I like using the free online bible study tools at biblegateway.com for such studies.
Note there's a difference in translation in NLT for example that doesn't use the word quick, but alive
Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.
division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow. Though some find support here for the view that a human being is basically a trichotomy consisting of body, soul, and spirit, the context is against it. It stresses the power of God’s word to enter the deepest recesses of a person’s being, and not a sort of division into constituent parts. Also, if the idea of division were intended, we would expect the author to say “bone and marrow” instead of “joints and of marrow.”
Matthew Henry's Commentary
From the great help and advantage we may have from the word of God to strengthen our faith, and excite our diligence, that we may obtain this rest:
The word of God is quick and powerful,
Heb. 4:12. By the word of God we may understand either the essential or the written word: the essential
Word, that in
the beginning was with God, and was God (
John 1:1), the Lord Jesus Christ, and indeed what is said in this verse is true concerning him; but most understand it of the written word, the holy scriptures, which are the word of God. Now of this word it is said,
(1.) That is
quick; it is very lively and active, in all its efforts, in seizing the conscience of the sinner, in cutting him to the heart, and in comforting him and binding up the wounds of the soul. Those know not the word of God who call it a dead letter; it is quick, compared to the light, and nothing quicker than the light; it is not only quick, but quickening; it is a vital light; it is a living word,
zon. Saints die, and sinners die; but the word of God lives.
(2.) It is
powerful. When God sets it home by his Spirit, it convinces powerfully, converts powerfully, and comforts powerfully. It is so powerful as to pull down strong holds (
2 Cor. 10:4, 5), to raise the dead, to make the deaf to hear, the blind to see, the dumb to speak, and the lame to walk. It is powerful to batter down Satan’s kingdom, and to set up the kingdom of Christ upon the ruins thereof.
(3.) It is
sharper than any two-edged sword; it cuts both ways; it is
the sword of the Spirit,
Eph. 6:17. It is the two-edged sword that cometh out of the mouth of Christ,
Rev. 1:16. It is sharper than any two-edged sword, for it will enter where no other sword can, and make a more critical dissection: it
pierces to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit, the soul and its habitual prevailing temper; it makes a soul that has been a long time of a proud spirit to be humble, of a perverse spirit to be meek and obedient. Those sinful habits that have become as it were natural to the soul, and rooted deeply in it, and become in a manner one with it, are separated and cut off by this sword. It cuts off ignorance from the understanding, rebellion from the will, and enmity from the mind, which, when carnal, is enmity itself against God. This sword divides between
the joints and the marrow, the most secret, close, and intimate parts of the body; this sword can cut off the lusts of the flesh as well as the lusts of the mind, and make men willing to undergo the sharpest operation for the mortifying of sin.
(4.) It is
a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, even the most secret and remote thoughts and designs. It will discover to men the variety of their thoughts and purposes, the vileness of them, the bad principles they are actuated by, the sinister and sinful ends they act to. The word will turn the inside of a sinner out, and let him see all that is in his heart. Now such a word as this must needs be a great help to our faith and obedience.
