Soldiers

A soldier in Scripture is a man on the rolls. He is enrolled by tribe and family at the age of twenty, dismissed under the law if his house, vineyard, wife, or courage is unfinished, equipped from a public arsenal, attended by an armorbearer, and answerable to a captain who answers in turn for him. The vocabulary that names him is also lifted into figure: Yahweh's own arm fights, his garments are armor, and the Christian under apostolic instruction puts on the same kit and is "enrolled" as Christ's soldier. For the broader machinery of the host see Armies and War; this page tracks the soldier as individual.

The Muster

Israel's army is constituted by a counting of soldiers. At Sinai the order goes out to "Take⁺ the sum of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, by their families, by their fathers' houses, according to the number of the names, every male, by their polls; from twenty years old and upward, all who are able to go forth to war in Israel, you and Aaron will number them by their hosts" (Num 1:2-3). The same order is repeated to the second generation on the plains of Moab: "Take the sum of all the congregation of the sons of Israel, from twenty years old and upward, by their fathers' houses, all who are able to go forth to war in Israel" (Num 26:2). The threshold is twenty; the test is the man's ability "to go forth to war."

The Reubenite and Gadite men keep their commitment in the same vocabulary: "but we ourselves will go armed, hastily before the sons of Israel, until we have brought them to their place" (Num 32:17). Joshua's crossing of the Jordan is counted the same way — "about forty thousand ready armed for war passed over before Yahweh to battle, to the plains of Jericho" (Jos 4:13). The judges' civil war against Benjamin sets out the levy ratio: "And we will take ten men of a hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to fetch victuals for the people" (Judg 20:10) — one man in ten drawn off for the field. The kings keep the form. Asa fields "an army that bore bucklers and spears, out of Judah three hundred thousand; and out of Benjamin, that bore shields and drew bows, 280,000: all these were mighty men of valor" (2 Chr 14:8). Jehoshaphat's roll lists Jehozabad with "180,000 ready prepared for war" (2 Chr 17:18). Amaziah numbers his men "from twenty years old and upward, and found them three hundred thousand chosen men, able to go forth to war, that could handle spear and shield" (2 Chr 25:5). Uzziah's force totals "three hundred thousand and seven thousand and five hundred, that made war with mighty power, to help the king against the enemy" (2 Chr 26:13).

The Exemptions and the Coward

Before the host marches, Deuteronomy excuses four categories of man. "And the officers will speak to the people, saying, What man is there that has built a new house, and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, or else if he dies in the battle, another will man dedicate it. And what man is there that has planted a vineyard, and has not used its fruit? Let him go and return to his house, or else if he dies in the battle, another man will use its fruit. And what man is there that has betrothed a wife, and has not taken her? Let him go and return to his house, or else if he dies in the battle, another man will take her. And the officers will speak further to the people, and they will say, What man is there who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest his brothers' heart melt as his heart" (Deut 20:5-8). Only after the four dismissals is command set: "And it will be, when the officers have made an end of speaking to the people, that they will appoint captains of hosts at the head of the people" (Deut 20:9). The marriage exemption gets its own rule a few chapters on: "When a man takes a new wife, he will not go out in the host, neither will he be charged with any business: he will be free at home one year, and will cheer his wife whom he has taken" (Deut 24:5). Gideon enacts the coward-rule on the field: "Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return and depart early from Mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand" (Judg 7:3). Two-thirds of his levy walk away under the law's own warrant. (See Cowardice.)

The Equipment of the Mighty Men

The Chronicler describes soldiers by what they handle. The Benjamite archers "were armed with bows, and could use both the right hand and the left in slinging stones and in shooting arrows from the bow" (1 Chr 12:2). The Gadites who cross to David are "mighty men of valor, men trained for war, who could handle shield and spear; whose faces were like the faces of lions, and they were as swift as the roes on the mountains" (1 Chr 12:8). Ulam's house produces "mighty men of valor, archers" with great descent (1 Chr 8:40). David's rovers are "all mighty men of valor, and were captains in the host" (1 Chr 12:21). Saul's gift to David at his first arming is the standard kit: "And Saul clad David with his apparel, and he put a helmet of bronze on his head, and he clad him with a coat of mail" (1 Sam 17:38). The same arsenal is restocked under Uzziah for "all the host, shields, and spears, and helmets, and coats of mail, and bows, and stones for slinging" (2 Chr 26:14), and again under Hezekiah, who "made weapons and shields in abundance" against Sennacherib (2 Chr 32:5).

