How Does God Destroy His Enemies?

Introduction

Welcome to Torah Today Ministries in our continuing series The Hebrew Key, where we look at some of the details of the Hebrew scriptures and how the Hebrew helps inform our understanding of God’s word. And the title of this Hebrew Key episode is “How Does God Destroy His Enemies?” Now that may sound like an odd question, but I think you’re going to enjoy how this unfolds for us.

Now let me explain to you why I’m asking the question. As we’ve been going through our Tehillim (תְּהִלִּים) Talks series, our studies in the Psalms, we’ve come to a few places where God speaks of destroying his enemies. Here are a couple examples.

Psalm 5:6; Psalm 21:10 – What Is Destruction?

Psalm 5:6, the psalmist says:

You destroy those who speak lies. Adonai (אֲדֹנָי) abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. — Psalm 5:6

And then in Psalm 21:10:

You will destroy their descendants from the earth and their offspring from among the children of man. — Psalm 21:10

So the question is: how does God destroy his enemies? Now when we think of destruction, we think of something being burnt down or crushed to pieces, and the pieces just blown away by the wind. We think of annihilation.

But imagine my surprise when I discovered that there are 10 words in Hebrew that our translators translate “destroy” or “destruction.” In fact, I’ve even found an 11th — there might be a 12th and a 13th — but there are 10 major ones that are often translated “destruction.”

So this begs a second question: if destruction is destruction is destruction, why do we need 10 or maybe 11 or 12 different Hebrew words to express that? Unless there are different kinds of destruction, different degrees of destruction.

And also, if you followed along much in the Hebrew teachings I do, you’ll know that almost every Hebrew word, almost without exception, has a secondary meaning which often is very different — very different — from each other.

Avad (אָבַד) – To Be Lost

Now the word for “destroy” used in both of these verses is the word avad (אָבַד). That’s where we get the word Abaddon (אֲבַדּוֹן), where the fallen angels are kept in chains. And this word really means “to be lost.” And those angels that are in Abaddon (אֲבַדּוֹן) — have they been destroyed? Do they no longer exist? Or have they been lost? Have they been put in a place where they are restricted but still existing?

So you can see how this can start to get a little complicated. So what I want you to do is follow along with me in a passage from Leviticus. It comes from our Torah (תּוֹרָה) portion, right at the end of the book of Leviticus.

Leviticus 26:6 – Evil Beasts and Swords

As I was reading, I of course came to this passage in Leviticus 26:6, where God promises that when the land is settled and when his kingdom is established, he says:

I will give peace in the land and you shall lie down and none shall make you afraid. And I will eliminate evil beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land. — Leviticus 26:6

So — “I’m going to eliminate evil beasts, and the sword will not go through your land.” Let’s look at the evil beasts first.

The phrase that is translated “evil beasts” is the phrase chayah (חַיָּה), which means “living creatures,” ra’ah (רָעָה), which means “evil” — but not morally wicked. It simply means those things that can cause unpleasantness, danger, and death. And so you can imagine what these evil beasts might be — things like lions and bears and poisonous serpents and wolves and that sort of thing.

Isaiah 11:6–9 – Transforming the Evil Beasts

So how will God eliminate these evil beasts? Well, just to read this passage you think, “Well, you just simply will not see these animals anywhere in the land.” But the prophet Isaiah gives us some information when we look at Isaiah 11, verses 6 through 9. Look what it says — and this is also describing the coming kingdom:

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with a young goat, and the calf and the young lion and the fattened calf together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the viper’s den. They shall not hurt —  Isaiah 11:6–9a

And that word for “hurt” is the word ra (רַע). It’s almost exactly the same as the chayah ra’ah (חַיָּה רָעָה), the evil beast. And it’s from the same root. So it is repeated here:

They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Adonai (אֲדֹנָי) as the waters cover the sea. — Isaiah 11:9

So how does God eliminate evil beasts from the land? Does he do it by removing the animals completely from the land? No. He does it by transforming them — from evil beasts to tame, kind beasts. So kind and so tame that a child will be able to lead the lion and play on the hole of the cobra and the viper. And the wolf can lie down with the lamb, and the leopard with the young goat, and a bear will graze with a cow.

So he eliminates the evil beasts by transforming them into creatures that are no longer ra (רַע) — no longer damaging and harmful. This is a very important key to understanding how God destroys those things that are destructive.

Isaiah 2:4 – Transforming the Swords

But you might think, “Well, animals are not God’s enemies. How does God destroy his enemies?” Well, let’s move on a little bit further. Now let’s revisit the Leviticus 26 passage again. We looked at how he will eliminate the evil beasts from the land, but it also says, “The sword shall not go through your land.” So you would think all swords will just go up in a puff of smoke — they’ll just disappear, they’ll be eliminated.

But once again, the prophet Isaiah gives us insight into what happens to the swords. You could probably guess what I’m going to — Isaiah 2:4:

He shall judge between the nations and shall decide disputes for many peoples, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. — Isaiah 2:4

So in Leviticus 26, he says the sword will no longer go through your land. But here we see the swords do go through the land, but they’ve been transformed — from swords into plowshares. Instead of instruments that cut human flesh, they’re now instruments that cut open the earth. Instead of weapons that bring death, they become plows that bring forth food to sustain life.

