If a brother died without leaving a child, the brother would marry the widow so that the brother’s heritage would not be cut off. If a family member fell on hard times and had to sell his property, close relatives needed to be close by to redeem the land for their kinsman. The land in Israel was parceled out to tribes and families. In fact, much of the Law required families to remain in close proximity. Whether in the days of the patriarchs or the days of the kings, families typically stuck together. They stayed to help and support the family. Sons would become hardworking adult men, take wives, and have children, but they typically did not move away from their father’s property or influence. But the way communities, economies, and families worked in ancient Israel and the way they work today are very different.Ĭonsider the biblical families with which you are familiar. We don’t think parents should arrange their children’s marriages or continue to influence them when they become adults. We think they need a clean break from mom and dad. In our culture, we believe young people should move away from home and “discover” themselves. Never considering for a moment that this metaphor might point to a different truth, parenting experts spend pages and pages saying it is a biblical mandate to take careful aim and launch children out on their own. They believe this passage implies that children are not supposed to stay connected to their parents, but rather are supposed to be shot out into the world like an arrow shot from a bow. I’ve heard multiple parenting experts stretch and stretch the metaphor of children being like “arrows in the hand of a warrior.” They suppose this means children, like arrows, were created to be launched out into the world. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!” Christian parenting experts love to quote this passage, but often miss the real meaning of the passage. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Today we will consider Psalm 127:3-5, “ Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Quiver, in this sense, is related to the Old High German kohhari, the German Köcher, the Old Saxon kokar, the Old Frisian koker and the Old English cocur (all of which mean ‘quiver’).Over the next few weeks, I want to do a series of posts in which we “re-examine” some familiar verses of the Bible. It is of Germanic origin, and can be traced back to the Proto-Germanic kukur (container), which is, according to some linguists, from the language of the Huns. It came into English from the Anglo French quivier (Old French quivre or cuivre). The noun quiver, meaning ‘a case for holding arrows,’ dates back to the early 14th century. The noun, meaning ‘a trembling,’ dates back to the early 18th century, and comes from the verb. A third theory is that it is related to the Old English cwifer– (zealous), which may be related to cwic (alive), from the Proto-Germanic quikaz and the Proto-Indo-Eurpean root gwei– (to live), which would make it related to the adjective quick. Some linguists believe it may have emerged as an imitation of the sound or a slight tremble, while others believe it is an alteration of the Middle English verb quaveren (now quaver, which also means ‘to vibrate or tremble’). Quiver, meaning ‘to tremble,’ dates back to the late 15th century.
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