Psalms 21:12

21:12 For you make them retreat ¹ 

when you shoot your arrows at them. ² 

Psalms 77:17

77:17 The clouds poured down rain; ³ 

the skies thundered. ⁴ 

Yes, your arrows ⁵  flashed about.

Numbers 24:8

24:8 God brought them out of Egypt.

They have, as it were, the strength of a young bull;

they will devour hostile people ⁶ 

and will break their bones

and will pierce them through with arrows.

Deuteronomy 32:23

32:23 I will increase their ⁷  disasters,

I will use up my arrows on them.

Deuteronomy 32:42

32:42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood,

and my sword will devour flesh –

the blood of the slaughtered and captured,

the chief ⁸  of the enemy’s leaders!’”

Joshua 10:10

10:10 The Lord routed ⁹  them before Israel. Israel ¹⁰  thoroughly defeated them ¹¹  at Gibeon. They chased them up the road to the pass ¹²  of Beth Horon and struck them down all the way to Azekah and Makkedah.

Job 6:4

6:4 For the arrows ¹³  of the Almighty ¹⁴  are within me;

my spirit ¹⁵  drinks their poison; ¹⁶ 

God’s sudden terrors ¹⁷  are arrayed ¹⁸  against me.

Isaiah 30:30

30:30 The Lord will give a mighty shout ¹⁹ 

and intervene in power, ²⁰ 

with furious anger and flaming, destructive fire, ²¹ 

with a driving rainstorm and hailstones.

Habakkuk 3:11

3:11 The sun and moon stand still in their courses; ²² 

the flash of your arrows drives them away, ²³ 

the bright light of your lightning-quick spear. ²⁴ 

[21:12]  ¹ tn Heb “you make them a shoulder,” i.e., “you make them turn and run, showing the back of their neck and shoulders.”

[21:12]  ² tn Heb “with your bowstrings you fix against their faces,” i.e., “you fix your arrows on the bowstrings to shoot at them.”

[77:17]  ³ tn Heb “water.”

[77:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “a sound the clouds gave.”

[77:17]  ⁵ tn The lightning accompanying the storm is portrayed as the Lord’s “arrows” (see v. 18).

[24:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “they will devour nations,” their adversaries.

[32:23]  ⁷ tn Heb “upon them.”

[32:42]  ⁸ tn Or “head” (the same Hebrew word can mean “head” in the sense of “leader, chieftain” or “head” in the sense of body part).

[10:10]  ⁹ tn Or “caused to panic.”

[10:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “he.” The referent is probably Israel (mentioned at the end of the previous sentence in the verse; cf. NIV, NRSV), but it is also possible that the Lord should be understood as the referent (cf. NASB “and He slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon”), or even Joshua (cf. NEB “and Joshua defeated them utterly in Gibeon”).

[10:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “struck them down with a great striking down.”

[10:10]  ¹² tn Or “ascent.”

[6:4]  ¹³ sn Job uses an implied comparison here to describe his misfortune – it is as if God had shot poisoned arrows into him (see E. Dhorme, Job, 76-77 for a treatment of poisoned arrows in the ancient world).

[6:4]  ¹⁴ sn Job here clearly states that his problems have come from the Almighty, which is what Eliphaz said. But whereas Eliphaz said Job provoked the trouble by his sin, Job is perplexed because he does not think he did.

[6:4]  ¹⁵ tn Most commentators take “my spirit” as the subject of the participle “drinks” (except the NEB, which follows the older versions to say that the poison “drinks up [or “soaks in”] the spirit.”) The image of the poisoned arrow represents the calamity or misfortune from God, which is taken in by Job’s spirit and enervates him.

[6:4]  ¹⁶ tn The LXX translators knew that a liquid should be used with the verb “drink”; but they took the line to be “whose violence drinks up my blood.” For the rest of the verse they came up with, “whenever I am going to speak they pierce me.”

[6:4]  ¹⁷ tn The word translated “sudden terrors” is found only here and in Ps 88:16 [17]. G. R. Driver notes that the idea of suddenness is present in the root, and so renders this word as “sudden assaults” (“Problems in the Hebrew text of Job,” VTSup 3 [1955]: 73).

[6:4]  ¹⁸ tn The verb עָרַךְ (’arakh) means “to set in battle array.” The suffix on the verb is dative (see GKC 369 §117.x). Many suggestions have been made for changing this word. These seem unnecessary since the MT pointing yields a good meaning: but for the references to these suggestions, see D. J. A. Clines, Job (WBC), 158. H. H. Rowley (Job [NCBC], 59), nonetheless, follows the suggestion of Driver that connects it to a root meaning “wear me down.” This change of meaning requires no change in the Hebrew text. The image is of a beleaguering army; the host is made up of all the terrors from God. The reference is to the terrifying and perplexing thoughts that assail Job (A. B. Davidson, Job, 44).

[30:30]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the Lord will cause the splendor of his voice to be heard.”

[30:30]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and reveal the lowering of his arm.”

[30:30]  ²¹ tn Heb “and a flame of consuming fire.”

[3:11]  ²² tn Heb “in their lofty dwelling places.”

[3:11]  ²³ tn Or “at the light of your arrows they vanish.”

[3:11]  ²⁴ tn Heb “at the brightness of the lightning of your spear.”