Divide - Intellectual

“These children” is referring to Ozpin’s students, which he is training to fight against Grimm, which have connection to Salem. Salem intends to kill them all, forcing Ozpin to watch the students he cares about fall.

This calls back to Volume 2’s “Sacrifice.”

Take the lives of those you need
Sow the death then reap the seed

Salem is talking about how Ozpin & the other academy leaders are teaching child huntsmen and huntresses to fight for them, training an army to fight their battle. Because Salem’s believes that she will be victorious, she believes Ozpin & the other leaders will be sacrificing them for their battle.

This line refers to the story of the Four Maidens and how they fell to the obscurity of myth. Not only that, but Ozpin’s group is dedicated to keeping it a secret from the rest of the world.

This could be a reference to Salem’s goal of destroying people’s hope in each other. Many of thew ones able to stand in her way are dreamers and optimists like Ruby. Salem, in turn, hopes to crush that hope.

This is sung from the perspective of Salem, the main antagonist of the show, directed towards Professor Ozpin, the headmaster of Beacon Academy. Salem is referring to how his school is intended to train teenagers to become Hunters and Huntresses, a profession that will end in death, due to Salem. Ozpin’s shining pupil, Pyrrha Nikos, already met her end at the hands of Cinder Fall, one of Salem’s underlings. Salem sees it as Ozpin injecting his students with false hope, because she’s confident in her abilities to crush them all.

Huntsmen are pretty much considered heroes, and stuff of legends

VOLUME 3 EPISODE 13 SPOILERS
Even though there were several teams from beacon and atlas fighting against the grim, their final hope was not exceeded, and beacon unfortunately fell

Salem is taunting Ozpin. Here he is, training children to fight a war they are destined to fail, and he does nothing to stop it. Every Huntsmen that he sends to fight dies and nothing is changed.

Spoiler Alert:

Ozpin is the Headmaster at Beacon Academy which was destroyed by the end of Volume 3.

This line refers to Ozpin sending out Pyrrha as a “guardian,” only for her to fall to Cinder’s hands. It also insinuates that any other guardian that Ozpin sends as a replacement will meet the same fate as Pyrrha, whether by Cinder’s hands or by Salem’s.

The humans and Ozpin can build as much up as they like and fashion something to defeat Salem until their hearts content but Salem cares not for these things as they will all be for nothing in the end. She has already made her plans and plotted all of her scheme. She is ready but are they is her point.

I think it means that Ozpin will regret training these students and hosting the Vytal Festival, since the events that triggered the Fall of Beacon happened at the Festival.

VOLUME SIX SPOILER!
It may also mean he has enough time to think about his mistakes forever, since he is immortal, in a way.

“Severing their trust” refers to several different events. The first is Ozpin’s disdain for Ironwood bringing his fleet to the Vytal Festival, something he sees as an unnecessary action, which causes tension between them. The second is when Emerald tricked Yang into breaking Mercury’s leg, which make Blake less trusting towards Yang. The third is when it’s revealed that the girl that Ironwood takes care of, Penny, is actually a robot designed for combat. All of these things make the main cast less trusting of each other, and will divide them.

Salem, the antagonist of volume 3 is aware of how that all four kingdoms (Vale, Mistral, Atlas & Vacuo), when they work together and combine efforts; they can display a staggering threat to anyone willing to defeat them.

Stating part of her tactic in this line, she aims to divide the four continents in order to create panic and make each of them weaker separately. By spreading doubt throughout all four kingdoms, their combined power dwindles down causing panic and chaos, as seen towards the end of volume 3.

Although it hasn’t been shown in the show, it’s implied that Ozpin and Salem have some history between them, which is likely the sins that Salem is referring to. She thinks his students of being incapable of defeating her, sending them off to their own grave, in place of himself.

This line refers to everything among Ruby’s group that had happened after the Fall of Beacon: Yang showing her distrust and anger towards her teammate Blake, knowing that Salem cannot be killed, and the entire group doubting Oscar, thinking that the young man is hiding something from them all.

All these internal conflicts would lead to distrust, weakening the group in their quest to defeat Salem.

This line refers to the actions taken by the antagonists in volume 3, in which the tournament was rigged to make it appear that the students of Beacon were ruthless killers and monsters, causing distrust between the students and the general populace.

This refers to the fall of Beacon and the collapse of the kingdom of Vale. While not shown outright, it is heavily implied that the death toll on the grimm attack was incredibly high. Since so many people died, it could easily be considered a massacre, the likes of which Remnant has not seen since the Great War.

This is a reference to the ideals of Atlas Academy, believing in the strength of their armies as opposed to the training of Huntsmen and Huntresses. This all comes to a head when Cinder’s computer virus takes over the robotic armada, turning it against the people it was designed to protect.

This is Salem’s way of gloating to Ozpin. Despite everything he did to try to protect Beacon and preserve the peace, Salem’s plotting, alongside Cinder’s obedience, was able to effortlessly undo all of his hard work

A possible callback to the opening monologue of RWBY, presumably narrated by Salem. Salem acknowledges humanity’s ability to cling to hope in times of great peril, enabling them to do great things. She then confidently says that despite all that, she will do all in her power to destroy them anyway. This shows that Salem is willing to revel in making humanity suffer before utterly destroying them, as well as further reinforcing the fact that she’s a force to be reckoned with.

Also, Yang is often described as a flame, so by extinguishing a flame she (or more specifically, Adam Taurus) also “extinguished” Yang’s will to fight.

In volume 2 Ozpin is asked by Ironwood if his students could win a war.

Ozpin states “I hope they never have to.”

In the opening narration of the first Episode Salem appears to speak to Ozpin, with her final line being ‘but take heed… there will be no victory in strength.’

Her point was proven in a way when Pyrrha Nikos, a famed warrior and Huntress-in-training who was part of Team JNPR, died in battle against Cinder Fall in the Volume 3 finale. During the battle, there were several points where Pyrrha almost defeated Cinder with strength, only for Cinder to avert it by relying on tricks and cunning to sneak in a crippling blow to Pyrrha.

The entire song is a reference to Salem’s speech at the end of volume 3, and thus, the last line in the lyrics refers to the last lines she says in said speech

“…And I can’t wait to watch you burn.”

Salem (the series' new villain) admits that her impending victory is something that she will enjoy. Not only because the battle will be over and she will be the victor, but because she feels as tho Ozpin will get a taste of his own medicine of sorts.

These lyrics refer to the Vytal festival and Yang “hurting” Mercury and Pyrrha destroying Penny