Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 7:13

"He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; He maketh his arrows fiery [shafts]." — Psalms 7:13 (ASV)

Instruments of death. —That is, deadly weapons.

Against the persecutors. —Literally, for those burning; so Septuagint and Vulgate. The meaning appears to be, “His arrows he makes into fiery arrows”— i.e., tips them with fire, by wrapping them in burning tow. Latin, malleoli. (Compare to Ephesians 6:16, with Note, in New Testament Commentary.) Milton’s “rattling storm of arrows barb’d with fire,” refers to the same custom.