Psalm 18:34

He teacheth my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(34) So that a bow.—Better, and mine arms bend a bow of copper. For the copper bow comp. Job 20:24. Nechushah, χαλκὸς, is certainly not steel, whether the custom of hardening iron was known to the Jews or not (see Jeremiah 15:12, and art. “Steel,” in Smith’s Biblical Dict.). The LXX. and Vulgate have, “thou hast made mine arms a bow of copper.” For this test of strength we naturally compare the famous bow of Ulysses—

“So the great master drew the mighty bow,

And drew with ease.”—Odyssey, POPE’S trans.

Benson Commentary

Psalm 18:34. He teacheth my hands to war — To him I owe all the military skill, or strength, or courage which I have. A bow of steel is broken by mine arm — Chandler renders it, Mine arms have bent the bow of steel. That David was able to bend and draw together even a brazen bow, or one of steel, and to use it in his wars, was a proof of his great strength. Dr. Delaney, however, certainly draws an unwarranted conclusion from these poetical expressions when he infers from them, “that David was the swiftest and strongest of all mankind.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

18:32, and the following verses, are the gifts of God to the spiritual warrior, whereby he is prepared for the contest, after the example of his victorious Leader. Learn that we must seek release being made through Christ, shall be rejected. In David the type, we behold out of trouble through Christ. The prayer put up, without reconciliation Jesus our Redeemer, conflicting with enemies, compassed with sorrows and with floods of ungodly men, enduring not only the pains of death, but the wrath of God for us; yet calling upon the Father with strong cries and tears; rescued from the grave; proceeding to reconcile, or to put under his feet all other enemies, till death, the last enemy, shall be destroyed. We should love the Lord, our Strength, and our Salvation; we should call on him in every trouble, and praise him for every deliverance; we should aim to walk with him in all righteousness and true holiness, keeping from sin. If we belong to him, he conquers and reigns for us, and we shall conquer and reign through him, and partake of the mercy of our anointed King, which is promised to all his seed for evermore. Amen.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He teacheth my hands to war - Compare Psalm 144:1. The skill which David had in the use of the bow, the sword, or the spear - all of which depends on the hands - he ascribes entirely to God.

So that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms - This is mentioned as an instance of extraordinary strength, as if he were able to break a bow made of metal. The original word rendered steel means properly brass. Wood was doubtless first used in constructing the bow, but metals came afterward to be employed, and brass would naturally be used before the manufacture of steel was discovered. Rosenmuller in loc.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

33-36. God's help farther described. He gives swiftness to pursue or elude his enemies (Hab 3:19), strength, protection, and a firm footing.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

To him I owe all that military skill, or strength, or cou rage which I have. My strength is sufficient, not only to bend

a bow of steel, but to break it.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

He teacheth my hands to war,.... From whence it appears, that war, in some cases, is lawful; and that all the skilfulness and art in training men for war, in the use of armour, in marshalling of armies, in forming sieges, &c. is all from God; see Psalm 144:1; and so is all that spiritual skill, in making use of the whole armour of God against every enemy, sin, Satan, and the world; and even the wisdom and skill, counsel and instruction, which Christ as man and Mediator had, when it was the hour and power of darkness; when he was engaged with principalities and powers, and got the victory over them, were from the Lord: see Psalm 16:7;

so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms; that is, the bow of an enemy falling into his hands, which might be literally true of David. It is in the Hebrew text, "a bow of brass"; and so Apollinarius renders it; which Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret strong iron, that is, steel; and so the Targum; see Job 20:24; Satan is an archer; his temptations are darts, and fiery ones; and his strong bow may be said to be broken by the arms of faith, when his temptations, under the influence of divine grace, are repelled and rendered ineffectual; and especially his bow was broken by Christ, not only in the wilderness, when he was vanquished by him; but in the garden, and on the cross, when Satan could find nothing in him, and get no other advantage over him, but to bruise his heel; when he himself had his head broke, his works ruined, and he himself destroyed. Some render the words, "mine arms have bent a bow of steel": that is, such skill and strength were given him that he was able to bend, draw, and shoot a bow or steel: the Targum is, "and hath strengthened mine arm as a bow of brass", or "steel"; and so the Syriac and Arabic versions; and to the same purpose the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Ethiopic versions; or it may be rendered, "my arms have bent", or "made to descend (o), a bow of brass"; for when a bow is bent, the horns or corners of it are made to descend towards a man.

