bat ´'l -bo : Found in the striking Messianic prophecy: "The battle bow shall be cut off" (Zechariah 9:10 ). The prophet is predicting the peace that shall prevail when Zion's king cometh, "just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, even upon a colt the foal of an ass." The words convey their full significance only when read in the light of the context: "I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off; and he shall speak peace unto the nations" (compare Zechariah 10:4 ). The battle-bow was sometimes made of tough wood, sometimes of two straight horns joined together (Hom. Il . iv.105-11), and sometimes of bronze. In Psalm 18:34 the Revised Version (British and American) we find "bow of brass ," but it probably should be of "bronze" (נחשׁת , neḥōsheth ), a metal very different from our brass, which is a mixture of copper and zinc. The point of the passage in this connection ("He teacheth my hands to war; so that mine arms do bend a bow of bronze"), as well as of that in 2 Kings 9:24 ("And Jehu drew his bow with his full strength") is that it required great strength to bend the battle-bow. See ARCHERY; ARMOR .
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE) was edited by James Orr, John Nuelsen, Edgar Mullins, Morris Evans, and Melvin Grove Kyle and was published complete in 1939. This web site includes the complete text.
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