📖 Biblical Definition
The bow in the Bible carries two distinct weights. As weapon, it is the far-reaching lethal tool of war, hunting, and divine judgment. God's arrows fly from God's bow; Jonathan gave his bow to David as a token of covenant love (1 Sam 18:4); Jehu drew his bow with his full strength and killed king Joram (2 Kgs 9:24). As sign, the bow reappears after the Flood — "I have set my bow in the cloud" (Gen 9:13) — God hanging His weapon of judgment in the sky with the string pointed away from the earth, a covenant that the waters of wrath will not again destroy. Every rainbow is a warrior's bow laid down. In Revelation 4:3 a rainbow surrounds the throne itself; judgment and mercy meet at the heart of the cosmos.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
BOW, n.
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BOW, n. [Sax. boga.] (1.) An instrument for shooting arrows, made of a strip of wood or other elastic material, with a string fastened to each end, by which an arrow is propelled. (2.) Anything bent, or in the form of a curve; a rainbow. In Scripture, the bow is: the weapon of the warrior and of the hunter (Gen. 27:3); an emblem of strength (Gen. 49:24); an instrument of God's judgment (Ps. 7:12); and, as the rainbow, the covenant sign that God will not again destroy the earth by a flood (Gen. 9:13). The bow in the cloud is the bow of war hung up, with its string toward heaven, signifying that the Judge has laid aside His weapon.
📖 Key Scripture
Genesis 9:13-15 — "I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant."
Genesis 49:24 — "Yet his bow remained unmoved; his arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob."
1 Samuel 18:4 — "Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt."
Revelation 4:3 — "He who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
The rainbow has been co-opted as a symbol of sexual identity movements; Scripture's rainbow is God's hung-up war bow, the covenant against flood-judgment.
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The cultural appropriation of the rainbow by the LGBT movement has made the biblical sign almost unrecognizable to a generation of Christians. Recover it: God set His bow in the cloud. Not a decorative arch — a weapon. The bow points away from the earth, toward heaven, because the warrior has laid His weapon down. It is the first post-judgment covenant sign in Scripture and a perpetual reminder that God keeps His word across generations. Far from celebrating rebellion, the rainbow celebrates restraint — the Judge who could flood the world again, and does not, because He has sworn. Revelation 4 places a rainbow around the throne itself, signaling that even final judgment (Rev 20's great white throne) is bounded by covenant mercy to those who have fled to the Lamb.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
H7198 — qeshet (קֶשֶׁת) — bow, rainbow.
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H7198 — qeshet (קֶשֶׁת) — bow; weapon and rainbow (same word for both).
G5115 — toxon (τόξον) — bow; used only once in NT (Rev 6:2, the white-horse rider).
Usage
"The rainbow is God's war bow hung in the sky with the string toward heaven — the Warrior has laid down His weapon of water."
"Activists have stolen the rainbow. The Bible-reading Christian will not surrender the sign; he will re-teach the covenant."