He rescued me from my strong enemy,From those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me.

These are the names of the mighty men (warriors) whom David had: Josheb-basshebeth, a Tahchemonite, chief of the captains, also called Adino the Eznite (spear) because of the eight hundred men killed [by him] at one time.

Next to him was Eleazar the son of Dodo the son of Ahohi. He was one of the three mighty men with David when they taunted and defied the Philistines assembled there for battle, and the men of Israel had gone.

So the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines, and drew water from the well of Bethlehem by the gate, and carried and brought it to David. But he would not drink it, but poured it out [in worship] to the Lord.

And he said, “Far be it from me, O Lord, that I should drink this. [Is it not the same as] the blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives?” So he would not drink it. These things the three mighty men did.

These things Benaiah the son of Jehoiada did, and gained a reputation beside the three mighty men.

But Zadok the priest, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, Nathan the prophet, Shimei, Rei, and David’s most formidable warriors did not side with Adonijah [in his desire to become king].

But he did not invite Nathan the prophet, Benaiah, the most formidable warriors, or his brother Solomon.

The man Jeroboam was a brave warrior and when Solomon saw that the young man was industrious, he put him in charge of all the forced labor of the house of Joseph.

Now Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram (Syria), was considered a great man by his king, and was highly respected because through Naaman the Lord had given victory to Aram (Syria). He was also a man of courage, but he was a leper.

He led away into exile all Jerusalem and all the captains and all the brave men, ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and the smiths. None remained except the poorest people of the land.

Nebuchadnezzar led Jehoiachin away into exile to Babylon; also he took the king’s mother and the king’s wives and his officials and the leading men of the land [including Ezekiel] as exiles from Jerusalem to Babylon.

Cush became the father of Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one upon the earth.

These were the heads of their fathers’ households: Epher, Ishi, Eliel, Azriel, Jeremiah, Hodaviah, and Jahdiel, warriors of valor [willing and able to encounter danger], famous men, and heads of the households of their fathers.

The sons of Tola: Uzzi, Rephaiah, Jeriel, Jahmai, Ibsam, and Samuel, heads of their fathers’ households. The sons of Tola were courageous men in their generations; their number in the days of David was 22,600.

Their relatives among all the families of Issachar, courageous men, registered by genealogies, were 87,000 in all.

The sons of Bela were five: Ezbon, Uzzi, Uzziel, Jerimoth, and Iri. They were heads of the households of their fathers, courageous men. By their genealogies they were 22,034.

They were registered by their genealogies according to their generations, as heads of their fathers’ households, courageous men, 20,200 in number.

All these were the sons of Jediael, according to the heads of their fathers’ households, 17,200 courageous men of valor, fit for military service.

All these were sons (descendants) of Asher, heads of their fathers’ houses, choice men, courageous men, chiefs of the leaders. Their number, enrolled by genealogies for service in war, was 26,000 men.

The sons of Ulam were courageous men, archers, and had many sons and grandsons—150 in all. All these were of the sons (descendants) of Benjamin.

Now these are the chiefs of David’s mighty men, who strongly supported him in his kingdom, together with all Israel, to make him king, in accordance with the word of the Lord concerning Israel.

This is the list of David’s mighty men: Jashobeam, the son of a Hachmonite, the chief of the thirty [heroes]. He lifted up his spear against three hundred whom he killed at one time.

Next to him [in rank] was Eleazar the son of Dodo the Ahohite, who was one of the three mighty men.

Then the three [mighty men] broke through the camp of the Philistines and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem which was next to the gate, and brought it to David. But David would not drink it; he poured it out to the Lord [as an offering];

and he said, “Far be it from me before my God that I would do this thing! Shall I drink the blood of these men who have put their lives in jeopardy? For they brought it at the risk of their lives.” So he would not drink it. These things the three mighty men did.

Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a courageous man of Kabzeel who had done great things, killed the two sons of Ariel of Moab. Also he went down and killed a lion in a pit on a snowy day.

Benaiah the son of Jehoiada did these things, and had a name as well as the three mighty men.

Now the mighty men of the armies were: Asahel the brother of Joab, Elhanan the son of Dodo of Bethlehem,

These are the ones who came to David at Ziklag, while he still concealed himself from Saul the son of Kish; they were among the courageous men who helped him in battle.

Ishmaiah of Gibeon, a mighty man among the thirty, and [a leader] over them; Jeremiah, Jahaziel, Johanan, Jozabad of Gederah,

They helped David against the band of raiders, for they were all courageous men, and [all seven] became commanders in his army.

of the tribe of Simeon, brave warriors, 7,100;

and Zadok, a courageous young man, and twenty-two captains from his father’s house.

Of the tribe of Ephraim, 20,800, courageous men, famous in their fathers’ houses.

When David heard about it, he sent Joab and all the army of courageous men.

Also to his son Shemaiah sons were born who ruled over the house of their father, for they were courageous men of ability.

This is the Benaiah who was the mighty man of the thirty and was in charge of the thirty; and Ammizabad his son was over his division.

David assembled at Jerusalem all the leaders (officials) of Israel, the leaders of the tribes, and the commanders of the divisions that served the king, and the commanders of thousands, and the commanders of hundreds, and the overseers of all the property and livestock of the king and his sons, with the palace officers and the mighty men, and all the brave warriors.

All of the leaders and warriors, and also all the sons of King David, pledged allegiance to King Solomon.

“Also in regard to the foreigner who is not from Your people Israel, but has come from a far country for the sake of Your great name and Your mighty power and Your outstretched arm—when they come and pray toward this house,