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3.There he broke the arrows of the bow. We have here stated the particular way in which God was known in Judah. He was known by the wonderful proofs of his power, which he exhibited in preserving the city. Under these figures is described the destruction of the enemies of the chosen people. (268) They could not otherwise have been overthrown than by being despoiled of their armor and weapons of war. It is therefore said, that the arrows, the swords, and the shields, were broken, yea, all the implements of war; implying that these impious enemies of the Church were deprived of the power of doing harm. The fact indeed is, that they were wounded and slain, while their weapons remained uninjured; but this metonymy, by which what befell themselves is represented as happening to their implements of war, is not improper. Some translate the word רשפים, reshaphim, points of weapons! Properly, it should be renderedfires; (269) but it is more accurate to take it for arrows. Even birds are sometimes metaphorically so called, on account of their swiftness; and flying is attributed to arrows in Psa_91:6
(268) “ seems to allude to the miraculous destruction of the Assyrian army, as recorded in Isa_27:36.” — Warner.
(269) “ Hebrew רשף, [here rendered arrows, ] signifies fire, Job_5:7, where ‘ that fly upward’ are poetically expressed by בני רשף, ‘ sons of the fire.’ By metaphor it is applies to an ‘’ or ‘’ shot out of a bow, and, by the swiftness of the motion, supposed to be inflamed. See Son_8:6, where of love it is said, (not the coals, but) ‘ arrows thereof are arrows of fire,’ it shoots, and wounds, and burns a man’ heart, inflames it vehemently by wounding it. The poetical expression will best be preserved by retaining some trace of the primary sense in the rendering of it — ‘ or lightnings of the bow,’i e. , those hostile weapons which are most furious and formidable, as fire shot out from a bow.” — Hammond Parkhurst renders “ flashing arrows,” or rather, “ or fire-bearing arrows;” such as, it is certain, were used in after times in sieges and in battles; the βελη πεπυρωμενα of the Greeks, to which Paul alludes in Eph_6:16, and the phalarica of the Romans, which Servius (on Virgil, Æ lib. 9, 5, 705) describes as a dart or javelin with a spherical leaden head, to which combustible matter was attached, which being set on fire, the weapon was darted against the enemy; and when thrown by a powerful hand, it killed those whom it hit, and set fire to buildings. Walford has, “ arrows.” “ arrows,” says he, “ described as fiery, to denote either the rapidity of their motion, or that they were tinged with some poisonous drugs to render them more deadly.”