Credit: LBM1948
License: CC BY-SA 4.0
Credit URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org...
Comments: Frieze of achaemenid archers; Pergamon Museum. Berlin, Germany
Credit: Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg)
License: CC BY-SA 4.0
Credit URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org...
Comments: Ashurbanipal's men with their spears, bows, arrows, and quivers, amid lion-hunts. From Room C, North Palace at Nineveh, Iraq, 645-635 BCE. British Museum, London.
Credit: Richard Keatinge at English Wikipedia
License: CC BY-SA 3.0
Credit URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org...
Comments: A bow made of straight, but knotty and poor-quality yew wood
From Easton: The bow was in use in early times both in war and in the chase (Genesis 21:20; Genesis 27:3; Genesis 48:22). The tribe of Benjamin were famous for the use of the bow (1 Chronicles 8:40; 1 Chronicles 12:2; 2 Chronicles 14:8; 2 Chronicles 17:17); so also were the Elamites (Isaiah 22:6) and the Lydians (Jeremiah 46:9). The Hebrew word commonly used for bow means properly to tread (1 Chronicles 5:18; 1 Chronicles 8:40), and hence it is concluded that the foot was employed in bending the bow. Bows of steel (correctly "copper") are mentioned (2 Samuel 22:35; Psalms 18:34).
The arrows were carried in a quiver (Genesis 27:3; Isaiah 22:6; Isaiah 49:2; Psalms 127:5). They were apparently sometimes shot with some burning material attached to them (Psalms 120:4).
The bow is a symbol of victory (Psalms 7:12). It denotes also falsehood, deceit (Psalms 64:3, Psalms 64:4; Hosea 7:16; Jeremiah 9:3).
"The use of the bow" in 2 Samuel 1:18 (A.V.) ought to be "the song of the bow," as in the Revised Version.