(o) "ut current", Cocceius; so Michaelis; "ut descendat vel deprimatur", Gejerus; vid. Gussetii Comment. Ebr. p. 507. so Jarchi.

Geneva Study Bible

He teacheth my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

34. The first line is borrowed in Psalm 144:1.

so that a bow of steel &c.] R.V., so that mine arms do bend a bow of brass. The ability to bend a metal bow (cp. Job 20:24) was a sign of supereminent strength. Readers of the Odyssey will recall Ulysses’ bow, which no one but himself could bend (Hom. Od. xxi. 409).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 34. - He teacheth my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms (comp. Psalm 144:1). "A bow of steel" is a mistranslation, since nechusha (נְחוּשָׁה) is not "steel," but "brass," or rather "bronze "-and bows of steel were unknown to the ancients. Compare the comment on Job 20:24 ('Homiletic Commentary,' p. 352). Psalm 18:34

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

(Heb.: 18:32-35) The grateful description of the tokens of favour he has experienced takes a new flight, and is continued in the second half of the Psalm in a more varied and less artificial mixture of the strophes. What is said in Psalm 18:31 of the way and word of Jahve and of Jahve Himself, is confirmed in Psalm 18:32 by the fact that He alone is אלוהּ, a divine being to be reverenced, and He alone is צוּר, a rock, i.e., a ground of confidence that cannot be shaken. What is said in Psalm 18:31 consequently can be said only of Him. מבּלעדי and זוּלתי alternate; the former (with a negative intensive מן) signifies "without reference to" and then absolutely "without" or besides, and the latter (with ı̂ as a connecting vowel, which elsewhere has also the function of a suffix), from זוּלת (זוּלה), "exception." The verses immediately following are attached descriptively to אלהינוּ, our God (i.e., the God of Israel), the God, who girded me with strength; and accordingly (fut. consec.) made my way תמים, "perfect," i.e., absolutely smooth, free from stumblings and errors, leading straight forward to a divine goal. The idea is no other than that in Psalm 18:31, cf. Job 22:3, except that the freedom from error here is intended to be understood in accordance with its reference to the way of a man, of a king, and of a warrior; cf. moreover, the other text. The verb שׁוּה signifies, like Arab. swwâ, to make equal (aequare), to arrange, to set right; the dependent passage Habakkuk 3:19 has, instead of this verb, the more uncoloured שׁים. The hind, איּלה or איּלת, is the perfection of swiftness (cf. ἔλαφος and ἐλαφρός) and also of gracefulness among animals. "Like the hinds" is equivalent to like hinds' feet; the Hebrew style leaves it to the reader to infer the appropriate point of comparison from the figure. It is not swiftness in flight (De Wette), but in attack and pursuit that is meant, - the latter being a prominent characteristic of warriors, according to 2 Samuel 1:23; 2 Samuel 2:18; 1 Chronicles 12:8. David does not call the high places of the enemy, which he has made his own by conquest "my high places," but those heights of the Holy Land which belong to him as king of Israel: upon these Jahve preserves him a firm position, so that from them he may rule the land far and wide, and hold them victoriously (cf. passages like Deuteronomy 32:13; Isaiah 58:14). The verb למּד, which has a double accusative in other instances, is here combined with ל of the subject taught, as the aim of the teaching. The verb נחת (to press down equals to bend a bow) precedes the subject "my arms" in the singular; this inequality is admissible even when the subject stands first (e.g., Genesis 49:22; Joel 1:20; Zechariah 6:14). קשׁת נחוּשׁה a bow of brazen equals of brass, as in Job 20:24. It is also the manner of heroes in Homer and in the Ram-jana to press down and bend with their hand a brazen bow, one end of which rests on the ground.