'Against' in the Bible

Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth;For the Lord has spoken:“I have reared and brought up sons,But they have rebelled against Me and have broken away.

And He will judge between the nations,And will mediate [disputes] for many peoples;And they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.Nation will not lift up the sword against nation,And never again will they learn war.

For the Lord of hosts will have a day of reckoningAgainst all who are proud and arrogantAnd against all who are lifted up,That they may be degraded.

And the wrath of God will be against all the cedars of Lebanon [west of the Jordan] that are high and lifted up,Against all the oaks of Bashan [east of the Jordan],

Against all the high mountains,Against all the hills that are lifted up,

Against every high tower,Against every fortified wall,

Against all the ships of TarshishAnd against all the beautiful craft.

And the people will be oppressed,Each one by another, and each one by his neighbor;The boy will be arrogant and insolent toward the elderAnd the vulgar (common) toward the honorable [person of rank].

For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen,Because their words and their actions are against the Lord,To rebel against His glorious presence and defiantly provoke Him.

Their partiality testifies against them,They display their sin like Sodom;They do not even hide it.Woe (judgment is coming) to them!For they have brought evil on themselves [as a reward].

Therefore the anger of the Lord has burned against His people,And He has stretched out His hand against them and has struck them down.And the mountains trembled, and their dead bodies lay like rubbish in the middle of the streets.In spite of all this God’s anger is not turned away,But His hand is still stretched out [in judgment].

And in that day they will roar against them (Judah) like the roaring of the sea.And if one looks to the land, in fact, there is darkness and distress;Even the light will be darkened by its clouds.

Now it came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin king of Aram (Syria) and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but they could not conquer it.

Because Aram, along with Ephraim (Israel) and the son of Remaliah, have planned evil against you (Judah), saying,

“Let us go up against Judah and terrorize it; and let us breach its wall and tear it apart [each of us taking a portion] and set up the son of Tabeel over it as its [puppet] king,”

“Take counsel together [against Judah], but it will come to nothing;Speak the word, but it will not stand,For God is with us (Immanuel).”

The Lord sends a word (message) against Jacob,And it falls on Israel [the ten northern tribes, the kingdom of Ephraim].

Therefore the Lord raises against Ephraim adversaries from Rezin [king of Aram]And spurs their enemies on,

[The tribe of] Manasseh devours [the tribe of his brother] Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh,And together they are against Judah (the southern kingdom, the house of David).In spite of all this, God’s anger does not turn awayBut His hand is still stretched out [in judgment].

Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger [against Israel],The staff in whose hand is My indignation and fury [against Israel’s disobedience]!

I send Assyria against a godless nationAnd commission it against the people of My wrathTo take the spoil and to seize the plunder,And to trample them down like mud in the streets.

Is the axe able to lift itself over the one who chops with it?Is the saw able to magnify itself over the one who wields it?That would be like a club moving those who lift it,Or like a staff raising him who is not [made of] wood [like itself]!

Therefore, the Lord God of hosts says this, “O My people who dwell in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrian who strikes you with a rod and lifts up his staff against you, as [the king of] Egypt did.

For yet a very little while and My indignation [against you] will be fulfilled and My anger will be directed toward the destruction of the Assyrian.”

The Lord of hosts will brandish a whip against them like the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb; and His staff will be over the [Red] Sea and He will lift it up the way He did in [the flight from] Egypt.

Listen carefully, I will put the Medes [in motion] against them,Who have no regard for silver and do not delight in gold [and therefore cannot be bribed].

that you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon, and say,“How the oppressor has ceased [his insolence],And how the fury has ceased!

“Even the cypress trees rejoice over you [kings of Babylon], even the cedars of Lebanon, saying,‘Since you were laid low, no woodcutter comes up against us.’

“I will rise up against them,” says the Lord of hosts, “and will cut off from Babylon name and survivors, and son and grandson,” declares the Lord.

The [mournful, inspired] oracle (a burden to be carried) concerning Damascus [capital of Aram (Syria), and Israel’s defense against Assyria].“Listen carefully, Damascus will cease to be a cityAnd will become a fallen ruin.

“So I will provoke Egyptians against Egyptians;And they will fight, each one against his brother and each one against his neighbor,City against city, kingdom against kingdom.

Where then are your wise men?Please let them tell you,And let them understand what the Lord of hostsHas purposed against Egypt [if they can].

The land of Judah [Assyria’s ally] will become a terror to the Egyptians; everyone to whom Judah is mentioned will be in dread of it, because of the purpose of the Lord of hosts which He is planning against Egypt.

In the year that the Tartan [the Assyrian commander in chief] came to Ashdod [in Philistia], when Sargon king of Assyria sent him and he fought against Ashdod and captured it,

Who has planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,Whose merchants were princes, whose traders were the honored of the earth?

