Footnotes

1. shepherd all the nations with a rod of iron. The verb poimaino does not mean to rule, as even Young has it, but specifically to shepherd. It is derived from poimen, a shepherd or herdsman, as in Matthew 2:6. The same noun is translated “pastor” in most versions of Ephesians 4:11; and the same verb found here in Revelation 12:5 is translated in most versions of John 21:16 as “tend my sheep.” It is thus a remarkable error that it is universally translated here as “rule.” The image is not, if fact, of a severe king smashing the nations with an iron scepter, but rather of a gentle shepherd smashing the nations’ enemies with the “rod” that herdsmen of the ancient near East carried along with their staffs. This was essentially a “Steve Harrington bat:” a short club around two feet long studded with nails at one end, used for defending the flock against predators. See Floyd E. Hamilton’s discussion in The Basis of Millennial Faith, pp. 84–90, cited in Loraine Boettner, The Millennium, Revised Edition (Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1984) pp. 293–296. ↩