Psalms 78:57

57. Turned aside like a deceitful bow Hebrew, a bow of guile, not sending the arrow direct to the mark, owing to the unequal strength and elasticity of its parts. Hosea 7:16. Or, if we put the bow by metonomy for the archer, as in Isaiah 21:17 and elsewhere, it is one who purposely turns the arrow aside from the mark unreliable, treacherous. The most common words for sin, both in the Old and New Testaments, ( חשׂא , αμαρτια ,) are derived from verbs which literally signify to miss, to miss the mark. Faithlessness and deceit supply the fundamental idea.

Irregularities in worship, immoralities in life, the adoption of idolatry and heathenish customs, deface the history of the Israelites through the period of the Judges, to which Psalms 78:56-58 exclusively refer.