ARCHER.See Armour, Army.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
Gen_49:23 (a) The word is used here to represent the ten brothers of Joseph and also Potiphar's wife and other enemies who sought to injure and in fact to kill Joseph. They were instruments of Satan to prevent the execution of GOD's plans.
Job_16:13 (b) The word is used in this passage to describe those who find fault with GOD's people. These enemies speak evil of GOD's servants and seek to damage GOD's children. The wicked words that they speak to and about the Christian are likened to arrows shot by the archer.
Jer_51:3 (b) This is a type of GOD's own people who are instructed to spare no effort in attacking "Babylon." Babylon is a type of false religions (see under "BABYLON"). GOD's people are told to shoot at her, and spare no arrows. The true Christian should never lose an opportunity to expose the evils of the false religious sects who deceive the people and hold them in darkness and superstition.
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.
Archer
(קִשָּׁת, kashshath', a bowman, Gen_21:20; בִּעִלאּחִצּים, baal- chitstsim', arrow-man, Gen_49:23; אנֵוֹשׁ בִּקֶּשֶׁת, enosh' bakke'sheth, bowman, 1Sa_31:3; מוֹרֶה בִּקֶּשֶׁתmoreh' bakke'sheth, shooter with the bow, 1Ch_10:3; דּוֹרֵךְ קֶּשֶׁת, one bending the bow, Jer_51:3; comp. Isa_21:17; Isa_23:3; but simply קֶּשֶׁת, ke'sheth, a bow, in Isa_22:3; comp. Psa_78:57; while in Job_16:13, the word is רִב, rab, great, prob. a host). From the frequent appearance of combatants armed with bows and arrows on the Egyptian monuments (see Wilkinson's Anc. Egypt. 1, 337, 354, 405) and Babylonish sculptures (see Layard's Nineveh, 2, 261), we may conclude that this art is of very high antiquity (see Jahn's Archaol. § 278). In Gen_21:20, Ishmael is spoken of as an archer, and again in Gen_27:3, but with reference to hunting rather than to war; and this appears to have been long the case with the Israelites, though the neighboring nations employed it for military purposes. SEE ARMOR.
Saul, we read (1Sa_31:3), was wounded by the Philistine archers, and it has been conjectured that it was the unskillfulness of the Israelites with this weapon which led David, while lamenting the death of the king and his sons, to give directions for teaching the children of Judah the use of the bow (2Sa_1:18). SEE BOW. If such were the case, his efforts were successful, for, after this period, from its frequent mention in the Holy Scriptures, archery would appear to have been considered as of great importance, so much so that breaking the bow is a phrase often employed by the sacred writers for taking away one's power (Hos_1:5; Jer_49:35), while strengthening the bow was a symbol of the increase of influence (Gen_49:24). The Persians were famous among the ancients for their archers (Isa_13:18; Jer_49:35; Jer_1:1-19). SEE BOWMAN.
CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.