The shield in particular tracks the wealth and piety of a reign. Solomon makes "three hundred shields of beaten gold; three minas of gold went to one shield" (1 Kgs 10:17), and after the gold is plundered Rehoboam replaces them: "And King Rehoboam made in their stead shields of bronze, and committed them to the hands of the captains of the guard, who kept the door of the king's house" (1 Kgs 14:27). Jehoiada arms Joash's coup from the temple armory: "And the priest delivered to the captains over hundreds the spears and shields that had been king David's, which were in the house of Yahweh" (2 Kgs 11:10). Goliath's spear "was like a weaver's beam; and his spear's head [weighed] six hundred shekels of iron: and his shield-bearer went before him" (1 Sam 17:7). At Gilboa the shield itself is the measure of the elegy: "There the shield of the mighty was vilely cast away, The shield of Saul, not anointed with oil" (2 Sam 1:21). Sirach makes the shield a proverb of friendship: "Better than a mighty shield and a heavy spear Will this avail you against an enemy" (Sir 29:13). Nahum draws the picture of a great army marching to attack: "The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots are blazing in the day of his preparation, and the cypress [spears] are brandished" (Nah 2:3).

The Maccabean wars record the same kit on a Hellenistic scale. Judas takes the field, "And he got his people great honor, And put on a breastplate as a giant, And girt his warlike armor about him in battles, And protected the camp with the sword" (1 Macc 3:3). The Seleucid host moves with audible weight: "And all the inhabitants were moved at the noise of their multitude, and the marching of the company, and the rattling of the armor, for the army was exceedingly great and strong" (1 Macc 6:41); Lysias's column up the Bethsura road brings elephant-borne crews "in coats of mail, and with helmets of brass on their heads" (1 Macc 6:35), and "on every one, thirty valiant men who fought from above" (1 Macc 6:37). Gorgias picks "five thousand men, and a thousand of the best horsemen" out of the camp by night against Judas (1 Macc 4:1), and Judas "rose up, he and the valiant men, to attack the king's forces that were in Emmaus" (1 Macc 4:3). Jerusalem's plundered temple is described in the same vocabulary — "coverings of gold, and breastplates, and shields which King Alexander, the [son] of Philip the Macedonian who reigned first in Greece, had left there" (1 Macc 6:2) — and the spectacle of polished metal is itself reported: "Now when the sun shone on the shields of gold, and of brass, the mountains glittered therewith, and they shone like lamps of fire" (1 Macc 6:39). Defeat is registered as the dropping of equipment: "And when his army saw that Nicanor was slain, they threw away their weapons, and fled" (1 Macc 7:44). At the close of the book Simon's son John "chose out of the country twenty thousand fighting men and horsemen, and they went out against Cendebaeus: and they rested in Modin" (1 Macc 16:4). Sirach summarizes Joshua himself in the same key: "How glorious he was when he stretched forth his hand, And brandished his javelin against the city" (Sir 46:2).

After death the armor is the trophy. The Philistines "cut off his head, and stripped off his armor, and sent into the land of the Philistines round about, to carry the good news to the house of their idols" (1 Sam 31:9). Abner's challenge to Asahel runs in the same idiom: "Turn yourself aside to your right hand or to your left, and lay yourself hold on one of the young men, and take yourself his armor" (2 Sam 2:21). Ezekiel's Gog comes up "all of them clothed in full armor, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them handling swords" (Ezek 38:4). Jesus uses the same picture for the strong man: "but when a stronger than he will come upon him, and overcome him, he takes from him his whole armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils" (Luke 11:22).

