Properly, a piercer , i.e. an arrow ; by implication, a wound ; figuratively, (of God) thunder- bolt ; the shaft of a spear
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Chets ordinarily names an arrow or its shaft and can also support images of piercing injury, warfare, speech, children, divine judgment, or a commissioned servant. The object remains a weapon even when a poem or proverb employs it figuratively.
Reader summary
Full entry for חֵץ (H2671) · Open the biblical lexicon
Chets ordinarily names an arrow or its shaft and can also support images of piercing injury, warfare, speech, children, divine judgment, or a commissioned servant. The object remains a weapon even when a poem or proverb employs it figuratively.
The BSB source-word alignment has 53 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include the arrows (8), arrows (7), Your arrows (4), an arrow (3), arrow (3).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 49:23. Its strongest book concentrations include Psalms (14), 1 Samuel (6), 2 Kings (6), Ezekiel (4).
Chets ordinarily names an arrow or its shaft and can also support images of piercing injury, warfare, speech, children, divine judgment, or a commissioned servant. The object remains a weapon even when a poem or proverb employs it figuratively. First Samuel 20 uses arrows as part of Jonathan's agreed signal to protect David. Proverbs compares false testimony to a club, sword, and sharp arrow because deceit can wound a neighbor.
Psalm 127 likens children born in youth to arrows in a warrior's hand, emphasizing strength and future security in its ancient household setting; it does not turn children into tools, guarantee family outcomes, or assign greater worth to parents. Isaiah 49 uses a polished arrow within the Servant's calling and hidden preparation. Teachers should name genre, speaker, agent, target, and purpose.
Martial imagery can expose danger or communicate protection and judgment, but it must never romanticize violence, dehumanize enemies, or authorize harm outside the passage's own covenant and canonical boundaries.
Chets appears as a literal weapon in battle and signaling, then becomes poetic imagery for wounds, deceptive speech, children, divine judgment, and the prepared Servant. Genre and agency determine how the arrow image functions.
I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as if I were aiming at a target.
Jonathan's arrows belong to a prearranged signal that helps David discern danger, showing a weapon used within protective communication.
Like a club or sword or sharp arrow is a man who bears false witness against his neighbor.
The proverb compares false testimony to several weapons, stressing the neighbor-wounding force of deceit rather than prescribing physical retaliation.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are children born in one’s youth.
Children are compared to arrows within a song about God's gift and household security, not reduced to parental instruments or achievements.
He made My mouth like a sharp sword; He hid Me in the shadow of His hand. He made Me like a polished arrow; He hid Me in His quiver.
The Servant is pictured as a polished arrow hidden in God's quiver, an image of prepared commission controlled by the poem's speaker and mission.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. properly, a piercer , i.e. an arrow ; by implication, a wound ; figuratively, (of God) thunder- bolt ; the shaft of a spear
properly, a piercer, i.e. an arrow; by implication, a wound; figuratively, (of God) thunder-bolt; the shaft of a spear BDB: arrow Usage: archer, arrow, dart, shaft, staff, wound.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Chets is a concrete weapon word whose imagery becomes powerful precisely because arrows pierce at a distance. First Samuel 20 places arrows inside a protective signal between friends. Proverbs 25 uses the arrow to expose how false testimony wounds a neighbor. Psalm 127 celebrates children as God's gift and a source of household strength, yet the metaphor does not erase their personhood or promise parents control over their future.
Isaiah 49 presents the Servant as a polished arrow prepared and hidden by God, so the poem, not weapon symbolism alone, defines the mission. Churches should resist turning martial language into excitement about domination or treating opponents as targets. The Bible can employ severe judgment imagery while still commanding love of neighbor and enemy. Responsible teaching acknowledges real violence, protects those threatened by weapons, refuses revenge, and locates ultimate justice with God.
Metaphor should illuminate the text's claim without becoming a warrant for aggression, coercive parenting, or dehumanizing rhetoric.
Prov.25.18
The Hebrew noun normally denotes an arrow or shaft and can extend figuratively to a wound or piercing force. The noun itself does not identify the archer, target, justice, or symbolism; those elements arise from grammar, imagery, and literary context.
Ephesians 6:16 speaks of the evil one's flaming arrows within the armor-of-God metaphor, while Revelation uses weapon and judgment imagery in apocalyptic visions. These passages show continued canonical use of martial figures, but they neither provide a direct lexical equivalent for H2671 nor authorize violence against human opponents.