Matthew 10:34

New English Translation

³⁴“Do not think that I have come to bring^[a] peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace but a sword!^[b]

Matthew 10:34 tn Grk “cast.” For βάλλω (ballō) in the sense of bringing about (or causing) a state or condition, see L&N 13.14; BDAG 163-64 s.v. 4.
Matthew 10:34 sn For rhetorical reasons, Jesus’ statement is deliberately paradoxical (seeming to state the opposite of Matt 10:13 where the messengers are to bring peace). The conflict implied by the sword is not primarily eschatological in this context, however, but immediate, and concerns the division and discord even among family members that a person’s allegiance to Jesus would bring (vv. 35-39).

New English Translation (NET)