Difficult texts: ‘I have set my bow in the clouds’ (Genesis 9.13)

The rainbow is generally a positive symbol in Western culture. The natural phenomenon signifies the end of a rain event, evoking the emotional well-being of light emerging after the darkness of a storm. Its sentimental popularity may be due to its attractive appearance, commonly used in illustrated children’s books, songs such as ‘Somewhere over the rainbow’, and the legendary pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Undoubtedly under the influence of the Genesis story of Noah’s ark, the rainbow has traditionally been used as a symbol of peace and hope. The spectrum of colours suggests diversity, and so the rainbow has often been used as a sign for social change. A rainbow flag was used in the sixteenth century in the German Peasants’ War. As apartheid was dismantled in South Africa in the 1990s, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and President Nelson Mandela would refer to their country as ‘the rainbow nation’. Currently, the most pervasive symbolism of the rainbow flag represents the LGBTI movement and same-sex marriage.

Explained meteorologically, there is enough moisture in the sky to refract light, but not so much that light is obscured. The water droplets act as a prism, creating an optical illusion if a viewer is at the correct angle relative to the source of light. The colours created that can be seen by the human eye blend into each other, yet, ever since Newton, we have identified seven distinct colours (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet). This water-refracted light spectrum can be seen as a full circle, but it is most commonly observed as an arc since the viewer is normally standing on the ground. It is not hard to imagine a pre-scientific world explaining the presence of a rainbow as a message from the gods.

The Hebrew word underlying ‘rainbow’ is (qešet). It occurs 76 times in the Hebrew Bible. Its Greek counterpart is τόξον (toxon). Among these citations, only two passages unambiguously use this term to mean that which we would envision as a rainbow. Ezekiel 1.28 uses the rainbow as a simile to describe the divine presence: ‘like the appearance of the bow which is in the cloud on a rainy day’ (my translation); and Sirach 43.11–12 refers to the rainbow encircling the vaulted sky as a testimony to God’s work as creator:

Look at the rainbow and praise him who made it

It is exceedingly beautiful in its brightness.

It encircles the sky with its glorious arc;

The hands of the Most High have stretched it out. ¹

The passage at the end of the story of Noah and the ark, commonly referred to as the Noachic covenant formula, is perhaps the best-known use of the word in the Hebrew Bible:

God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, 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 that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.’ ²

The sign of the covenant following the flood that was intended to destroy all creation is clearly intended to be understood as a rainbow, and many English translations use that word (for example, NIV, NKJV, AMP, TLB, MSG). This assumption is intuitive – after all, the rainbow does appear after the rain ceases. But the Hebrew word qešet is used in almost all other 72 instances in the Hebrew Bible to refer to the bow as an instrument of war or hunting, or figuratively as a symbol of power and authority. Even when used a second time in the book of Sirach, comparing the High Priest Simon to a rainbow (Sir. 50.7), there is undoubtedly the intention to convey power and authority along with beauty.

(qešet) is frequently paired with other weapons and in the constructions ‘bend the bow’ and ‘draw the bow’, reflecting the weapon’s physical use. An unusual use of the word is the reference in 2 Samuel 1.18, where the vocalization of the noun is altered to (qāšet). The Hebrew literally reads: ‘He said to teach the sons of Judah “bow”.’ Although there is neither definite article nor qualifier that could be translated as ‘song’ or ‘tune’, the usual translation is ‘The Song of the Bow’, with most commentators understanding the verse as a title for the lament that follows. Eissfeldt interpreted it more literally as ‘teach the sons of Judah [the] bow’ or ‘make fit for war’. ³ In this reading, the association is warfare, but even as the title of a lament, the context is the death of Saul and Jonathan in battle.

Reference to a ‘bow of bronze’ (, qešet neḥûšāh, 2 Sam. 22.35; Ps. 18.34 [MT 18.35]) indicates God-given strength rather than being a description of a weapon:

Just like the feet of a deer

He makes me stand on the heights

Training my hand for war

my arm can bend a bow of bronze. ⁴

Once again, however, the context is warfare.

