mighty one: a being marked by sheer physical power, whether a strong man, a bull, or a war-horse.
This word describes something built for raw strength. It names the strong one, the powerful one, and the Bible reaches for it across a surprising range of subjects. The single thread tying them together is brute physical power.
That one word covers a wide field:
- powerful men and their leaders, from valiant warriors to the chief herdsman set over Saul's flocks
- bulls and wild oxen, the strongest animals of the field
- war-horses whose galloping shakes the ground
- the "stout of heart," people whose inner strength has hardened into stubborn defiance
Where גִּבּוֹר fixes on the trained warrior or hero, this word stays closer to raw might, so it can just as easily name a bull or a stallion. A close relative spelled almost the same, אָבִיר, is pointed as a fixed title for God, "the Mighty One" of Jacob, and is never used of animals or ordinary men. The broader אַדִּיר leans toward majesty and grandeur rather than plain strength.
Two occurrences are long debated. In one, an ancient Greek translation read a line about Egypt's fallen "mighty ones" as a taunt against Apis, Egypt's bull-god. In another, the "bread of the mighty" has been taken either as the food of strong men or as the food of heaven's mighty ones, the angels.
Nuances
Whether Jeremiah 46:15 speaks of Egypt's "mighty ones" being swept away, or, dividing the same consonants differently, mocks the flight of Apis, the bull-god of Egypt.
- majorityThe received Hebrew text reads "your mighty ones," Egypt's warriors or champions, as those swept away.; HALOT (Koehler-Baumgartner), s.v. אַבִּיר
- minorityThe Greek Septuagint read the line as "Why has Apis fled?", taking the letters as the name of Egypt's bull-god.; William McKane, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Jeremiah, ICC (1986-1996)
Whether "the bread of the mighty" in Psalm 78:25 means the food of mighty men or the food of heaven's mighty ones, the angels.
- majorityIt means heavenly beings' food; the ancient Greek rendered the phrase "bread of angels," and many follow that as a reference to the manna as food from heaven's court.; Septuagint, Psalm 77:25 (LXX); Frank-Lothar Hossfeld and Erich Zenger, Psalms 2, Hermeneia (2005)
- minorityIt means simply the food of strong or noble ones, keeping the ordinary sense of the word without importing angels.; BDB (Brown-Driver-Briggs), s.v. אַבִּיר