📖 Biblical Definition
"A quiver full" is the biblical image of children as the household’s arrows: weapons given by God for the long campaign of family, faith, witness, and dominion. Psalm 127:3-5 spells it out: "Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: he shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate." The image is masculine, militant, and forward-looking. Children are not consumer goods; they are arrows. The Christian household is an armory — and the man whose quiver is full has weapons for the long war.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
A case for arrows; figuratively, a household richly supplied with children.
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QUIVER, n. A case or sheath for arrows.
Psalm 127 takes the warrior's quiver as a metaphor for the patriarch's sons: numerous, prepared, and effective when sent forth into the world.
📖 Key Scripture
Psalm 127:3 — "Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward."
Psalm 127:4 — "As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth."
Psalm 127:5 — "Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate."
Genesis 1:28 — "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Modern culture treats children as financial liabilities to be limited; Scripture treats them as arrows to be sharpened and sent.
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Psalm 127 makes two assumptions modern culture rejects: that children are a reward (not a cost) and that more of them is a stronger blessing (not an irresponsible risk). The household with a full quiver is the patriarch the Psalmist envies.
The Christian household need not adopt every numerical conclusion of the “quiverfull” movement to recover Psalm 127's posture: children are welcome, sharpened in the law of God, and sent into the world as arrows. Anything less than that posture quietly contradicts the Psalm.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Hebrew has a specific word for the arrow-case — the warrior's most personal, daily-tended weapon.
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H827 — אַשְׁפָּה (ashpah) — quiver; the leather case carried at the hip or back.
Note: the warrior chose his quiver carefully; the patriarch chooses his children no less so — trains them, sharpens them, sends them.
Usage
"Children are arrows; sharpen them before you send them."
"A full quiver is not a financial problem; it is a heritage."
"Psalm 127's blessing is not on smaller households — it is on full ones."