properly · verb, hiphil perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
instruments
כְּלֵיke.lei-
H3627
something prepared · noun, common masculine plural construct
death
מָ֑וֶתMa.vet
H4194
death (natural or violent) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
ordaineth
יִפְעָֽלyif.'Al
H6466
to do or make (systematically and habitually) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
arrows
חִ֝צָּ֗יוchi.Tzav
H2671
properly · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
persecutors
לְֽדֹלְקִ֥יםle.do.le.Kim
H1814
to flame (literally or figuratively) · preposition + verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
2 Thessalonians 1:6 Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;
Habakkuk 3:13 Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation with thine anointed; thou woundedst the head out of the house of the…
Psalms 18:14 Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them.
Psalms 45:5 Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; whereby the people fall under thee.
Psalms 64:7 But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded.
Habakkuk 3:11 The sun and moon stood still in their habitation: at the light of thine arrows they went, and at the shining of thy glittering spear.
Revelation 6:10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on th…
Revelation 16:6 For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 7:10–end
David having lodged his appeal with God by prayer and a solemn profession of his integrity, in the former part of the psalm, in this latter part does, as it were, take out judgment upon the appeal, by faith in the word of God, and the assurance it gives of the happiness and safety of the righteous and the certain destruction of wicked people that continue impenitent.
I. David is confident that he shall find God his powerful protector and Saviour, and the patron of his oppressed innocency (Psa 7:10): "My defence is of God. Not only, God is my defender, and I shall find him so; but I look for defence and safety in no other; my hope for shelter in a time of danger is placed in God alone; if I h…
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.
John Gill on Psalms 7:13
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 malic…
Psalm 7:12-14
12. If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow and made it ready. [111] 13. And he hath prepared for [112] the instruments of death; he shall make fit his arrows for them that persecute. [113] 14. Behold, he shall travail to bring forth iniquity; he hath conceived wickedness, and he shall bring forth falsehood. [114]
12 If he turn not These verses are usually explained in two ways. The meaning is, that if David's enemies should persevere in their malicious designs against him, there is denounced against them the vengeance which their obstinate wickedness deserves. Accordingly, in the second clause, they supply the name of God,--If he turn not, GOD will whet…
The Church Fathers
'And in it he hath prepared the vessels of death.' They fit the person of the devil. 'He hath made his arrows for them that burn.' Beautifully he said, 'for them that burn': for those whose hearts burn with lust and passions, these have been conquered by the devil. 'He hath made his arrows for them that burn.' Beautifully he said 'for them that burn'; he did not say 'for those about to burn,' that is, those who are about to burn with his arrows; but whosoever's hearts he sees burning, those he strikes. The Apostle too says that the devil has burning arrows.
"And in it He has prepared the instruments of death: He has wrought His arrows for the burning" [Psalm 7:13]. That bow then I would readily take to be the Holy Scripture, in which by the strength of the New Testament, as by a sort of string, the hardness of the Old has been bent and subdued. From thence the Apostles are sent forth like arrows, or divine preachings are shot. Which arrows "He has wrought for the burning," arrows, that is, whereby being stricken they might be inflamed with heavenly love. For by what other arrows was she stricken, who says, "Bring me into the house of wine, place me among perfumes, crowd me among honey, for I have been wounded with love"? By what other arrows is he kindled, who, desirous of returning to God, and coming back from wandering, asks for help against crafty tongues, and to whom it is said, "What shall be given you, or what added to you against the crafty tongue? Sharp arrows of the mighty, with devastating coals:" that is, coals, whereby, when you are stricken and set on fire, you may burn with so great love of the kingdom of heaven, as to despise the tongues of all that resist you, and would recall you from your purpose, and to deride their persecutions, saying, "Who shall separate me from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? For I am persuaded," he says, "that neither death, nor life, nor angel, nor principality, nor things present, not things to come, nor power, nor height, nor depth, nor other creature, shall be able to separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Thus for the burning has He wrought His arrows. For in the Greek copies it is found thus, "He has wrought His arrows for the burning." But most of the Latin copies have "burning arrows." But whether the arrows themselves burn, or make others burn, which of course they cannot do unless they burn themselves, the sense is complete.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Arrows — At first made of reeds, and then of wood tipped with iron. Arrows are sometimes figuratively put for lightning (Deut. 32:23, 42; Ps. 7:13; 18:14; 144:6; Zech. 9:14). They were used in war as well as…
Cush — Black. (1.) A son, probably the eldest, of Ham, and the father of Nimrod (Gen. 10:8; 1 Chr. 1:10). From him the land of Cush seems to have derived its name. The question of the precise locality of…
Dart — An instrument of war; a light spear. “Fiery darts” (Eph. 6:16) are so called in allusion to the habit of discharging darts from the bow while they are on fire or armed with some combustible material.…
Persecution — The first great persecution for religious opinion of which we have any record was that which broke out against the worshippers of God among the Jews in the days of Ahab, when that king, at the…
Psalms — The psalms are the production of various authors. “Only a portion of the Book of Psalms claims David as its author. Other inspired poets in successive generations added now one now another…
Shiggaion — From the verb shagah, “to reel about through drink,” occurs in the title of Ps. 7. The plural form, shigionoth, is found in Hab. 3:1. The word denotes a lyrical poem composed under strong mental…
Arms, Military · Offensive: Called instruments of death — Offensive: Called instruments of death
Arrow · Used in war — Used in war
Arrows · Illustrative: Of God’s judgment — Illustrative: Of God’s judgment
Impenitence · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Persecution · The wicked: Punishment for — The wicked: Punishment for
(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. Isa 66:14; Mal 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 Psa 7:14 shows, is God. If a man (any one) does not repent, then Jahve will whet His sword (cf. Deu 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, whic…
sword . . . bow . . . deadly weapons . . . flaming arrows: As the Divine Warrior, God goes on the offensive on behalf of himself and his people.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 7:13
He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors.
Even now the thirsty arrow longs to wet itself with the blood of the persecutor. The bow is bent, the aim is taken, the arrow is fitted to the string, and what, O sinner, if the arrow should be let fly at thee even now! Remember, God's arrows never miss the mark, and are, every one of them, "instruments of death." Judgment may tarry, but it will not come too late. The Greek proverb saith, "The mill of God grinds late, but grinds to powder."
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