The Armorbearer

The captain has a personal soldier at his elbow. Abimelech, mortally struck at Thebez, "called hastily to the young man his armorbearer, and said to him, Draw your sword, and kill me. Or else men will say of me, A woman slew him. And his attendant thrust him through, and he died" (Judg 9:54). Jonathan's armorbearer at Michmash is the picture of the office: "Do all that is in your heart: turn yourself, look, I am with you according to your heart" (1 Sam 14:7). David enters Saul's service in this office before he enters the throne-room: "And David came to Saul, and stood before him: and he loved him greatly; and he became his armorbearer" (1 Sam 16:21). At Gilboa Saul's armorbearer refuses the same final favor — "Then Saul said to his armorbearer, Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, or else these uncircumcised will come and thrust me through, and abuse me. But his armorbearer would not; for he was very afraid. Therefore Saul took his sword, and fell on it" (1 Sam 31:4). Joab keeps the office formal in his retinue: "Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the Beerothite, armorbearers to Joab the son of Zeruiah" (2 Sam 23:37).

Soldiers in the Gospels

The gospels follow the same vocabulary into the Roman period. Soldiers come to John for repentance: "And soldiers also asked him, saying, And we, what must we do? And he said to them, Extort from no man by violence, neither accuse [anyone] wrongfully; and be content with your⁺ wages" (Luke 3:14). The temple guard reappears in the betrayal: Judas "communed with the chief priests and captains, how he might deliver him to them" (Luke 22:4). In the Praetorium the unit goes to mockery as a body: "And the soldiers led him away inside the court, which is the Praetorium; and they call together the whole battalion. And they clothe him with purple, and platting a crown of thorns, they put it on him; and they began to salute him, Hail, King of the Jews! And they struck his head with a reed, and spat on him, and bowing their knees worshiped him. And when they had mocked him, they took off from him the purple, and put on him his garments. And they lead him out to crucify him" (Mark 15:16-20). At the cross the same men compel a passer-by, offer the wine, fix the body, and divide the goods: "And they compel one passing by, Simon of Cyrene, coming from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to go [with them], that he might bear his cross. And they bring him to the place Golgotha, which is, being interpreted, The place of a skull. And they offered him wine mingled with myrrh: but he did not receive it. And they crucify him, and part his garments among them, casting lots on them, what each should take" (Mark 15:21-24). John fixes the lot-casting in detail: "The soldiers therefore, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four parts, to each soldier a part; and also the coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore one to another, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it will be: that the Scripture might be fulfilled, which says, They parted my garments among them, And on my vesture they cast lots" (John 19:23-24). Luke's parallel gives the same scene from the foot of the cross: "And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, offering him vinegar, and saying, If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself" (Luke 23:36-37).

The mocking of the messenger is itself an old refrain. The Chronicler closes the kingdom with it — "they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until the wrath of Yahweh arose against his people, until there was no remedy" (2 Chr 36:16); Hezekiah's couriers had met the same response a generation earlier: "but they laughed them to scorn, and mocked them" (2 Chr 30:10). Sanballat treats the wall-builders the same way: "when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry, and took great indignation, and mocked the Jews" (Neh 4:1). Even the children at Bethel have learned the verb: "there came forth young lads out of the city, and mocked him, and said to him, Go up, you baldhead; go up, you baldhead" (2 Kgs 2:23). Hebrews looks back across the whole list — "and others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, moreover of bonds and imprisonment" (Heb 11:36). The Davidic anticipation of the cross is the sharpest: "All those who see me laugh me to scorn: They shoot out the lip, they shake the head" (Ps 22:7); Isaiah keeps the picture for the apostates of his own day — "Against whom do you⁺ sport yourselves? Against whom do you⁺ make a wide mouth, and put out the tongue?" (Isa 57:4); and the apostle warns that the pattern continues: "in the last time there will be mockers, walking after their own ungodly desires" (Jude 1:18). Sirach binds the warning into proverb: "Mockery and reproach [come] from the proud, And vengeance, like a lion, lies in wait for them" (Sir 27:28); and the Maccabean enemy is named in the same key — "But he mocked and despised them, and abused them: and he spoke proudly" (1 Macc 7:34).