So we see them going through the land, but not as swords anymore. They’ve been transformed from swords into plows. Spears get transformed from spears into pruning hooks. Instead of things that take life, they become things that enhance life and make life more fruitful.

Psalm 2:2–3; Revelation – The Kings of the Earth

Well, let’s take another example. Going back to Psalms again, we find some very unkind things said about the kings of the earth — and not just in Psalms but in other places. In Psalm 2:2 and 3, it says:

The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against Adonai (אֲדֹנָי) and against his Messiah, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” — Psalm 2:2–3

And when we look at the book of Revelation, here in chapters 17 and 18, the kings of the earth appear two more times:

And one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great one who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.”— Revelation 17:1–2

But then 18:9 says:

And the kings of the earth who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning. — Revelation 18:9

And then Revelation 19:19:

And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army. — Revelation 19:19

So these kings of the earth — they don’t get very good rep in the scriptures, do they? And here in Revelation 19:19, we see them actually making war against the returning King — King Messiah. And we know that they’re going to lose that war. We know that they’re going to be destroyed. But hold on — we’re not quite done with the kings of the earth.

Revelation 21:23–25 – The Kings Transformed

When we go on to Revelation, chapter 21, verse 2 and 9 through 11 — and just so I don’t have such long passages on the screen, I’m cutting out the middle parts here just so you can get a picture about what’s going on. So let’s set the scene here in Revelation 21, using verse 2 then skipping on down to verses 9 through 11 to give more information about the holy city, the New Jerusalem. This is what it says:

And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. — Revelation 21:2

So let’s pause for a second. The bride of Messiah in Revelation is described as the city, the New Jerusalem, because the city is made up of the people. And we are called living stones by Peter in Peter’s letters. And we know that Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) was not a carpenter — he was a stonemason. Maybe we’ll save that for a different Hebrew Key. But he was a stonemason. We’re living stones. He is building up his ekklesia (ἐκκλησία), his assembly, his community.

And so here at the end of the Bible, we see this community as living stones gathered together into the New Jerusalem — God’s new home. And this New Jerusalem is adorned as a bride. We are the bride. We are the New Jerusalem — Jew and Gentile together who are faithful to God, to live according to his ways and to embrace his Messiah.

And then we go on down to verse 9:

Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. — Revelation 21:9–11

So I have this passage on the screen just to emphasize and drive home that the New Jerusalem is the bride. It is the body of believers throughout time, across time, that have been faithful to God, who have loved God and set their lives apart to serve and love him and to be lights in the world. The bride is the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is the bride.

All right, but then we come to this passage — Revelation 21:23 through 25:

And the city, the New Jerusalem, has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and — well, look at here — the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. And its gates will never be shut by day, and there will be no night there. — Revelation 21:23–25

Who are these kings of the earth? They’re not part of the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem has descended. The New Jerusalem is the bride. And the gates of the new city are never shut because there’s no night there. And the kings of the earth bring their glory to the bride, to the city. Who are these guys?

Did God destroy them? Yeah, so to speak. But how does God destroy his enemies? This is how: he makes them his friends.

Now don’t get me wrong — there are times when people were killed. There are times when Israel was commanded to go to war and to destroy the psychopaths that dwelt in some of these Canaanite cities. David fought Philistines and he killed. He destroyed enemies. But we have to understand that with God, even death is no barrier. Death is never the end of the story.

And our transforming, eternal God — he still has things to reveal to us. There are still things you will do. And so we need to expand our notions of what it means when God destroys.

How does he eliminate animals from the land? By transforming them from dangerous animals into tame, kind ones. How does he eliminate the sword from the land? By transforming it into a plow. How does he get rid of the rebellion of the kings of the earth? By changing the hearts of the kings of the earth to where they now come and they do homage to the King and to his bride.

Now this teaching is fairly short, but I do hope you will go to our website, which is torahtodayministries.org, and when you click on this teaching, I have 10 additional pages of notes that go over these 10 Hebrew words for “destroy.” And so what you’ll find if you go there — I call this section “Words of Destruction.” And in the box I have a word — there’s the word avad (אָבַד), and you’ll go on down, you’ll see some uses of it. There’s the word kum (קוּם) or kaham, and you’ll see the word kalah (כָּלָה), and several different ones there. And it shows you how they’re used in the scriptures. And you’ll be kind of shocked at how some of these are translated.

One of my favorites is the word kalah (כָּלָה), which means “to bring to an end, to make things cease, to be done with them.” But it’s also the word for a daughter-in-law. Go figure. This is Hebrew — it’s the holy tongue, it’s the language of transcendence, it’s the tongue of angels. And so it’s not like other human languages that are so cut and dried. It’s a language that has great depth, great mystery to it, and always has more secrets to reveal. And that’s why we do these teachings called The Hebrew Key.

