Several weapons were found in sanctuaries in Ugarit,
which might have been viewed as divine weapons. A king of Alalakh refers to
defeating his enemies with the help of a divine weapon. The Old Testament assigns
several divine weapons to YHWH, including a bow and arrows, a mace, and a spear
(Hab 3:9–11)
and foreign nations, such as Assyria, are called the “the rod of my anger” (Isa
10:5). In spite of these texts, the Old Testament records YHWH giving his
weapon to a human leader in only one case, and that was only in a highly
restricted sense. When YHWH addressed Moses at the burning bush, he commanded
Moses to perform a series of signs with his shepherd staff (Exod 4:2–4).
A little later, he ordered Moses to take “this staff” with him when he went to Egypt (Exod
4:17), and the narrator records that he left with “the staff of God” (Exod
4:20). It appears that YHWH consecrated Moses’s staff to become the staff of
God, which Moses then employed before several of the plagues. However, Moses
only used the staff after YHWH instructed him how to use it each time, and
eventually he was censured by YHWH when he used the staff incorrectly (Num 20:1–13).
It is also possible that the “commander of YHWH’s army” in Josh 5:13–15
gave his sword to Joshua as part of a royal ritual. If this theory was correct,
it would explain the origin of the “javelin” ( כידון ) that Joshua held up in a
later battle. However, the text provides little indication that he is handing
Joshua a weapon and the words of the general focus attention on the need for
Joshua to submit to YHWH’s instructions, not on giving Joshua greater ability
to fight. (Charlie Trimm, Fighting
for the King and the Gods: A Survey of Warfare in the Ancient Near East
[Resources for Biblical Study 88], Atlanta: SBL Press, 2017], 616)
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