For You have been a stronghold for the helpless,A stronghold for the poor in his distress,A shelter from the storm, a shade from the heat;For the breath of tyrantsIs like a rainstorm against a wall.

“I have no wrath.Should anyone give Me briars and thorns in battle,I would step on them, I would set them all on fire.

I will camp against you and encircle you,And I will hem you in with siege works,And I will raise fortifications against you.

And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel (Jerusalem),Even all who fight against her and her stronghold, and who distress her,Will be like a dream, a vision of the night.

It will be as when a hungry man dreamsThat he is eating,But when he awakens, his hunger is not satisfied;Or as when a thirsty man dreamsThat he is drinking,But when he awakens, in fact, he is faintAnd his thirst is not quenched.So will the multitude of all the nations beWho fight against Mount Zion.

Yet He is also wise and will bring disaster,And does not retract His words,But will arise against the house of evildoersAnd against the helpers of those who do evil.

For so the Lord says to me,“As the lion or the young lion growls over his prey,And though a large group of shepherds is called out against himHe will not be terrified at their voice nor cringe at their noise,So the Lord of hosts will come down to wage war on Mount Zion and on its hill.”

Return to Him from whom you have so deeply defected, O sons of Israel.

For the Lord is angry at all the nations,And His wrath is against all their armies;He has utterly doomed them,He has given them over to slaughter.

Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and conquered them.

I say, ‘Your plan and strength for the war are only empty words.’ Now in whom do you trust and on whom do you rely, that you have rebelled against me?

Moreover, is it without the Lord that I have now come up against this land to destroy it? The Lord said to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’”’”

So the Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah [a fortified city of Judah], for he had heard that the king had left Lachish.

Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah, saying, “For the Lord, the God of Israel says this, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria,

“Whom have you taunted and blasphemed?And against whom have you raised your voiceAnd haughtily lifted up your eyes?Against the Holy One of Israel!

“But I know your sitting downAnd your going out and your coming in [every detail of your life],And your raging against Me.

“Because your raging against MeAnd your arrogance has come up to My ears,I will put My hook in your noseAnd My bridle in your mouth,And I will turn you back by the way you came.

“Therefore, the Lord says this concerning the king of Assyria, ‘He will not come into this city or shoot an arrow there, or come before it with shield, or raise an assault ramp against it.

“Indeed, all those who are angry with you will be put to shame and humiliated;Those who strive against you will be as nothing and will perish.

“You shall search for those who quarrel with you, but will not find them;They who war against you will be as nothing, as nothing at all.

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.

Who gave up Jacob [the kingdom of Judah] for spoil, and [the kingdom of] Israel to the plunderers?Was it not the Lord, He against whom we [of Judah] have sinned,And in whose ways they [of Israel] were unwilling to walk,And whose law and teaching they did not obey?

“Your first father [Jacob] sinned,And your spokesmen [the priests and the prophets—your mediators] have transgressed against Me.

“Woe (judgment is coming) to him who says to a father, ‘What are you fathering?’Or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor?’”

“It shall be said of Me, ‘Only in the Lord are righteousness and strength.’To Him people will come,And all who were angry at Him will be put to shame.

“Assemble, all of you, and listen!Who among them [the idols and Chaldean astrologers] has declared these things?The Lord loves him (Cyrus of Persia); he will do His pleasure and purpose against Babylon,And his arm will be against the Chaldeans [who reign in Babylon].

“If anyone fiercely attacks you it will not be from Me.Whoever attacks you will fall because of you.

“No weapon that is formed against you will succeed;And every tongue that rises against you in judgment you will condemn.This [peace, righteousness, security, and triumph over opposition] is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,And this is their vindication from Me,” says the Lord.

“Of whom do you make fun?Against whom do you open wide your mouthAnd stick out your tongue?Are you not children of rebellion (sin),Offspring of deceit,

For our transgressions are multiplied before You [O Lord],And our sins testify against us;For our transgressions are with us,And we know and recognize our wickedness [our sin, our injustice, our wrongdoing]:

Rebelling against and denying the Lord,Turning away from [following] our God,Speaking oppression and revolt,Conceiving and muttering from the heart lying words.

So they will fear the name of the Lord from the westAnd His glory from the rising of the sun.For He will come in like a narrow, rushing streamWhich the breath of the Lord drives [overwhelming the enemy].

But they rebelledAnd grieved His Holy Spirit;Therefore He changed into their enemy,And He fought against them.

When you see this, your heart will rejoice;Your bones will flourish like new grass.And the [powerful] hand of the Lord will be revealed to His servants,But His indignation will be toward His enemies.

“Then they will go forth and lookUpon the dead bodies of the [rebellious] menWho have transgressed against Me;For their worm (maggot) will not die,And their fire will not go out;And they will be an abhorrence to all mankind.”