Discovery BoxPsalms 7:12-13 
Context7:12 If a person 1 does not repent, God sharpens his sword 2
and prepares to shoot his bow. 3
7:13 He prepares to use deadly weapons against him; 4
he gets ready to shoot flaming arrows. 5
Psalms 21:12
Context21:12 For you make them retreat 6
when you shoot your arrows at them. 7
Psalms 64:7
Context64:7 But God will shoot 8 at them;
suddenly they will be 9 wounded by an arrow. 10
Psalms 80:15
Context80:15 the root 11 your right hand planted,
the shoot you made to grow! 12
Psalms 144:6
Context144:6 Hurl lightning bolts and scatter them!
Shoot your arrows and rout them! 13
1 tn Heb “If he”; the referent (a person who is a sinner) has been specified in the translation for clarity. The subject of the first verb is understood as the sinner who fails to repent of his ways and becomes the target of God’s judgment (vv. 9, 14-16).
2 tn Heb “if he does not return, his sword he sharpens.” The referent (God) of the pronominal subject of the second verb (“sharpens”) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
3 tn Heb “his bow he treads and prepares it.” “Treading the bow” involved stepping on one end of it in order to string it and thus prepare it for battle.
4 tn Heb “and for him he prepares the weapons of death.”
5 tn Heb “his arrows into flaming [things] he makes.”
6 tn Heb “you make them a shoulder,” i.e., “you make them turn and run, showing the back of their neck and shoulders.”
7 tn Heb “with your bowstrings you fix against their faces,” i.e., “you fix your arrows on the bowstrings to shoot at them.”
8 tn The prefixed verb with vav (ו) consecutive is normally used in narrative contexts to describe completed past actions. It is possible that the conclusion to the psalm (vv. 7-10) was added to the lament after God’s judgment of the wicked in response to the psalmist’s lament (vv. 1-6). The translation assumes that these verses are anticipatory and express the psalmist’s confidence that God would eventually judge the wicked. The psalmist uses a narrative style as a rhetorical device to emphasize his certitude. See GKC 329-30 §111.w.
9 tn The perfect verbal form here expresses the psalmist’s certitude about the coming demise of the wicked.
10 tn The translation follows the traditional accentuation of the MT. Another option is to translate, “But God will shoot them down with an arrow, suddenly they will be wounded” (cf. NIV, NRSV).
11 tn The Hebrew noun occurs only here in the OT. HALOT 483 s.v. III כֵּן emends the form to כַּנָּהּ (kannah, “its shoot”).
12 tn Heb “and upon a son you strengthened for yourself.” In this context, where the extended metaphor of the vine dominates, בֵּן (ben, “son”) probably refers to the shoots that grow from the vine. Cf. Gen 49:22.
13 sn Arrows and lightning bolts are associated in other texts (see Pss 18:14; 77:17-18; Zech 9:14), as well as in ancient Near Eastern art (see R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” [Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983], 187).
