Psalms 7:12-13

7:12 If a person ¹  does not repent, God sharpens his sword ² 

and prepares to shoot his bow. ³ 

7:13 He prepares to use deadly weapons against him; ⁴ 

he gets ready to shoot flaming arrows. ⁵ 

Lamentations 3:13

ה (He)

3:13 He shot ⁶  his arrows ⁷ 

into my heart. ⁸ 

Ezekiel 5:16

5:16 I will shoot against them deadly, ⁹  destructive ¹⁰  arrows of famine, ¹¹  which I will shoot to destroy you. ¹²  I will prolong a famine on you and will remove the bread supply. ¹³ 

[7:12]  ¹ tn Heb “If he”; the referent (a person who is a sinner) has been specified in the translation for clarity. The subject of the first verb is understood as the sinner who fails to repent of his ways and becomes the target of God’s judgment (vv. 9, 14-16).

[7:12]  ² tn Heb “if he does not return, his sword he sharpens.” The referent (God) of the pronominal subject of the second verb (“sharpens”) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:12]  ³ tn Heb “his bow he treads and prepares it.” “Treading the bow” involved stepping on one end of it in order to string it and thus prepare it for battle.

[7:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “and for him he prepares the weapons of death.”

[7:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “his arrows into flaming [things] he makes.”

[3:13]  ⁶ tn The Hiphil stem of בוֹא (bo’, lit., “cause to come in”) here means “to shoot” arrows.

[3:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “sons of his quiver.” This idiom refers to arrows (BDB 121 s.v. בֵּן 6). The term “son” (בֵּן, ben) is often used idiomatically with a following genitive, e.g., “son of flame” = sparks (Job 5:7), “son of a constellation” = stars (Job 38:22), “son of a bow” = arrows (Job 41:2), “son of a quiver” = arrows (Lam 3:13), “son of threshing-floor” = corn (Isa 21:10).

[3:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “my kidneys.” In Hebrew anthropology, the kidneys are often portrayed as the most sensitive and vital part of man. Poetic texts sometimes portray a person fatally wounded, being shot by the Lord’s arrows in the kidneys (Job 16:13; here in Lam 3:13). The equivalent English idiomatic counterpart is the heart, which is employed in the present translation.

[5:16]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew word carries the basic idea of “bad, displeasing, injurious,” but when used of weapons has the nuance “deadly” (see Ps 144:10).

[5:16]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “which are/were to destroy.”

[5:16]  ¹¹ tn The language of this verse may have been influenced by Deut 32:23.

[5:16]  ¹² tn Or “which were to destroy those whom I will send to destroy you” (cf. NASB).

[5:16]  ¹³ tn Heb, “break the staff of bread.” The bread supply is compared to a staff that one uses for support. See 4:16, as well as the covenant curse in Lev 26:26.