Among the references to ‘bow’ in the Hebrew Bible are 11 texts that describe YHWH’s use of the bow as a weapon against his enemies. Some refer to the enemies of Israel/Judah, such as Babylon, Elam and Gog, but Israel and Judah are also named as a target when the warrior god wields the bow. In Psalms, the generic ‘wicked’ will be punished by God (Ps. 7.12 [MT 7.13]). The earth itself is described as the recipient of YHWH’s action with the bow (Hab. 3.9).

This brief survey indicates that the overwhelming use of the word ‘bow’ in the Hebrew Bible is as a metaphor for warfare. It raises the question of whether the bow of Genesis 9.13–16, rather than being translated as ‘rainbow’, is better understood as a weapon of war, and, if so, what function it has in the Genesis flood narrative.

‘Bow’ occurs in a small number of texts claiming that YHWH’s intention is to bring an end to conflict by breaking or abolishing the bow:

He will cut off [the] chariot from Ephraim

  and [the] war horse from Jerusalem;

[the] bow of battle will be cut off,

  and he will speak peace to the nations.

His dominion will be from sea to sea,

  and from River to [the] ends of earth. ⁵

He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;

  bow he breaks, and spear he shatters;

  chariots he burns with fire. ⁶

I will cut for them a covenant on that day with the animals of the field, and with the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground; and I will break bow, and sword, and war from the earth; and I will make them lie down in safety. ⁷

There is a striking similarity between the Hosea text and the establishment of the covenant through the sign of the bow in Genesis 9.8–16. The unit that forms Hosea 2.16–23 (MT 2.18–25) is a collection of sayings marked by a variety of subjects and changes in personal pronouns. Many translations follow the Septuagint in harmonizing the pronouns, so that the whole speech is read as an address to the wife of Hosea (e.g. NRSV). But when the original pronouns preserved in the Masoretic text are followed, the covenant that is prophesied is addressed to non-human life: the animals of the field, birds of the heavens, and creeping things of the ground. Similarly, God’s covenant in Genesis 9 was with Noah and every living creature. In both passages the covenant will have implications for the whole earth. ⁸ In Hosea, the sign of the covenant was the breaking of the bow, while in Genesis the sign is the setting of the bow in the clouds. Imagined as a weapon, the position of the bow in the clouds is doubly significant, since an arrow shot from that bow would be directed away from the earth.

Such a vision provides another way of understanding the sign of the bow in Genesis 9. In other ancient mythologies, bows would be hung in the sky as symbols of victory at the end of battle. ⁹ Mark Brett suggests a similar action on the part of the Israelite God when he claims that the bow in the sky represents the deliberate putting aside of the weapon as a divine promise and a symbol of divine memory, ensuring that there will be no more war between God and humanity. ¹⁰ Paul Kissling draws on the creation motif by arguing for a ‘triple entendre’ in the symbol: it is the literal rainbow, the symbolic cessation of God’s battle with creation, and the re-establishment of the bow-shaped dome holding up the heavenly waters that had been part of the first creation story (Gen. 1.6–8). ¹¹ Kronholm claims that the bow in Genesis 9 is ‘nothing more than a natural phenomenon after rain’. ¹² Our survey of the widespread use of (qešet) in the Hebrew Bible as a weapon of destruction, however, gives greater credence to a connection between the bow in the clouds in Genesis 9 and the weapon or hunting implement most often implied by the word. When the narrative places the words ‘I have set my bow in the clouds’ (Gen. 9.13) in the mouth of God, the choice of the verb (nātan – to give, put, place) implies deliberation on the part of the deity. God has not just seen a natural phenomenon and been reminded of the covenant; God has intentionally placed the bow in the clouds to serve as a reminder of the covenant and a reminder of the promise to refrain from destructive action towards the earth.

With the prevalence of warfare as the background to the word ‘bow’, its use in Genesis 9.13 is even more potent. God relinquishes the right to use the bow destructively, and instead chooses to offer it as a sign for the covenant of peace and reconciliation between God and all creation.