And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer.
He grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. Maurer renders it, 'he dwelt in the wilderness, and was growing up an archer' - i:e., acquiring greater skill and expertness in archery. His posterity have ever dwelt in that part of the Arabian desert, and they obtained by the bow the venison and wild fowl on which they subsisted; because he was averse to the plow, like the Bedouin of the present day ('inhabitant of the desert,' according to D'Arvieux), who uses the gun in preference either to agricultural or pastoral pursuits.