Arms.
The offensive arms found in the O.T. are:
1. The SWORD, for which several Hebrew words are used: a. baraq, often translated 'lightning;' it is 'glittering sword' in Job 20:25. b. chereb, a sword, as laying waste. It is the word commonly used in the O.T. for sword (everywhere indeed except in the references given here under the other words): it was a straight tapering weapon, with two edges and a sharp point. Psalms 149:6; Isaiah 14:19. It is used metaphorically for keen and piercing words, as in Psalms 57:4; Psalms 64:3. c. retsach, an undefined slaying weapon, translated 'sword' only in Psalms 42:10. d. shelach, a missile of death, as a dart. Job 33:18; Job 36:12; Joel 2:8. e. pethichoth, from 'to open,' is translated 'drawn sword' in Psalms 55:21.
2. SPEARS. a. chanith, thus named as being flexible: it is the word mostly used for the spear. 1 Samuel 13:19; Psalms 57:4. It is this weapon that will be beaten into pruning hooks. Isaiah 2:4; Micah 4:3. b. kidon, a smaller kind of lance, or javelin. Joshua 8:18, Joshua 1:8; Job 41:29; Jeremiah 6:23. c. tselatsal, harpoon. Job 41:7. d. qayin, lance, 2 Samuel 21:16. e. romach, spear used by heavy-armed troops, the iron head of a spear. Judges 5:8, etc. The pruning hooks are to be beaten into spears in the time of God's judgements. Joel 3:10.
3. BOW, from which arrows are discharged, qesheth, generally made of wood, but sometimes of steel or brass. Job 20:24. It is constantly found in the O.T. from Genesis to Zechariah. It is used to express punishment from God, Lamentations 2:4; Lamentations 3:12; and of men to show their power to injure. Psalms 37:14, Psalms 1:37. 'A deceitful bow' expresses a man who fails just when his aid is most needed, as when a bow breaks suddenly. Psalms 78:57; Hosea 7:16.
4. The SLING, by which stones are discharged, qela. It was by means of this that David smote Goliath. 1 Samuel 17:40, 1 Samuel 1:17, 1 Samuel 1:17. Of the Benjamites there were 700 men lefthanded; "every one could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss." Judges 20:16. (In Proverbs 26:8 occurs another word for sling margemah, but the passage is considered better translated "as he that putteth a precious stone in a heap of stones," as in the margin.)
5. 'ENGINES,' with which Uzziah shot arrows and great stones. 2 Chronicles 26:15.