Job 39:23
The quiver rattleth against him, the glittering spear and the shield.
The quiver rattleth against him,.... The quiver is what arrows are put into and carried in, and seems here to be put for arrows, which being shot by the enemy come whizzing about him, but do not intimidate him; unless this is to be understood of arrows rattling in the quiver when carried by the rider "upon him", so some render the last word; and thus Homer {w} and Virgil {x} speak of the rattling quiver and sounding arrows in it, as carried on the back or shoulder; but the first sense seems best, in which another poet uses it {y};
the glittering spear and the shield; the lance or javelin, as Mr. Broughton renders it, and others; that is, he does not turn back from these, nor is he frightened at them when they are pointed to him or flung at him; so Aelianus {z} speaks of the Persians training their horses and getting them used to noises, that in battle they might not be frightened at the clashing of arms, of swords and shields against each other; in like manner as our war horses are trained, not to start at the firing of a gun, or the explosion of a cannon.
{w} Iliad. 1. v. 4.
{x} "Pharetramqne sonantem". Aeneid. 9. v. 666.
{y} "----audito sonitu per inane pharetrae". Ovid. Metamorph. l. 6. v. 230.
{z} De Animal. l. 16. c. 25.