'Mighty' in the Bible

The Lord will go forth like a warrior,He will stir up His zeal like a man of war;He will shout out, yes, He will raise a war cry.He will prevail [mightily] against His enemies.

This is what the Lord says,He who makes a way through the seaAnd a path through the mighty waters,

He who brings out the chariot and the horse,The army and the mighty warrior,(They will lie down together, they will not rise again;They have been extinguished, they have been put out like a lamp’s wick):

“Can the spoils of war be taken from the mighty man,Or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?”

Indeed, this is what the Lord says,“Even the captives of the mighty man will be taken away,And the tyrant’s spoils of war will be rescued;For I will contend with your opponent,And I will save your children.

“I will make those who oppress you consume their own flesh [in mutually destructive wars]And they will become drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine;And all mankind will know [with a knowledge grounded in personal experience] that I, the Lord, am your SaviorAnd your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

Therefore, I will divide and give Him a portion with the great [kings and rulers],And He shall divide the spoils with the mighty,Because He [willingly] poured out His life to death,And was counted among the transgressors;Yet He Himself bore and took away the sin of many,And interceded [with the Father] for the transgressors.

“You will suck the milk of the [Gentile] nationsAnd suck the breast (abundance) of kings;Then you will recognize and know that I, the Lord, am your SaviorAnd your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

The Lord has sworn [an oath] by His right hand and by His mighty arm,“I will never again give your grain as food for your enemies,Nor will [the invading] foreigners drink your new wine for which you have labored.”

Who is this who comes from Edom,With crimson-stained garments from Bozrah [in Edom],This One (the Messiah) who is majestic in His apparel,Marching in the greatness of His might?“It is I, [the One] who speaks in righteousness [proclaiming vindication], mighty to save.”

Look down from heaven and see from Your lofty dwelling place, holy and glorious.Where are Your zeal and Your mighty acts [Your miracles which you did for Your people]?The stirring of Your heart and Your compassion are restrained and withheld from me.

Therefore a lion from the forest will kill them,A wolf of the deserts will destroy them,A leopard is watching their cities.Everyone who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces,Because their transgressions are many,Their desertions of faith are countless.

“Behold, I am bringing a nation against you from far away, O house of Israel,” says the Lord.“It is a mighty and enduring nation,It is an ancient nation,A nation whose language you do not know,Whose words you do not comprehend.

“Their quiver is [filled with the dead] like an open grave;They are all mighty men [heroes of their nation].

Thus says the Lord, “Let not the one who is wise and skillful boast in his insight; let not the one who is mighty and powerful boast in his strength; let not the one who is rich boast in his [temporal satisfactions and earthly] abundance;

“Why should You be [hesitant and inactive] like a man astounded and perplexed,Like a mighty man unable to save?Yet You, O Lord, are among us,And we are called by Your name;Do not leave us!”

But the Lord is with me as a dread champion [one to be greatly feared];Therefore my persecutors will stumble and not overcome [me].They will be completely shamed, for they have not acted wisely and have failed [in their schemes];Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten.

And when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men and all the princes, heard his words, the king sought to put Uriah to death; but when Uriah heard of it, he was afraid and fled and escaped to Egypt.

You who show lovingkindness to thousands, but repay the wickedness (sin, guilt) of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them [that is, calling the children to account for the sins of their fathers], O great and mighty God; the Lord of hosts is His name;

great [are You] in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, to reward or repay each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds;

‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and tell you [and even show you] great and mighty things, [things which have been confined and hidden], which you do not know and understand and cannot distinguish.’

“Why have I seen it?They are terrifiedAnd have turned back,And their warriors are beaten down.They take flight in hasteWithout looking back;Terror is on every side!”Says the Lord.

Do not let the swift man run,Nor the mighty man escape;In the north by the river EuphratesThey have stumbled and fallen.

“The sound [of Egypt fleeing from the enemy] is like [the rustling of] an escaping serpent,For her foes advance with a mighty armyAnd come against her like woodcutters with axes.

“How can you say, ‘We are great warriorsAnd valiant men in war?’

“Show sympathy for him, all you [nations] who are around him,And all you [distant nations] who know his name;Say, ‘How has the mighty scepter [of national power] been broken,And the splendid staff [of glory]!’

“Kerioth [and the cities] has been takenAnd the strongholds seized;And the hearts of the warriors of Moab in that dayShall be like the heart of a woman in childbirth.

Behold, He will mount up and fly swiftly like an eagle and spread His wings against [the city of] Bozrah; and in that day the heart of the mighty warriors of Edom will be like the heart of a woman in childbirth.

“For behold, I will stir up and bring up against BabylonAn assembly of great nations from the north country.They will equip themselves and set up the battle lines against her;From there she will be taken captive.Their arrows will be like an expert warriorWho will not return empty-handed.

“A sword against the oracle priests (the babbling liars), and they will become fools!A sword against her mighty warriors, and they will be shattered and destroyed!

