by Pastor Mark Downey
The invention of the sword goes back to the early Egyptians around the time of the Bronze Age, which was about a thousand years after Adam. I believe metallurgy was a gift from God to the White race. Two identification marks (and there are over 100) of Israel would be great agricultural wealth and land having an abundance of minerals. Deut. 8:9 covers both aspects, “A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness… a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou may dig brass.”
Swords developed gradually from the scythe, a farming tool used to harvest grain. But where did the White man get the idea for a sword? I think it’s interesting that God introduces the first recorded weapon of war in the Bible, not man. If you recall Adam and Eve being driven out of the Garden of Eden, God placed the “Cherubim and a flaming sword that turns every way to guard the way to the tree of life” (Gen. 3:23). The idea of a sword then is to protect something. In early usage, the sword, no doubt, defended their source of life, their gardens, from outside threats.
If you look up the word ‘sword’, you’ll find the Hebrew word ‘chereb’ (#2719), which comes from 2717 meaning ‘to parch (through drought)’, supporting the word chereb, which means drought, having a secondary definition of ‘a cutting instrument (from its destructive effect), as well as 2717 saying, ‘by analogy, to desolate, destroy, kill.