The two centurion notes Mark preserves close the gospel sequence. As Jesus expires, "the captain, who stood by across from him, saw that he so breathed his last, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God" (Mark 15:39); and when Joseph asks for the body, "Pilate marveled if he were already dead: and calling to him the captain, he asked him whether he had been any while dead" (Mark 15:44). The man who has just commanded the execution detail is the first non-disciple in Mark's gospel to confess the Sonship.

Of the Divine Protection

The figure is gathered under "the divine protection." Yahweh fights as a soldier himself. At the Exodus: "I will redeem you⁺ with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments" (Ex 6:6); at Moses' farewell: "The eternal God is [your] dwelling-place, And underneath are the everlasting arms. And he thrusts out the enemy from before you, And said, Destroy" (Deut 33:27). Job's challenge measures the warrior the only way it can: "Or do you have an arm like God? And can you thunder with a voice like him?" (Job 40:9). The Psalter answers in praise: "You have a mighty arm; Strong is your hand, and high is your right hand" (Ps 89:13); "Oh sing to Yahweh a new song; For he has done marvelous things: His right hand, and his holy arm, has wrought salvation for him" (Ps 98:1). Isaiah takes up the same vocabulary repeatedly — "My righteousness is near, my salvation has gone forth, and my arms will judge the peoples; the isles will wait for [my Speech], and on my arm they will trust" (Isa 51:5); "Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed?" (Isa 53:1); "Yahweh has sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength" (Isa 62:8); "Who caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses? Who divided the waters before them, to make himself an everlasting name?" (Isa 63:12). Sirach's prayer pleads in the same idiom: "Renew the signs, and repeat the wonders, Make glorious your hand and your right arm" (Sir 36:6). The promise of bearing covers the whole life-span: "and even to old age, I am he, and even to hoar hairs [my Speech] will carry [you⁺]; I have made, and I will bear; yes, I will carry, and will deliver" (Isa 46:4).

In Isaiah the figure becomes explicit. Yahweh is dressed for war on his own people's behalf: "And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his own arm brought salvation to him; and [by his Speech] his righteousness, it upheld him. And he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation [by his Speech] on his head; and he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a mantle" (Isa 59:16-17). The same arms that fight pick up children: "And he took them in his arms, and blessed them, laying his hands on them" (Mark 10:16).

Of the Christian

The apostolic application picks Isaiah's kit up piece by piece and lays it on the disciple. "Put on the whole armor of God, that you⁺ may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual [hosts] of wickedness in the heavenly [places]. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you⁺ may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your⁺ loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having fastened your⁺ feet in the foundation of the good news of peace; as well taking up the shield of faith, with which you⁺ will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil [one]. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Eph 6:11-17). The figure uses the same enrollment-vocabulary that opens this page. Paul writes Timothy to "suffer hardship with [me], as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier on service entangles himself in the affairs of [this] life; that he may please him who enrolled him as a soldier" (2 Tim 2:3-4). The Christian, like the Israelite at Sinai, is on the rolls.

The sword in particular is figured as the spoken word of God. Paul names it directly in the Ephesians list: "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Eph 6:17). Hebrews makes the same identification: "For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Heb 4:12). Isaiah had pictured the Messiah's mouth as a weapon: "with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked" (Isa 11:4); the same motion ends the lawless one — "whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of his mouth, and bring to nothing by the manifestation of his coming" (2 Thess 2:8). Revelation closes the picture. The vision of Christ shows him with "a sharp two-edged sword" proceeding from his mouth (Rev 1:16); the letter to Pergamum is signed in his name — "These things says he who has the sharp two-edged sword" (Rev 2:12); and the warning to that same church is in the same edge: "Repent therefore; or else I come to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth" (Rev 2:16). The soldier of Christ fights with the same weapon his commander wields.