Psalm 7:13

He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(13) Instruments of death.—That is, deadly weapons.

Against the persecutors.—Literally, for those burning; so LXX. and Vulg. The meaning appears to be, “His arrows he makes into fiery arrows”—i.e., tips them with fire, by wrapping them in burning tow. Latin, malleoli. (Comp. Ephesians 6:16, with Note, in New Testament Commentary.) Milton’s “rattling storm of arrows barb’d with fire,” refers to the same custom.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

7:10-17 David is confident that he shall find God his powerful Saviour. The destruction of sinners may be prevented by their conversion; for it is threatened, If he turn not from his evil way, let him expect it will be his ruin. But amidst the threatenings of wrath, we have a gracious offer of mercy. God gives sinners warning of their danger, and space to repent, and prevent it. He is slow to punish, and long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish. The sinner is described, ver. 14-16, as taking more pains to ruin his soul than, if directed aright, would save it. This is true, in a sense, of all sinners. Let us look to the Saviour under all our trials. Blessed Lord, give us grace to look to thee in the path of tribulation, going before thy church and people, and marking the way by thine own spotless example. Under all the persecutions which in our lesser trials mark our way, let the looking to Jesus animate our minds and comfort our hearts.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He hath also prepared for him - The instruments of punishment are already prepared, and God can use them when he pleases. They are not to be made ready, and, therefore, there is no necessity for delay when he shall have occasion to use them. The idea is, that arrangements are made for the destruction of the wicked, and that the destruction must come upon them. The world is full of these arrangements, and it is impossible that the sinner should escape.

The instruments of death - The means of putting them to death; that is, of punishing them. The particular means referred to here are arrows, as being what God has prepared for the wicked. "Death" here is designed simply to denote punishment, as death would be inflicted by arrows.

He ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors - Or rather, as the Hebrew is, "He makes his arrows for burning," that is, "for burning arrows." Horsley renders it, "He putteth his arrows in action against those who are ready for burning." Prof. Alexander, "His arrows to (be) burning he will make." DeWette, "His arrows he makes burning." The Latin Vulgate and Septuagint, His arrows he has made for the burning: "that is, probably for those who are burning with rage, for persecutors. This seems to have been the idea of our translators. The Hebrew word - דלק dâlaq - means to burn, to flame; and hence, also, to burn with love, with anxiety, or with zeal or wrath - as persecutors do. But here the word seems properly to be connected with "arrows;" and the sense is, as rendered by Gesenius, "he maketh his arrows flaming;" that is, burning - alluding to the ancient custom of shooting ignited darts or arrows into besieged towns or camps, for the purpose of setting them on fire, as well as for the purpose of inflicting greater personal injury. The sense is, that God had prepared the means of certain destruction for the wicked. The reference here is not necessarily to persecutors, but what is said here pertains to all the wicked unless they repent.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

13. against the persecutors—Some render "for burning," but the former is the best sense. Arrows for burning would be appropriate in besieging a town, not in warring against one man or a company in open fight.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

For him; either,

1. For or against the persecutor, as it follows. Or rather,

2. For himself, for his own use, to wit, to shoot against his enemies.

The instruments of death, i.e. arrows, or other deadly weapons.

He ordaineth, Heb. maketh or worketh, designeth or fitteth for his very use.

Against the persecutors; or, against furious and wry persecutors, as the word signifies, and as it is used, Genesis 31:36 Psalm 10:2 Lamentations 4:19.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death,.... The weapons of his indignation, Isaiah 13:5; which, will issue both in the first and second death, corporeal and eternal; the instruments of the former are diseases of various kinds, and judgments, as famine, pestilence, &c. and of the latter not only the law is an instrument of it, that being the letter which kills, and is the ministration of condemnation and death, but even the Gospel itself to wicked men is the savour of death unto death; and devils will be the executioners of it;

he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors: the word for persecutors signifies "hot" or "burning" (h), and designs such persons who burn in malice and wrath, In rage and fury, against the saints, and hotly pursue after them, as Laban did after Jacob, Genesis 31:36; for these more especially God has determined in his eternal purposes and decrees, and for these he has provided in his quiver, arrows of wrath and vengeance, fiery ones; and against these will he bring them forth, direct them, and shoot them at them, Psalm 64:7. Some (i) understand all this not of God, but of the wicked man, and read "if he turn not", but, on the contrary, instead of that, "will whet his sword, bend his bow", &c. against the righteous; yet he shall be disappointed, he shall not accomplish his designs, as appears by the following verses; these phrases are used of wicked men, Psalm 11:2, but the former sense seems best.

(h) "ardentibus", V. L. "in ardentes", Montanus; "hot persecutors", Ainsworth. (i) So Brentius & Glassius in Gejerus.

Geneva Study Bible

He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

13. Render:

Tea at him hath he aimed deadly missiles;

Making his arrows fiery.

Or, Yea, for him hath he prepared &c.

The description of the warrior-judge is continued. God’s arrows are His lightnings (Psalm 18:14; Zechariah 9:14), which He aims at the impenitent sinner. There may be a reference to the fire-darts of ancient warfare (Lat. malleoli), arrows with tow, pitch, and other inflammable materials attached to them, lighted and discharged into a besieged town with the object of setting it on fire. Cp. ‘the fire-charged darts of the evil one,’ Ephesians 6:16.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 13. - He hath prepared for him the instruments of death. These are probably not the sword and the bow, but the "arrows" of the next clause. They are prepared "for him," i.e. for the wicked man. He ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors; rather, he maketh his arrows to be fiery ones. Hengstenberg notes that "in sieges it was customary to wrap inflammable matter round arrows, and to shoot them after it had been kindled" (compare the, fiery darts" of St. Paul, Ephesians 6:16). Psalm 7:13

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

(Heb.: 7:12-14) If God will in the end let His wrath break forth, He will not do it without having previously given threatenings thereof every day, viz., to the ungodly, cf. Isaiah 66:14; Malachi 1:4. He makes these feel His זעם beforehand in order to strike a wholesome terror into them. The subject of the conditional clause אם־לא ישׁוּב is any ungodly person whatever; and the subject of the principal clause, as its continuation in Psalm 7:14 shows, is God. If a man (any one) does not repent, then Jahve will whet His sword (cf. Deuteronomy 32:41). This sense of the words accords with the connection; whereas with the rendering: "forsooth He (Elohim) will again whet His sword" (Bttch., Ew., Hupf.) ישׁוּב, which would moreover stand close by ילטושׁ (cf. e.g., Genesis 30:31), is meaningless; and the אם־לא of asseveration is devoid of purpose. Judgment is being gradually prepared, as the fut. implies; but, as the perff. imply, it is also on the other hand like a bow that is already strung against the sinner with the arrow pointed towards him, so that it can be executed at any moment. כּונן of the making ready, and הכין of the aiming, are used alternately. לו, referring to the sinner, stands first by way of emphasis as in Genesis 49:10; 1 Samuel 2:3, and is equivalent to אליו, Ezekiel 4:3. "Burning" arrows are fire-arrows (זקּים, זיקות, malleoli); and God's fire-arrows are the lightnings sent forth by Him, Psalm 18:15; Zechariah 9:14. The fut. יפעל denotes the simultaneous charging of the arrows aimed at the sinner, with the fire of His wrath. The case illustrated by Cush is generalised: by the sword and arrows the manifold energy of the divine anger is symbolised, and it is only the divine forbearance that prevents it from immediately breaking forth. The conception is not coarsely material, but the vividness of the idea of itself suggests the form of its embodiment.