Psalm 78:57

57 And they turned away themselves, and they kept not covenant; as their fathers, (they) were turned into a shrewd bow. (And they turned themselves away/And they rebelled, and they did not obey the covenant; like their forefathers, they were bent like a crooked bow.)

Psalm 78:57 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 78:57

But turned back
From God and his worship, apostatized from the true religion, and turned to idols:

and dealt unfaithfully, like their fathers;
in the wilderness; see ( Psalms 78:8 Psalms 78:36 Psalms 78:37 ) ,

they were turned aside like a deceitful bow;
that promises well to carry the arrow right, but drops it at the feet of the archer; or carries it another way, so that it misses the mark, The Targum is,

``as a bow casting arrows;''

to the ground, and not to the mark; see ( Hosea 7:16 ) , or being too much stretched is suddenly broken, and kills the archer; or returns to its own nature; so Arama.

Psalm 78:57 In-Context

55 And he casted out heathen men from the face of them; and by lot he parted to them the land in a cord of dealing. And he made the lineages of Israel to dwell in the tabernacles of them. (And he threw out the heathen before them; and by lot he parted the land to them with a measuring cord. And he let the tribes of Israel to live in the tents, or the homes, of the heathen.)

56 And they tempted, and wrathed the high God; and they kept not his witnessings. (And still they tempted, and angered, the Most High God; and they did not obey his teachings, or his commands.)

57 And they turned away themselves, and they kept not covenant; as their fathers, (they) were turned into a shrewd bow. (And they turned themselves away/And they rebelled, and they did not obey the covenant; like their forefathers, they were bent like a crooked bow.)

58 They stirred him into ire in their little hills; and they stirred him to indignation in their graven images. (They stirred him to anger with their high places, or their hill shrines; and they stirred him to indignation with their carved images, or their idols.)

59 God heard, and forsook; and brought to nought Israel greatly. (God saw and heard all of this; and then he abandoned them, and he brought down Israel into nothing.)