Hebrew Word Study – Cheap Shots – Ooph  עוף Ayin Vav Pei

Psalms 91:5: “Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; [nor] for the arrow [that] flieth by day;”

Taken literally this verse really has little concern for us today.  I mean how many of us are really afraid of being shot by an arrow during the daytime?  Actually, people in ancient times had little to fear from arrows unless they were a soldier fighting a war or if your village came under attack by a foreign invader then arrows might be a threat although your greatest fear might be a sword.  There are a lot of others things to fear more than an arrow during the daytime.  Obviously, the Psalmist is not speaking of a literal arrow but of something metaphoric or perhaps it should not be translated as an arrow in the first place. 

The word used for arrow is chets which only means an arrow in a poetic sense. It really comes from the root word chatsats spelled Cheth, Sade, and Sade, and means to divide.  It was a military word. Ancient soldiers and warriors were poorly paid or not at all.  They often fought to defend their homeland and were organized under a chieftain.  Wars were often waged as a result of famine or disputes over water rights.  The real professional and trained soldiers did not come along until the time of the Spartans.  Prior to this time soldiers were just a large group of men, farmers, and shepherds mostly who banded together with homemade weapons and protective clothing to either defend their land from invaders or were invaders themselves motivated by their need for food and water which another land had and would not share with them.  Thus, when land or nation was conquered the soldiers would be allowed to plunder the conquered land of all its food and whatever else was of any value as their payment for service.  In order to keep the conquering soldiers from turning against each other by fighting over the plunder, the military leaders would organize the plunder in such a way that the goods were equally divided up among the soldiers. This is where the word chatsats originated.  As the arrow was one of the primary weapons used in warfare the word for arrow became associated with the word plunder because when you plunder a land you are wounding that land or piercing that land like an arrow will pierce a body and wound the body.  Thus, the primary idea of chatsats is to pierce or wound. 

The passage also speaks of the flying arrow.  The word for flying is auph.  This means to fly about to and fro.  The word is rooted in an ancient Canaanite word for augur.  Augur is an old English word for the movement of troops. Yet, it goes back even further than this. Auph was used to express the idea of the flying movement of birds. The flight, singing, and feeding of birds along with the sacrifice of birds were important objects of divination or predicting the future.  The word which ties all these usages together is making a sound or talking.  Movements of troops were detected from the sound they made.  Birds in flight and singing are making a sound which is interpreted by the soothsayers.  In other words, it was talking to those who were listening for these sounds. It all adds up to the giving of a message and another word for the giving of a message is talking. 

I believe the picture that is being presented here for the fear of the arrow that flies by the day is talk auph which is wounding and piercing chatsats. What do we fear that is spiritual by day?  Usually, it is the things that people say.  There are all sorts of wounding or piecing chatsats talk auph today that creates fear in us.  At the turn of the 21st Century, there was talk of Y2K and the world falling into chaos.  Christians were living in fear, stocking up on supplies and generators and some even with weapons.  Then there was the Mayan Calendar prediction of the alleged end of the world in 2012.  Again, people wrote books, built large platforms by predicting the end of the world.  After 2012 it was business as usual except for those who made their fortune off of scaring people to death. I assume they drove their BMWs into the gated mansions saying: “How about that, I was wrong.”  Next on the let’s scare, everyone to death with our doomsday predictions was the month of September 2015.  Cern, the particle collider in Geneva was to rev up to full strength and create a black hole releasing all sorts of demons or third-dimensional creatures to wreak havoc on the world.  Plus there were the Blood Moons which was to usher in devastating earthquakes destroying the world, or causing the economy to collapse on the anniversary of the 2008 stock market crashes.  The pope was going to usher in the new world order when he spoke to the United Nations that month.  After September 2015 it was still business as usual. Today it is now socialism that will destroy our nation and people are in absolute fear of socialism and inflation.

So let’s say some of these doomsayers hit the nail on the head and suddenly we are thrown into economic chaos, or a terrorist releases a dirty bomb disrupting our whole economy, or Covid makes a comeback only this time there is no vaccine.  All of this auph talk and chatsats, wounding and piercing is creating fear among many believers. Because whatever happens the Psalmist is telling us, “Don’t you let that talk scare you. You will be fed; you will be safe under the protection of the shadow of His wings.” 

Well, we have lived through many doomsday predictions and it is business as usual. We lived through a pandemic and are living through a chaotic government (when has there not been a chaotic government?).  Does this verse still have relevance?  I believe this auph talk chatsats covers a wide range of wounding and piecing.  I have met many many Christians who have been chatsats wounded and pieced by the auph talk of their Christians brothers and sisters.  The little gossips, the rumors, the jealousies, and the power struggles create anything but a loving fellowship where a person can feel safe and secure like in a family.  We are following a spiritual motif in this verse and I believe few would disagree with me if I say that all the chatsats auph wound piercing talk that goes on in the church is motivated by the enemy himself, it is a spiritual force directed at the church itself to keep the church from becoming the powerful weapon that it was created by God to be. 

It seems to be the enemy’s ace in the hole. When all else fails to bring the church down he can always count on the gossips, the jealousies, the power struggle to wound and pierce the believers and take them out of action.   Sure, you can say “Sticks and Stones may break my bones” but let me tell you names do hurt. Unless you have a lot of intestinal fortitude it is very difficult to stand up to the onslaught of chatsats auph, hurtful, wounding talk or in its poetic form flying arrows. 

The only real defense against these flying arrows chatsats auph, hurtful talk is knowing that the only one you need to please is Jesus and He is the easiest person to please. If you are secure in your relationship with Him and know you are in the center of His will you need never fear the chatsats auph, the hurtful talk or flying arrows for if God is pleased with you then you know it is just a cheap shot coming from the enemy himself and it doesn’t take a particle collider in Geneva to release him?  He is on the prowl right now trying to find that weak person to use to send those arrows of hurtful talk flying.

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