So I hope you’ve enjoyed this. I hope you will go and download the notes and take some time to look up these passages and others and look at these 10 different words. I don’t know of any other word where there are 10 Hebrew words to translate — or 10 Hebrew words that we translate as “destruction” or as anything else. But 10 words — God has many facets as to how he brings destruction to those things that destroy us, that destroy this world, that we use to destroy one another.

God is in the business of destroying what is destructive. And he does so by transforming it. So I hope you’ve enjoyed this teaching, and remember, download those notes. So until next time, I wish you shalom (שָׁלוֹם) and may God bless.

Teaching Material

Hebrew Word Studies

• Avad (אָבַד) — “To perish, to be lost”; the word for “destroy” used in both Psalm 5:6 and 21:10. It does not necessarily mean annihilation — it means to be lost, removed, put away. The related noun Abaddon (אֲבַדּוֹן) is the place where fallen angels are kept in chains — restricted but still existing. — Strong’s H6 · Sefaria: Avad
• Abaddon (אֲבַדּוֹן) — “Place of destruction, ruin”; derived from avad (אָבַד). The abode of the fallen angels kept in chains — not annihilated but lost and restricted. — Strong’s H11
• Chayah Ra’ah (חַיָּה רָעָה) — “Evil beasts, dangerous living creatures”; the phrase in Leviticus 26:6 that God promises to eliminate from the land. Isaiah 11:6–9 reveals that God eliminates them not by removing them but by transforming them into tame, kind creatures. — Chayah: Strong’s H2416 · Ra’ah: Strong’s H7451
• Ra (רַע) — “Evil, harmful, causing damage”; used in Isaiah 11:9 — “they shall not hurt (ra) or destroy in all my holy mountain.” The same root as the ra’ah (רָעָה) in the evil beasts of Leviticus 26:6. — Strong’s H7451
• Kalah (כָּלָה) — “To bring to an end, to make cease, to be done with”; one of the 10 Hebrew words for destruction. Remarkably, it is also the word for “daughter-in-law” or “bride” — a language of great depth and mystery. — Strong’s H3615
• Ekklesia (ἐκκλησία) — “Assembly, congregation, called-out ones”; the Greek word for the community Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) is building with living stones — which becomes the New Jerusalem, the bride. — Strong’s G1577
• Tehillim (תְּהִלִּים) — “Praises”; the Hebrew name of the book of Psalms. The Tehillim (תְּהִלִּים) Talks series prompted this teaching’s question about God destroying his enemies. — Sefaria: Tehillim
• Torah (תּוֹרָה) — “Instruction, teaching, law”; the Torah (תּוֹרָה) portion at the end of Leviticus provided the passage that sparked this study. — Strong’s H8451
• Adonai (אֲדֹנָי) — “Lord, Master”; used in Psalm 5:6 (“Adonai abhors the bloodthirsty”) and Isaiah 11:9 (“the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Adonai”). — Strong’s H136
• Yeshua (יֵשׁוּעַ) — “Salvation”; identified here as a stonemason (not a carpenter), building his ekklesia (ἐκκλησία) of living stones into the New Jerusalem. — Strong’s H3442
• Shalom (שָׁלוֹם) — “Peace, wholeness, completeness.” — Strong’s H7965

Scripture References

Open All Scripture in Bible Gateway

• Psalm 5:6 — “You destroy (avad) those who speak lies; Adonai (אֲדֹנָי) abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man”
• Psalm 21:10 — “You will destroy (avad) their descendants from the earth”
• Leviticus 26:6 — “I will eliminate evil beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land”
• Isaiah 11:6–9 — The wolf with the lamb, the lion eating straw — God eliminates evil beasts by transforming them, not removing them
• Isaiah 2:4 — “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks” — swords transformed, not annihilated
• Psalm 2:2–3 — “The kings of the earth set themselves against Adonai (אֲדֹנָי) and against his Messiah”
• Revelation 17:1–2 — The kings of the earth committing immorality with the great one seated on many waters
• Revelation 18:9 — The kings of the earth weeping over the smoke of her burning
• Revelation 19:19 — The kings of the earth gathered to make war against the returning King Messiah
• Revelation 21:2 — “I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride”
• Revelation 21:9–11 — “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb” — the New Jerusalem is the bride
• Revelation 21:23–25 — “The kings of the earth will bring their glory into it” — the enemies transformed into friends who honor the King and his bride

External References & Further Study

• Psalm 5 — Sefaria — Hebrew and English text including “You destroy those who speak lies”
• Psalm 21 — Sefaria — Hebrew and English text including the destruction of enemies’ descendants
• Leviticus 26 — Sefaria — The blessings of obedience: peace, no evil beasts, no sword in the land
• Isaiah 11: The Peaceable Kingdom — Sefaria — The wolf with the lamb, the child with the cobra — transformation, not annihilation
• Isaiah 2: Swords into Plowshares — Sefaria — Weapons of war transformed into instruments of life
• Psalm 2: The Kings of the Earth — Sefaria — The rulers who set themselves against God and his Messiah
• Torah Today Ministries — Home of The Hebrew Key and other Torah-centered teachings