And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
If one prevail against him. One = the enemy. Rather, join "one" with "him." 'If (an enemy) prevail against him, the one'-him in his isolation-because of his standing alone. So the Vulgate. But the Syriac and Septuagint, favour the English version.
A threefold cord - proverbial for a combination of many, e.g., husband, wife, and children (Proverbs 11:14); so Christians (Colossians 2:2; Colossians 2:19). Christ sent forth the seventy by pairs, not singly (Luke 10:1), and promised, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matthew 18:18; Matthew 19:1-30). Untwist the cord and the separate threads are easily "broken."