The mighty warriors of Babylon have ceased to fight;They remain in their strongholds.Their strength and power have failed;They are becoming [weak and helpless] like women.Their dwelling places are set on fire;The bars on her gates are broken.

For the destroyer is coming against her, against Babylon;And her mighty warriors will be captured,Their bows are shattered;For the Lord is a God of [just] restitution;He will fully repay.

“I will make her princes and her wise men drunk,Her governors and her commanders and her mighty warriors;They will sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake up,”Says the King—the Lord of hosts is His name.

“The Lord has rejected all the strong menIn my midst;He has proclaimed an established time against meTo crush my young men.The Lord has trampled down as in a wine pressThe Virgin Daughter of Judah.

And he took a member of the royal family [the king’s uncle, Zedekiah] and made a covenant with him, putting him under oath. He also took the important leaders of the land,

Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company will not help him in the war, when they (the Babylonians) put up ramps and build siege walls to destroy many lives.

“As I live,” says the Lord God, “most certainly with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out, I shall be King over you.

I will bring you out from the peoples and will gather you from the countries in which you are scattered, with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out;

They will take up a dirge (funeral poem to be sung) for you and say to you,‘How you have perished and vanished, O renowned city,From the seas, O renowned city,Which was mighty on the sea,She and her inhabitants,Who imposed her terrorOn all who lived there!

I will hand it over to a mighty one and a mighty one of the nations; he will most certainly deal with it. I have driven it away in accordance with its wickedness.

so that none of the trees by the waters may exalt themselves because of their height, nor set their top among the clouds, nor their well-watered mighty ones stand [arrogantly] in their height. For they have all been handed over to death, to the earth beneath, among the sons of men, with those who go down to the pit (the grave).”

I will make your horde [of people] fall by the swords of the mighty—all of them are tyrants among the nations,And they will devastate the pride and presumption of Egypt,And all its hordes will be destroyed.

The strong among the mighty rulers will say of him (Pharaoh) and his allies from the midst of Sheol, ‘They have gone down [defeated]; they lie still, the uncircumcised, slain by the sword.’

Nor do they lie beside the fallen heroes of the uncircumcised, who went down to Sheol with their weapons of war, whose swords were laid [with honors] under their heads. The punishment for their sins rested on their bones, for the terror of these heroes was once in the land of the living.

You will come from your place in the remote parts of the north, you and many nations with you, all of them riding horses, a great horde, and a mighty army;

You will eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, as though they were rams, lambs, goats, and bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan [east of the Jordan].

You will eat your fill at My table with horses and riders, with mighty men, and with all the men of war,” says the Lord God.

“You, O king, were looking, and behold, [there was] a single great statue; this image, which was large and of unsurpassed splendor, stood before you, and its appearance was awesome and terrifying.

“How great are His signsAnd how mighty are His wonders!His kingdom is an everlasting kingdomAnd His dominion is from generation to generation.

“His power will be mighty, but not by his own power;And he will corrupt and destroy in an astonishing mannerAnd [he will] prosper and do exactly as he wills;He shall corrupt and destroy mighty men and the holy people.

“And now, O Lord our God, who brought Your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for Yourself a name, as it is today—we have sinned, we have been wicked.

Then a mighty [warlike, threatening] king will arise who will rule with great authority and do as he pleases.

He will stir up his strength and courage against [his former Egyptian ally] the king of the South (Ptolemy VI) with a great army; so the king of the South will prepare an extremely great and powerful army to wage war, but he will not stand, for schemes will be devised against him.

You have plowed and planted wickedness, you have reaped the [willful] injustice [of oppressors],You have eaten the fruit of lies.Because you have trusted in your own way and your chariots, and in your many warriors,

For a [pagan and hostile] nation has invaded My land [like locusts],Mighty and without number;Its teeth are the teeth of a lion,And it has the fangs of a lioness.

A day of darkness and gloom,A day of clouds and of thick [dark] mist,Like the dawn spread over the mountains;There is a [pagan, hostile] people numerous and mighty,The like of which has never been beforeNor will be again afterwardEven for years of many generations.

Like the noise of chariotsThey leap on the tops of the mountains,Like the crackling of a flame of fire devouring the stubble,Like a mighty people set in battle formation.

They run like warriors;They climb the wall like soldiers.They each march [straight ahead] in line,And they do not deviate from their paths.

Proclaim this among the [pagan] nations:Prepare a war! Stir up the mighty men!Let all the men of war come near, let them come up!

Hurry and come, all you surrounding nations,And gather yourselves there;Bring down, O Lord, Your mighty ones (Your warriors).

“Flight will be lost to the swift [so they will be unable to escape],And the strong shall not strengthen nor maintain his power,Nor shall the mighty man save his own life.

“Even the bravest among the warriors shall flee naked on that day,” says the Lord.

For I know your transgressions are many and your sins are great (shocking, innumerable),You who distress the righteous and take bribes,And turn away from the poor in the [court of the city] gate [depriving them of justice].

