קֶשֶׁת (qešet) is a Hebrew noun for a bow used to shoot arrows and, by the same curved shape, the rainbow. Genesis 9:13 names God's bow in the clouds as the sign of His covenant with the earth after the flood.
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Full entry for קֶשֶׁת (H7198) · Open the biblical lexicon
קֶשֶׁת (qešet) is a Hebrew noun for a bow used to shoot arrows and, by the same curved shape, the rainbow. Genesis 9:13 names God's bow in the clouds as the sign of His covenant with the earth after the flood.
The BSB source-word alignment has 76 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include the bow (14), . . . (11), his bow (9), bow (5), a bow (4).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 9:13. Its strongest book concentrations include Jeremiah (10), Psalms (10), Isaiah (8), Genesis (7).
H7198 is a Hebrew noun for a bow used to shoot arrows and, by the same curved shape, the rainbow. Genesis 9:13 names God's bow in the clouds as the sign of His covenant with the earth after the flood. Zechariah 9:10 promises that the bow of war will be broken as the coming king proclaims peace to the nations. Second Kings 6:22 refuses the proposed killing of captured enemies and instead directs that food and water be set before them.
Many other texts describe archers, battle training, wounds, weapons, judgment imagery, or the breaking of military power. H7198 opens covenant remembrance, skilled force, vulnerability, disarmament, and peace. It corrects romantic readings of ancient warfare and the opposite error of ignoring the texts' real violence, grief, defense, and judgment by turning every bow into a harmless spiritual metaphor.
H7198 ordinarily names the curved weapon used by archers and can stand for military strength or ranged attack. The same noun names the rainbow in covenant and glory settings. Weapon, sign, and poetic image must be distinguished by scene and syntax.
I have set My rainbow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.
God sets His bow in the clouds as the covenant sign between Himself and the earth after the flood.
And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem, and the bow of war will be broken. Then He will proclaim peace to the nations. His dominion will extend from sea to sea, and from the Euphrates to the ends of the earth.
The promised king's reign includes the breaking of the bow of war and the proclamation of peace to the nations.
“Do not kill them,” he replied. “Would you kill those you have captured with your own sword or bow? Set food and water before them, that they may eat and drink and then return to their master.”
Elisha forbids killing the captured enemy force and commands that food and water be provided before they return home.
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. Weapon of warfare whose strength becomes metaphor for human might and divine power in covenantal contexts.
Weapon of warfare whose strength becomes metaphor for human might and divine power in covenantal contexts.
a bow, for shooting (hence, figuratively, strength) or the iris BDB: bow Usage: × arch(-er), arrow, bow(-man, -shot).
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 76 lexical occurrence verses.
קֶשֶׁת is built from these roots:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H7198 holds together two sharply different images. The bow can project violence beyond arm's reach, and Scripture records armies trained to use it, kings wounded by it, cities terrified by archers, and proud military power brought down. These accounts should not be polished into adventure stories. They name death, vulnerability, and the limits of martial skill.
Yet the curved bow also appears in the clouds as God's covenant sign after judgment. Later hope pictures the bow of war broken under a king who proclaims peace. Second Kings gives a striking narrative practice: captured enemies are not slaughtered but fed and sent home, and raids cease for a time. The canon does not turn these scenes into a simplistic policy for every threat, nor does it authorize believers to identify their own violence directly with God's judgment imagery.
It teaches communities to distrust weapons as saviors, protect those exposed to harm, pursue restraint and mercy, and long for peace under God's rule. Responsible teaching names trauma and defensive questions honestly while refusing recruitment rhetoric that baptizes nationalism, revenge, or fascination with force.
Zech.9.10
H7198 names a curved bow, most often the weapon used with arrows and sometimes the archer or military strength by association. Because the same form names the rainbow, cloud, covenant, color, battle, and shooting contexts must not be conflated.
New Testament teaching presents Jesus as the king of peace, commands love of enemies, and locates the church's struggle outside fleshly weapons. Revelation's martial imagery must be read as apocalyptic judgment under the Lamb, not as a license for private violence.