QUIVER (תְּלִי, H9437, אַשְׁפָּה, H880, Gen 27:3; LXX φαρέτρα). A container for arrows.

Such a case or bag was generally made of leather and slung over the shoulder of the hunter or soldier. Esau the hunter carried one (Gen 27:3). Job 39:23 and Isaiah 22:6 speak of the quiver in connection with other equipment for war.

The other four occurrences of the word are metaphorical. Psalm 127:5 speaks of a man’s family as the quiver and his children as the arrows. The prophet, God’s arrow, is hid in his quiver, according to Isaiah 49:2. Because a killer uses his arrows, Jeremiah likens the empty quiver to an open tomb (Jer 5:16). The “arrows of his quiver” in Lamentations 3:13 are, in Heb. lit., “sons of his quiver” and speak of the death stroke delivered by the enemy.