“But let justice run down like watersAnd righteousness like an ever-flowing stream [flowing abundantly].

“And your mighty men shall be dismayed and demoralized, O Teman,So that everyone from the mountain of Esau may be cut off in the slaughter.

The shields of his soldiers [of Media and Babylon] are colored red;The warriors are dressed in scarlet.The chariots blaze with fire of [flashing] steelWhen he is prepared to march,And the cypress spears are brandished [for battle].

The great [judgment] day of the Lord is near,Near and coming very quickly.Listen! The [voice of the] day of the Lord!The warrior cries out bitterly [unable to fight or to flee].

“The Lord your God is in your midst,A Warrior who saves.He will rejoice over you with joy;He will be quiet in His love [making no mention of your past sins],He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.

For I will bend Judah as My bow,I will fit the bow with Ephraim [as My arrow].And I will stir up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece,And will make you [Israel] like the sword of a warrior.

“They will be like mighty menTrampling down their enemies in the mire of the streets in the battle;And they will fight because the Lord is with them,And the [enemies’] riders on horses will be shamed.

“Then Ephraim will be like a mighty warrior,And their heart will rejoice as if from wine;Yes, their children will see it and rejoice;Their heart will rejoice and shout triumphantly in the Lord.

Many will say to Me on that day [when I judge them], ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, and driven out demons in Your name, and done many miracles in Your name?’

Then He began to denounce [the people in] the cities in which most of His miracles were done, because they did not repent [and change their hearts and lives].

“Woe (judgment is coming) to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon [cities of the Gentiles], they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes [their hearts would have been changed and they would have expressed sorrow for their sin and rebellion against God].

And you, Capernaum, are you to be exalted to heaven [for your apathy and unresponsiveness]? You will descend to Hades (the realm of the dead); for if the miracles done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.

When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue; and many who listened to Him were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things [this knowledge and spiritual insight]? What is this wisdom [this confident understanding of the Scripture] that has been given to Him, and such miracles as these performed by His hands?

King Herod [Antipas] heard about this, for Jesus’ name and reputation had become well known. People were saying, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, and that is why these miraculous powers are at work in Him.”

But Jesus said, “Do not stop him; for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me.

“He has brought down rulers from their thrones,And exalted those who were humble.

And He has raised up a horn of salvation [a mighty and valiant Savior] for usIn the house of David His servant—

They were all amazed [practically overwhelmed] at the [evidence of the] greatness of God and His majesty and His wondrous work.But while they were still awed by everything Jesus was doing, He said to His disciples,

“Woe (judgment is coming) to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented and changed their minds long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes [to show deep regret for sin].

Now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began to do without and be in need.

As soon as He was approaching [Jerusalem], near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the entire multitude of the disciples [all those who were or claimed to be His followers] began praising God [adoring Him enthusiastically and] joyfully with loud voices for all the miracles and works of power that they had seen,

There will be violent earthquakes, and in various places famines and [deadly and devastating] pestilences (plagues, epidemics); and there will be terrible sights and great signs from heaven.

He asked, “What things?” And they replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet powerful in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people,

Cretans and Arabs—we all hear them speaking in our [native] tongues about the mighty works of God!”

“Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man accredited and pointed out and attested to you by God with [the power to perform] miracles and wonders and signs which God worked through Him in your [very] midst, just as you yourselves know—

So Moses was educated in all the wisdom and culture of the Egyptians, and he was a man of power in words and deeds.

Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent and cultured man, and well versed in the [Hebrew] Scriptures.

being fully convinced that God had the power to do what He had promised.

Who are you to judge the servant of another? Before his own master he stands [approved] or falls [out of favor]. And he [who serves the Master—the Lord] will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

The weapons of our warfare are not physical [weapons of flesh and blood]. Our weapons are divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.

The signs that indicate a genuine apostle were performed among you fully and most patiently—signs and wonders and miracles.

since you seek [forensic] proof that Christ is speaking in and through me. He is not weak or ineffective in dealing with you, but powerful within you.

and [so that you will begin to know] what the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His [active, spiritual] power is in us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of His mighty strength

May He grant you out of the riches of His glory, to be strengthened and spiritually energized with power through His Spirit in your inner self, [indwelling your innermost being and personality],

and to give relief to you who are so distressed and to us as well when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in a flame of fire,

The Son is the radiance and only expression of the glory of [our awesome] God [reflecting God’s Shekinah glory, the Light-being, the brilliant light of the divine], and the exact representation and perfect imprint of His [Father’s] essence, and upholding and maintaining and propelling all things [the entire physical and spiritual universe] by His powerful word [carrying the universe along to its predetermined goal]. When He [Himself and no other] had [by offering Himself on the cross as a sacrifice for sin] accomplished purification from sins and established our freedom from guilt, He sat down [revealing His completed work] at the right hand of the Majesty on high [revealing His Divine authority],

and have tasted and consciously experienced the good word of God and the powers of the age (world) to come,