I will make mine arrows drunk with blood
Signifying, that by various judgments he would bring upon them,
which, like arrows, would come suddenly, fly swiftly, and pierce
deeply, there would be a prodigious effusion of blood like that
in ( Revelation
14:20 ) ; so that these arrows, which cause it, being plunged
and soaked, and covered in it, may be said to be inebriated with
it, just as the sword is said to be bathed and filled with blood,
( Isaiah
34:5 ) ; which prophecy respects the same vengeance of Christ
on the selfsame enemies of his as here; and as the whore of Rome
is said to be drunken with the blood of the saints and martyrs of
Jesus, the arrows of her destruction are represented in just
retaliation as drunk with her blood, ( Revelation
17:6 ) ;
and my sword shall devour flesh:
the flesh of kings, of captains, of mighty men, of horses, and of
them that sit on them the flesh of all men, bond and free, small
and great, ( Revelation
19:18 ) ; that is, shall destroy great multitudes of men:
[and that] with the blood of the slain, and of the
captives;
that is, his arrows should be drunk not only with the blood of
these that were wounded and killed, but of the captives; who
commonly are spared, but in this case should not, their blood
should be shed: it may be rendered, "because of the blood of the
slain" F25; because of the blood of the saints
whom they have killed, and carried captive, and who have died in
prisons:
from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy;
or "of the enemy"; that is, from the time the enemy began to
oppress the saints, and take revenge on them, and shed their
blood; all that blood shall be found in them that has been from
the beginning shed, and charged to their account, and revenged on
them; just as the blood of all the righteous, from the beginning
of the world, was brought upon the Jews, ( Matthew
23:35 ) ( Revelation
18:24 ) . The Targum of Jerusalem is,
``from the heads of their mighty men, the generals of their armies;''to, which agrees the Septuagint version,
``from the head of the princes of the enemies;''and so may refer to the head or heads of the antichristian people, the pope of Rome, and his princes, the cardinals, and all the antichristian kings and states, the captains and generals of their armies, which will be brought to Armageddon, and there destroyed, see ( Psalms 68:21 ) ( Revelation 16:14 Revelation 16:16 ) ( 17:14 ) ( Revelation 19:18 Revelation 19:19 Revelation 19:21 ) .
F25 (Mdm) "propter sanguinem", Pagninus, Tigurine version.
